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I made a language called Lost. As a fun programming exercise I tasked myself with making a program that would output the digits 0-9 all with equal probability. This was a difficult task, however I found a solution and had a lot of fun doing so. I thought this would make for a good challenge for the community. However I've encounter what I view as a dilemma.

I would like to ask the question as a language specific question, because generate a number 0-9 is not a very interesting question at all and I can't see it being well received. On the other hand I don't really see why my question has to be language specific, it is doable and well defined in other languages its just boring in most of them.

I tried looking for an existing question with similar requirements that I could perhaps bounty, but all the questions were too dissimilar to be feasible in Lost (bounties only last for a week).

What should I do? Is there a solution to this dilemma? Am I overthinking it?

What should be done in general about questions that can be expanded to include all languages but are only interesting in a select few?

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Post it as a language-specific challenge

The challenge here isn't "print a digit 0-9 uniformly randomly" (booooring), but rather "print a digit 0-9 uniformly randomly in a specific language where almost everything is really challenging". The main part is managing to do anything in that language in your case, so in my opinion it would be a good language-specific challenge.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Then again, it will also be extremely difficult/challenging in langs like Hexagony or Labyrinth or Cubix, but I suppose those could be posted as separate challenges... \$\endgroup\$
    – ETHproductions
    Commented Aug 9, 2017 at 12:12
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    \$\begingroup\$ @ETHproductions No all those lack the specific property of Lost. Those start at a constant point, while Lost starts at a random position. \$\endgroup\$
    – Erik the Outgolfer
    Commented Aug 9, 2017 at 12:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ I agree with this answer, and I'd also point out that some people may choose to write a program in another language which outputs valid Lost source code. So some answers may contain code in other languages but still be valid because they also include the resultant Lost code. \$\endgroup\$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Commented Aug 21, 2017 at 16:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ @trichoplax I don't get your point; this answer clearly states that the challenge is to "use Lost to make a program that prints a digit 0-9 randomly with a uniform distribution". \$\endgroup\$
    – Erik the Outgolfer
    Commented Aug 21, 2017 at 16:07
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    \$\begingroup\$ @EriktheOutgolfer I mean that the very difficult task of writing Lost source code that gives the required random output is a task that may be completed by another language. For example, if someone writes python code that outputs Lost source code, and they then submit that Lost source code as an answer, they can include the python code in the explanation of how they managed to find working Lost source code. \$\endgroup\$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Commented Aug 21, 2017 at 21:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ @trichoplax Sure, why not? \$\endgroup\$
    – Erik the Outgolfer
    Commented Aug 22, 2017 at 7:50

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