Interview with kurosawa4434

(author Masayuki Hayashi)

Hi guys,

Last week we shared a new mission from kurosawa4434 called "Climbing Route". This is actually his third mission we thought it would be great to do a short interview with him.

Enjoy.

Oduvan: Hi, Masayuki. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Where are you from? How old are you? What are you doing except playing coding games?

Masayuki: I live in Kyoto, Japan. Age? Well, I am in 40's :)

I like walking, reading (I read everything) and playing video games. I played a turn-based war game for a while...

Oduvan: “kurosawa” is what you call yourself on CheckiO. What does it mean?

Masayuki: I took the name from a black-and-white cat that appeared in 'Forget-me-not' the comic. It’s my favorite. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Tsuruta

Oduvan: How long have you been coding in Python? Any language(s) before Python?

Masayuki: About a year. I never learned Python deeply before playing CheckiO. For my work, I mainly use COBOL. Personally, I like to use Perl and JavaScript.

Oduvan: Cool. And you have been playing CheckiO for almost a year already. Can I ask what you enjoy most about the game?

Masayuki: I like the presence of huge amounts of art. It’s overwhelming, actually. Coding is an executable art. I feel the attitude of people's creativity in CheckiO. I respect it. That’s also why I want to contribute to CheckiO.

I think that enough of the arts are already stored. I am interested in how new players feel about the world of CheckiO and how it’s still expanding.

Oduvan: What do you mean by that?

Masayuki: Basically, I would be satisfied, if I could get "Task solved!". However, I am often overwhelmed by the elegant solutions of other players. As are many coders, I notice. CheckiO has two aspects: gaming and learning.

This is a truly ingenious mechanism.

Oduvan: What is your favorite mission on CheckiO and why? And you can’t choose your own missions.

Masayuki: "Forgetful Prisoner". This mission is very creative and very very difficult. It matches a nightmare story.

Oduvan: You have created three missions so far, and more than 300 coders have tried to solve those missions. Where do you get ideas for your missions?

Masayuki: "Find-Enemy" mission is just a hobby and an ongoing project. "Power-Supply" I don’t remember too well where I got that idea. "Climbing-Route" I got from the mountain of LEGO.

Oduvan: What do you like the most in creating missions?

Masayuki: Designing tests and making animations.

I think it is difficult to add something to CheckiO with a sufficient amount of art. But what I noticed is that creating a new mission and writing excellent code are different skills. I think a dreamer is more suitable for making a new mission. I am always waiting for a new mission of another player.

Oduvan: Has there been any solutions to your missions that have surprised you?

Masayuki:

• set by gyahun_dash - Excellent. I learned a lot.
• Unblock Child by oduvan - Sense of stability. I forgot ‘.discard()’.
• First by dronnix - Elegant. Set Object is powerful.
• no networkx lib, DIY by sevaader - Creative. I have never used ‘class’.
• Thanks to this task I managed to figure out what is set() and what it eats. by asmodeus_13 - Good learning :)
• 7-liner by przemyslaw.daniel - Challenging and it worked correctly.
• scipy dijkstra by ciel - Well, I still need to learn

Oduvan: This question is just for fun. Imagine a world without coders, developers or testers. The entire IT sphere is completely shut down. What would you do? What occupation would you choose?

Masayuki: That’s easy. Some literary work or a painter. Maybe become a farmer.

That’s it. Let me know in comments how do you like this interview and if you have more questions to Masayuki - feel free to ask him in comments.