Note : I didn't translate this topic. The original version is here : LINK

Hello everyone !

That's official, TI-Concours will start the 26th of December 2013, 4:00 pm French time zone (GMT+1) ! Of course, I hope that this fourth edition of the contest will be full of success.

What is the TI-Concours ?

Created in 2011, TI-Concours is an international calculator programming contest, focusing on TI-z80 and TI-Nspire.
For the 2014 edition, four categories (and thus four languages) are allowed :

* TI-Basic z80 (excepting PCSE);
* Axe;
* z80 assembly (excepting PCSE);
* Nspire Lua.

Veterans will notice that 68K TI-Basic is not in the course anymore.

For 2014, the contest will be divided into two rounds : qualifications and final.

Qualifications

As you can guess by the name, qualifications will select people for the final round : they are made of one or two imposed subjects depending on the language.

The setting of these imposed subject that made their first appearance in the first edition of the contest made the TI-Concours unique by his way of functioning. Not only they permit to show the programming skills of each contestant, but they only show their ability to follow rules and constraints (hence the name, "imposed subjects").

The main advantage of these subjects is that they allow for fair and objective grading : everyone gives back the "same" program !

Once this is done, all contestants are graded out of 300 points, and the bests of each category will be qualified for the final round.
Please note that in the Nspire Lua category, there will only be one subject for 2 weeks, graded out of 300 points. In other categories, there are two one-week subjects, graded out of 100 and 200 respectively.

The final round


Qualified contestants participate in two new rounds : a 20-minutes oral (no preparation) and an on-calc test (three hours plus 20 minutes to upload all programs). The oral, which is done with a jury member, consists in questions about the programming language concerned by the contestant's category, but also on TI calculators in general. The main goal is to be as effective as possible, effectively the faster you answer questions, the more points you get ! The on-calc test consists in several programs that you'll have to write in a specified amount of time. A common theme will lead the writing of these programs, we hope, with a funny side Wink
Those two rounds are graded out of 400, for a final total out of 1100 points (try to get above 1000 first).

Dates

Registering starts the 26th of December and ends the 13th of January for the jury. Contestants are free to register until the first round is done in the concerned category (so yeah, you can register one day before the deadline of round 1).



Orals will take place from 5th to 11th of April, and on-calc tests the 12th and 13th of April. The plan is to have definitive results the 28th of April. You can note that the contest starts early to end early (relative to previous years), so that noone has problems with exams or anything.

Jury

Jury is made of volunteers that meets the following conditions :

* be over 16 years old
* know how to program with the language of the category you use (logical heh)
* have the right calcs to test programs
* speak French and/or English (both are nice, but we welcome English-only-speaking judges now).

Well of course, if you're under 18, your parents must agree.

The jury will take care of creating the subjects (qualifications, oral, on-calc test). It determines the grading rubric and then use it to grade the contestants. It is also it that take care of orals, hence the need to know how to speak correctly.

Note that this takes time, especially in z80 TI-Basic, so volunteer only if you are sure you will have enough time !

Prizes

Here is the final list of the prizes :

-> 4 TI-84 Plus Color Silver Edition
-> 4 TI-Nspire CAS
-> 20 TI-Planet stickers
-> 1 USB key (2.0) 2Gb of storage



Registering

The site is programmed to open inscriptions at 4:00 pm precise, the 26th of December. If you're afraid of forgetting it, you can still pre-register here, so that we can send you an email when the contest/inscriptions starts (you get one automatically if you participated last year).

Of course, we hope that you'll be as many as possible to get in !

So yeah, that's all, thanks for reading !

Thank you for sharing this with us, Noel. When I saw the topic title, I thought I would finally have a contest to motivate me on two TI-84+CSE projects that I have been procrastinating on, but I see this is a very different sort of contest. It certainly sounds very interesting, and I will do my best to participate. Will you be mostly searching for "jury" members that are the top experts for each language and platform, or is that not necessary for the contest to work properly? Best of luck to the contestants and the judges!

There has always been enough judges for the contest. If you want to be one of them, of course you can, but if you enter the contest, it's great too.

Just wondering what PCSE is, and also how an on-calc test would work should someone choose an assembly category?

The contest sounds pretty involved indeed!

This is the 84+CSE (the P is for the +).

tr1p1ea : sorry, I don't understand your second question...

Rewriting that question:

How do you expect participants to write in z80 asm on a calculator, assemble, and run these 'tests'?

I guess asm programmers use their personnal computer to write their program... don't they ?

The confusion is because you continuously state that these are on-calc tests. If you don't have to write these on-calc, then I guess that clears that up.

