Regex Golf used to be my game
RegEx Crossword
11–20 of 160 posts
Re: RegEx Crossword
#12Any reason why this is implement as a hex instead of the traditional crossword style? There isn't a technical reason why the traditional crossword format can't have clues in the shape of regex right?
Don't think there's a technical reason. I'd previously seen this site linked from here that does it slightly more traditionally:
Re: RegEx Crossword
#13Any reason why this is implement as a hex instead of the traditional crossword style? There isn't a technical reason why the traditional crossword format can't have clues in the shape of regex right?
"Hexagons are the bestagons"
Re: RegEx Crossword
#14Any reason why this is implement as a hex instead of the traditional crossword style? There isn't a technical reason why the traditional crossword format can't have clues in the shape of regex right?
Don't think there's a technical reason. I'd previously seen this site linked from here that does it slightly more traditionally: https://regexcrossword.com/
IIRC the more advanced puzzles here are also hexagonal.
Re: RegEx Crossword
#15Any reason why this is implement as a hex instead of the traditional crossword style? There isn't a technical reason why the traditional crossword format can't have clues in the shape of regex right?
There are plenty of normal regex crosswords out there. What makes this one special is the fact that it's in a hex format. If anything, regex is actually what allows people to even make hexagonal crosswords, I don't think it would possible to get any reasonably sized one with normal words.
They just went the extra mile to make an special puzzle.
Re: RegEx Crossword
#16Is it supposed to have an unique solution or are multiple solutions possible?
Re: RegEx Crossword
#17This is an absolute classic! It is not just an exercise in tedium or repetition, it has an internal progression that makes it very satisfying to solve.
Re: RegEx Crossword
#18So many of these start or end with an `x*`, `(x|y)`, `[xy]` or `[^xy]` that I only see two characters I can fill in before I need to start looking at multiple constraints for the same cell and either doing combinatorics or guess-and-check.
This might be fine for hard mode, but as someone who considers themselves a regexpert it's not very approachable as a first puzzle IMO.
A more gradual introduction to the format would be to give a few clues that give you confidence on specific characters, that then let you lock in some other characters in other hints, and so on.
For instance, replacing `.*H.*V.*G.*` with `.{3}H.*V.*G.*` would go a long way because you could confidently place an `H`. And say that intersected with `(DI|NS|TH|OM)*` on the `H`, you could then place a `T` from the second clue because of what you learned from the first clue.
It could just be that I'm missing something or not as good at regex as I thought, and please let me know if that's the case. Either way though, when I'm trying a new kind of puzzle I'd like to feel like I made some sort of progress after trying for 5-10 minutes, and here 2 chars does not feel like progress.
Re: RegEx Crossword
#19See also https://regexcrossword.com/, which has been discussed a lot on HN.
Re: RegEx Crossword
#20Small feature request for this implementation: Highlight/bold the three impacted regex when selecting a given hexagon, trying to trace it manually by eye is a bit of a pain.
(I guess I could PR on github when I get some time later today)