The 2008 Winter Scripting Games
Sudden Death Challenge Event 2: Typing Isn’t Really Our Thing
Important: The deadline for this event has passed. You can find the solution here. |
In Typing Really Isn’t Our Thing competitors must write a script that converts a sentence typed vertically into a sentence typed horizontally.
Note. The Sudden Death Challenge is a separate competition from the main Scripting Games and Scripting Games events; although anyone can enter the Sudden Death Challenge, it’s primarily designed for those people who manage to breeze through the main Scripting Games events in a day or two. To enter the main Scripting Games, click here. To enter Event 2 of the Sudden Death Challenge, well, keep reading.
On This Page
 | About This Sudden Death Challenge Event |
| Sudden Death Challenge Event Scenario |
| How to Enter This Sudden Death Challenge Event |
About This Sudden Death Challenge Event
Deadline | Wednesday, February 20, 2008 3:00 PM PST |
Points Awarded | 1 point in the Sudden Death Challenge |
Sudden Death Challenge Event Scenario
Obviously the Scripting Guys need to stop staying up so late testing scripts for the Scripting Games. Why do we say that? Well, we needed to type the following string value:
The 2008 Winter Scripting Games!
Somehow or another, though, we ended up typing this instead:
T Sg hWc eirG nia 2tpm 0ete 0ris 8 n!
Yes, it is a little crazy. Although it kind of makes sense. After all, if you start with the first letter (T) and read down the first column you’ll see this:
The 2008
If you jump up the top of the second column, and then the third column, and then finally the fourth column you’ll eventually see the value we were supposed to type but, well, didn’t. At least not correctly.
Believe it ort not, we tried retyping this value – several times – but it always came out the same: each time we typed our string vertically rather than horizontally. Which is why we’ve turned to the Scripting Games competitors. We need your help here, Scripting Games competitors; for Event 2 in the Sudden Death Challenge we need you to write a script (using VBScript, Windows PowerShell, or Perl) that can take this value:
T Sg hWc eirG nia 2tpm 0ete 0ris 8 n!
And turn it into this:
The 2008 Winter Scripting Games!
How are you supposed to do that? Hey, if we knew the answer to that question we wouldn’t be in this mess, would we?
If you want to, you can try to copy and paste our mistyped text directly off this Web page. However, we don’t recommend that; we can’t guarantee that the spacing and formatting will come out correctly. Instead, we recommend you read the data in from the file Vertical.txt, which is included in the Competitor’s Pack. Just make sure you place this file in the folder C:\Scripts. If you don’t, your script is unlikely to work when we test it.
How to Enter This Sudden Death Challenge Event
After completing the script, click here to submit your entry. If the link doesn’t automatically open a pre-addressed message, send email to scripter@microsoft.com (in English, if possible) with the subject line Sudden Death Challenge: Event 2.
All you have to do is paste your solution into the body of the message and then send the mail. You may also include the following:
| • | A name or nickname we can use to identify you when posting Sudden Death Challenge points leaders. |
| • | The name of the country you would like to represent. This might be your country of birth or the country you currently live in, but it doesn’t have to be; you can represent any country you wish. |
Note that Sudden Death points/participation will not be included in either the User Group or International Challenges.
You can simply type these items in at the top of the email. In that case, your email might look something like this:
Ken Myer
USA
Northern Iowa User Group
For i = 1 to 100
Wscript.Echo i
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