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Comment by Tiks | Hacker News Reader

Yeap, great point. We currently sync the time with the server regularly to avoid cheating and given that the servers are under HN rush right now the delay is probably way more significant than it usually is. However, we are trying to figure out a better way to do this to make sure it doesn't start counting before the task loads.

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Could you also start the timer after the player has acknowledged they've read the problem? At the moment you're unfairly disqualifying players who have reading difficulties (English isn't their first language, reading difficulties like dyslexia, or even those with partial eyesight so also read slower).

Timing the person's ability to read English doesn't prove their ability to write Javascript et al.

Won't people with dyslexia and poor eyesight have trouble reading the code as well?

Not with dyslexia, no. Because the problem lies with the syntax and semantics of the language and since programming languages are logic based rather than evolved from grunts with complex non-obvious rules, many people with learning difficulties (including myself) find it massively easier to parse code than English.

To use myself as an example, it took me around 30 seconds just to read and understand the first challenge, yet I was able to solve it in around 10 seconds after that despite it being a Javascript language (which is probably the weakest of the dozen or so languages I code in). If I was to go head to head with someone, that 30 second read time would be a hell of a handicap.

As for poorer eyesight, yes you'd have a point there, but at least the playing field would be levelled out a little more.

Interesting, I did not know that. I thought most of the problems with dyslexia came from actually being able to read series of letters and numbers - I've heard it described as letters coming together in a jumble, and not in actual order that they appear in a word

That can be an issue in more severe cases, but even in those instances most programming languages aren't too verbose in their syntax that you cannot understand the logic process. Plus indentation obviously helps a lot there too.

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