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RegEx Crossword

jimbly.github.io

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Re: RegEx Crossword

#131

Post by ilikepi »

reificator wrote: post #18

So 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 wo…

There are actually four spaces that can be filled by accounting for only a single pattern. Two of those are at the end instead of the beginning.

I agree it definitely feels imposing when you first look at it, but stick with it. Look for spaces that have a very small set of possibilities, and then try to map out what neighboring spaces could have for each possibility. If you really feel stuck, take a screenshot and mark it up.

Re: RegEx Crossword

#132

Post by ilikepi »

gfaure wrote: post #128

Solved it! I kept tilting my head because it was hard to see the clue and interpret it at the same time. The ability to highlight all three diagonals would have been perfect. The final clue I had to complete was that tricky .*(.)(.)(.)(.)\4\3\2\1.*

> I kept tilting my head because it was hard to see the clue and interpret it at the same time.

Agreed, I definitely found myself doing that.

> The final clue I had to complete was that tricky .(.)(.)(.)(.)\4\3\2\1.

Interesting...I think I had the main guts of that one worked out when I was about 1/3 of the way through, but admittedly I did take a screenshot and mark it up in order to keep track of the various possibilities. It was (...?)\1* that tripped me up because I had an overly broad interpretation of its mechanics.

I wonder if it would be possible to record a bunch of 0-100% runs and then to make some sort of visualization to demonstrate different approaches...

Re: RegEx Crossword

#133

Post by ladberg »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #79
jcranmer wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The regex crossword is working on the basis of matching the entire input string (of " "), not on finding a substring that matches the regex. You can prefer to think of it as having all regexes have an implicit ^ and $, i.e., you're attempting to find a substring that matches "^R D M*$".

You can prefer to think of it as having all regexes have an implicit ^ and $ That is literally what is happening: https://github.com/Jimbly/regex-crossword/blob/master/crossw...

Not anymore, hah: https://github.com/Jimbly/regex-crossword/commit/0e603975f21...

Re: RegEx Crossword

#134

Post by wutbrodo »

ehsankia wrote: post #96
ehsankia wrote: post #20

Small 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)

https://github.com/Jimbly/regex-crossword/pull/10

Thanks for the PR! I noticed that little detail and probably wouldn't have completed the puzzle without it.

Re: RegEx Crossword

#135

Post by kubanczyk »

acdw wrote: post #118

I thought this would be a true crossword -- i.e., it'd have /words/ to solve for ... :/ Really neat puzzle though!

Having the words everywhere would take away some fun, because the solution space would become severely constrained. Like with those DI|NS|OM expressions or that (...?)* line.

Re: RegEx Crossword

#136

Post by andrelaszlo »

Jimbly wrote: post #113

Huh, well, this explains why my 8-year old repo is suddenly getting a bunch of comments and PRs...

I was so happy when I found it again! I was looking through my pictures folder and found this thing that I made the first time I saw your implementation https://helvetet.com/_filedump/crossword.gif

The ones on https://regexcrossword.com/ are nice but this is the original, for me at least!

Re: RegEx Crossword

#137

Post by andrelaszlo »

reificator wrote: post #18

So 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 wo…

https://regexcrossword.com/ have a lot of great puzzles with a gentler learning curve but I liked the challenge of this one, so I think it would have spoiled the fun a bit for me.

Re: RegEx Crossword

#139

Post by aasasd »

This confirms my long-standing annoyance with regexes: the dot is poorly visible among other characters and jumps out at me when I'm already thinking of a match.

Re: RegEx Crossword

#140

Post by amelius »

I think it would be more satisfying if the result was some human-readable text rather than a random selection of characters. Otherwise, interesting concept!
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