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"Algorithm" is not a four letter word

jamisbuck.org

51–60 of 67 posts

Re: "Algorithm" is not a four letter word

#53
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you recommend visualizing that algorithm?

Visualizing algorithms is unfair, because some people were born without vision and therefore cannot "visualize".

Why the downvotes? Though the comment is snarky, it's simply saying not everything can be made accessible to everyone.

The visualization of maze generation in the presentation is pretty neat, and is meant to demonstrate the running algorithm. The author isn't making it inaccessible on purpose, he can't possibly know about all the accessibility guidelines, and even if he does, there is content which can't meet all the guidelines.

Re: "Algorithm" is not a four letter word

#54
post #29

I'd like to point out that on the first frame with text on it, the text runs off the screen. So i closed it. I don't even know what the slideshow was about :( firefox 7.0.1 resolution 1280x1024 no text at all in 1024x768

Yep. Scaling doesn't work in firefox. It does work in chrome though.

Re: "Algorithm" is not a four letter word

#56
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visualizing algorithms is unfair, because some people were born without vision and therefore cannot "visualize".

Why the downvotes? Though the comment is snarky, it's simply saying not everything can be made accessible to everyone. The visualization of maze generation in the presentation is pretty neat, and is meant to demonstrate the running algorithm. The author isn't making it inaccessible on purpose, he can't possibly know about all the accessibility guidelines, and even if he does, there is content which can't meet all the…

It's probably reasonable for Jamis to put an epilepsy warning on it (particularly since it doesn't run until you click "run"). But I wasn't asking a rhetorical question. I wanted to know if the epileptic poster had a good idea for how to visualize that particular algorithm without flashing lights.

Re: "Algorithm" is not a four letter word

#57
post #33

I'd like point out something that isn't mentioned in the slides at all. The ideas behind the algorithm are not just games, not just exercises, not just methods of self improvement. I'm reminded of Feynman's story of the wobbling plate. They have very deep implications for how we design programs and how we design programming languages. The notion of search (logic programming, constraint solving) is a woefully under ap…

"The ideas behind the algorithm are not just games" Clarifying, sorry.. could you elaborate a bit on what you meant by "games"?

"Stuff that doesn't matter beyond the novelty of screwing around with it"

Re: "Algorithm" is not a four letter word

#58
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you recommend visualizing that algorithm?

Visualizing algorithms is unfair, because some people were born without vision and therefore cannot "visualize".

The problem isn't that it is unfair to people who suffer of epilepsy, the problem is that it could be DANGEROUS to people who suffer of epilepsy. Someone who is blind can't be harmed by being unable to see this particular visualization.

Re: "Algorithm" is not a four letter word

#59

I like the visualizations for the maze generation a lot. I actually used (yet another) maze generation algorithm for an xbox360 game I worked on as a school project. The constraints were slightly different because we wanted cycles and no dead ends. You put all the cells in a list and take them out at random. If there are 3 or more walls, tear down walls until there are less than 3. When you are done you cannot have a…

Sounds like you did something similar to what I did a few years ago. During lunch I ran a Quake server and every five minutes it would generate a new random level (random layout, goals, weapons, lighting etc). Cycles and no dead ends are one way to improve the quality of the deathmatch levels and a toggle that I added the first day to the generator.

Re: "Algorithm" is not a four letter word

#60
post #42
post #37

There's some good stuff here, but a lot of the psychology is ill-founded. Flow, for example, is probably the most effective form of practice, and play often creates flow. Jamis recommends practicing constantly, but it's extremely well established that spacing your practice out gives you more bang for the buck, more improvement per hour of practice. (This is called "massed practice vs. spaced practice", and it's been…

That's a neat generator, but it occasionally generates almost entirely-blocked mazes. The density is impressive, but at that point you might as well just start reading IOCCC entries.

I don't know if he ever submitted it to the IOCCC. It would have been a good entry, though!
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