Yes, that's true. Actually, I'm not the translater, that's why I didn't notice it.

I translated this post from French on Omnimaga, and couldn't find any other way to put it. Sorry 'bout that.

What I meant is that you will have a test where you actually write programs.

That makes sense; thank you for the clarification. I will definitely try to enter, since it sounds like it will not require a large time commitment of any sort.

The qualification round will require two weeks, assuming that you take your time to finish your programs. In which categories are you willing to participate ?

Ah, I actually missed that part and thought it was just the oral exam and short programming challenge. Will there be a single program for everyone for the first round in each category, like Morpion last time? I will probably do BASIC or (depending on the program) ASM.

Yes, even though it is not necessarily a game anymore, it is exactly the same.

Ok, this is the new topic, announcing the beginning of the contest :

------

Hello everyone !

That's official, TI-Concours has started today ! Of course, I hope that this fourth edition of the contest will be full of success.

What is the TI-Concours ?

Created in 2011, TI-Concours is an international calculator programming contest, focusing on TI-z80 and TI-Nspire.
For the 2014 edition, four categories (and thus four languages) are allowed :

* TI-Basic z80 (excepting PCSE);
* Axe;
* z80 assembly (excepting PCSE);
* Nspire Lua.

Veterans will notice that 68K TI-Basic is not in the course anymore.

For 2014, the contest will be divided into two rounds : qualifications and final.

Qualifications

As you can guess by the name, qualifications will select people for the final round : they are made of one or two imposed subjects depending on the language.

The setting of these imposed subject that made their first appearance in the first edition of the contest made the TI-Concours unique by his way of functioning. Not only they permit to show the programming skills of each contestant, but they only show their ability to follow rules and constraints (hence the name, "imposed subjects").

The main advantage of these subjects is that they allow for fair and objective grading : everyone gives back the "same" program !

Once this is done, all contestants are graded out of 300 points, and the bests of each category will be qualified for the final round.
Please note that in the Nspire Lua category, there will only be one subject for 2 weeks, graded out of 300 points. In other categories, there are two one-week subjects, graded out of 100 and 200 respectively.

The final round


Qualified contestants participate in two new rounds : a 20-minutes oral (no preparation) and an on-calc test (three hours plus 20 minutes to upload all programs). The oral, which is done with a jury member, consists in questions about the programming language concerned by the contestant's category, but also on TI calculators in general. The main goal is to be as effective as possible, effectively the faster you answer questions, the more points you get ! The on-calc test consists in several programs that you'll have to write in a specified amount of time. A common theme will lead the writing of these programs, we hope, with a funny side Wink
Those two rounds are graded out of 400, for a final total out of 1100 points (try to get above 1000 first).

Dates

Registering starts the 26th of December and ends the 13th of January for the jury. Contestants are free to register until the first round is done in the concerned category (so yeah, you can register one day before the deadline of round 1).



Orals will take place from 5th to 11th of April, and on-calc tests the 12th and 13th of April. The plan is to have definitive results the 28th of April. You can note that the contest starts early to end early (relative to previous years), so that noone has problems with exams or anything.

Jury

Jury is made of volunteers that meets the following conditions :

* be over 16 years old
* know how to program with the language of the category you use (logical heh)
* have the right calcs to test programs
* speak French and/or English (both are nice, but we welcome English-only-speaking judges now).

Well of course, if you're under 18, your parents must agree.

The jury will take care of creating the subjects (qualifications, oral, on-calc test). It determines the grading rubric and then use it to grade the contestants. It is also it that take care of orals, hence the need to know how to speak correctly.

Note that this takes time, especially in z80 TI-Basic, so volunteer only if you are sure you will have enough time !


Prizes

Here is the final list of the prizes :

-> 4 TI-84 Plus Color Silver Edition
-> 4 TI-Nspire CAS
-> 20 TI-Planet stickers
-> 1 USB key (2.0) 2Gb of storage




Registering

I hope that many of you will click on this link ! Anyway, thank you for reading !

REGISTER

Here is the final list of the prizes :

-> 4 TI-84 Plus Color Silver Edition
-> 4 TI-Nspire CAS
-> 20 TI-Planet stickers
-> 1 USB key (2.0) 2Gb of storage



Do not forget to register if you're interested : http://www.ti-concours.com/registration.php

That's awesome! Also, TI-Planet stickers? I thought this contest was independent of any of the major community groups? Unless TI-Planet generously donated them, of course.

Yes, we could call that a "sponsoring", or a "partnership".
(also, do not forget to register )

Indeed, I need to remember that the deadline is January 13th. Please feel free to bump this topic so that other people remember to register before that January 13th deadline.