I have a pet theory that Sim Tower came out of someone playing around with elevator algorithms for fun and then turning that into a game.
So You Think You Can Program an Elevator
61–70 of 118 posts
Re: So You Think You Can Program an Elevator
#62I've always wanted to see the option to deselect a floor if you press a button twice. Is there a good reason why this doesn't happen?
Most modern elevators already do this ...
Re: So You Think You Can Program an Elevator
#63Very similar immediately playable JavaScript version. http://play.elevatorsaga.com/ Which I'm now closing as I lost too much time to this the first time I saw it.
This is fantastic. Are there other good programming challenge / games like this? I'd love to see a collection of other similar games.
ruby warrior https://www.bloc.io/ruby-warrior is another good one
Re: So You Think You Can Program an Elevator
#64I have a pet theory that Sim Tower came out of someone playing around with elevator algorithms for fun and then turning that into a game.
Not a theory, reality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimTower#Gameplay
Re: So You Think You Can Program an Elevator
#65Usually elevators are controlled by PLCs which can be programmed using ladder.
If you know a bit about boolean algebra, it is easy to learn ladder and program an elevator the real way. :)
Re: So You Think You Can Program an Elevator
#66This is both cool and disappointing. I'm sure this is more challenging than it looks, and it's cool to see emergent complexity from a (seemingly) simply set of conditions to satisfy. However, the reason I think about elevator programming isn't to make an elevator behave the way they do today. It's to make an elevator behave better than they do today. For example: * I don't want an elevator to close and reopen its doo…
Elevators enable skyscrapers. As you build taller skyscrapers, more and more of the floor space is given over to elevators. There must be a huge incentive to improve elevator routing. I'd love to peek behind that curtain.
I think they use machine learning now.
Re: So You Think You Can Program an Elevator
#67This is both cool and disappointing. I'm sure this is more challenging than it looks, and it's cool to see emergent complexity from a (seemingly) simply set of conditions to satisfy. However, the reason I think about elevator programming isn't to make an elevator behave the way they do today. It's to make an elevator behave better than they do today. For example: * I don't want an elevator to close and reopen its doo…
Totally agree. That's basically the challenge that I wanted to make, but I found that I bit off more than I could chew.
so are you saying that, similar to the elevator programming challenge itself, writing the elevator programming challenge was more difficult than it looked?
cool. that probably put a bigger smile on my face than it should've, but still cool.
Re: So You Think You Can Program an Elevator
#68Very similar immediately playable JavaScript version. http://play.elevatorsaga.com/ Which I'm now closing as I lost too much time to this the first time I saw it.
This is awesome, I'm closing it now though as well. This is how teaching should be...this exercise isn't at all about programming and more about how to think. This can be simplified into a drag and drop block language and given to grade school kids as a really good exercise. Many programmers in the professional world today would really struggle with this because they never learned to actually think, they just "progra…
This would be a great Blockly[0] demo
Re: So You Think You Can Program an Elevator
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taller buildings with complex and highly trafficked elevators still do this only using electronics. Employees swipe their badges at a podium which reads what floor they work on and indicates which elevator they should proceed to. The system can intelligently schedule the elevator for that person to use knowing where their destination is.
I'm in a building with a mere nine floors that has such a system (the only buttons in the elevators themselves are door open, door close and alarm). I imagine that the technology will increasingly appear in the smaller buildings as their elevators are built or refurbished.
What if you need to visit someone on another floor?
Re: So You Think You Can Program an Elevator
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm in a building with a mere nine floors that has such a system (the only buttons in the elevators themselves are door open, door close and alarm). I imagine that the technology will increasingly appear in the smaller buildings as their elevators are built or refurbished.
What if you need to visit someone on another floor?
There's touchscreens in the lift lobbies where you can select an override floor before scanning your pass.