hackathon/web_src/routes/about.svelte

<script lang="ts">
	import SvelteMarkdown from 'svelte-markdown';

	const about = `
### About 

CodeQuest is a programming contest that was designed and created as a CAS
project. The project was primarily created by [Hamza
Ali](https://github.com/hhhapz), Smriti Srinivasan, Iona Campbell and Aaliyah
Aman. The development of this website and the design of the puzzles was done
by Hamza Ali.

**CodeQuest** is designed to be a programming competition that is approachable
by all programmers. The puzzles are designed to be able to be solved using
any programming language you like, and can use any method you wish. The first
two problems designed for this competition were able to be solved without any
programming at all, just using excel spreadsheets and WolframAlpha.

This contest was heavily inspired by the [Advent of
Code](https://adventofcode.com), a competition I have been participating in
yearly since 2017. I hope to be able to continue the ethos and the passion for
programming that the advent of code gave me through this competition.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out at hello@<this website's
domain>.

### How Do I Begin?

If you are looking at the calendar, and can see that the current time is after
the 29th of April 2022, that most likely means that the official competition is
already over, and you will not be able to participate for prizes.

However, if you register an account, you should still be able to see all of the
puzzles as well as try to solve them. Each puzzle is split into 2 different
parts, the first part is generally a simpler version of the second.

Once you solve a puzzle, you simply need to submit the final answer. Your code
nor the method you took to get the answer are checked, however each user gets a
unique input and the answer they will obtain is specific to them.

### General Tips and Advice

#### I'm stuck - what do I do?

Each puzzle will come with at least one example. Does your answer for the
example input match? Make sure you fully understand what the puzzle is asking.
One common mistake is that while copying the input, some of it is left over.
Double check you have the full input.

Try building your own examples and solving them, see if your program does as
you expected. If you're still having difficulties, try solving a different
problem and circling back.

If you still have difficulties and the contest is finished, try asking a friend
for assistance, see if they can help you understand what's going on.

#### I'm programming in Java, how do I read the user input in my program?

Unlike in other programming languages, where you have strings with new lines in
them, Java makes that a little bit more difficult to do.

For example, in Python you can do:

\`\`\`py
input = """this is
a multi line
string literal"""
\`\`\`

and in JavaScript, you can do: 

\`\`\`
const input = \`this is
a multi line
string literal\`
\`\`\`

In Java you have two options:

1. Keep reading from your Scanner until you reach an empty line.
2. Read input from a file

(These solutions will work in other languages too!).

Here is an example for the first option:

\`\`\`
Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);

/* either */
String input = "";
while(true) {
  String line = sc.nextLine(); // Get the next line of user input.
  if (line.equals("") { // If the line is empty, we have read everything.
    break; // Jump out of the while loop.
  }
  input += line + "\n"; // If not, add the input line to the input string.
}
\`\`\`

or

\`\`\`
Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
ArrayList<String> input = new ArrayList<>();
while(true) {
  String line = sc.nextLine(); // Get the next line of user input.
  if (line.equals("") { // If the line is empty, we have read everything.
    break; // Jump out of the while loop.
  }
  input.add(line); // If not, add the line to the input array list.
}
\`\`\`
`;
</script>

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