Advent of Code 2022 is nigh • Hacker News Board

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#11

Post by Jtsummers » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:17 AM UTC

markus_zhang wrote: post #10

Last year I went through 8 of them. I wonder what's the theme of this year. Hopefully it's somewhat closer to CPU design (because reading Soul of the new machine)

Not CPU design, but does involve a simple VM, have you checked out 2019? About half (1/3rd?) of the challenges involve a VM for "intcode". First few challenges get it up and running, then concurrency is added, and then challenges are presented inside it.

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#12

Post by plandis » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:18 AM UTC

I did this for the first time last year. It was fun! Really excited to do in again.

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#13

Post by kazinator » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:18 AM UTC

javajosh wrote: post #3

I did several of these last year and found them deeply unpleasant. I like puzzles but some puzzles are just...bad. Like the ones that require you to just brute force a solution, or write lots of detailed code to capture the requirements...that shouldn't be what this is. Just my opinion, of course, but like I said I found last year an unpleasant chore that felt more like work. Hope it's not like that this year.

There was one about piecing together data from multiple under-water sensors regarding the locations of mines or something. With the data being rotated in various orientations (in right angle increments) thus having to correlate the overlapping data items. I think it was 19. I wrote quite a log of code to brute force this:

https://www.kylheku.com/cgit/advent/tree/2021/19

Some people's solutions used some linear algebra libraries in ways I don't understand; one day I will revisit that.

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#14

Post by aliqot » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:19 AM UTC

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#15

Post by b5n » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:19 AM UTC

Elixir ended up being a great choice last year. I contemplated using ocaml, sbcl, or guile this go round but ultimately decided to see how far I can get with awk. I'm feeling confident I can get by with awk using getline as needed, we'll see how long I endure...

Best of luck to everyone!

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#16

Post by discmonkey » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:21 AM UTC

Time for my yearly tradition of making it to day 4 in Haskell and feeling very smart before completely giving up on the first hard problem that needs regular arrays :)

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#17

Post by markus_zhang » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:22 AM UTC

Jtsummers wrote: post #11

markus_zhang wrote: post #10

Last year I went through 8 of them. I wonder what's the theme of this year. Hopefully it's somewhat closer to CPU design (because reading Soul of the new machine)

Not CPU design, but does involve a simple VM, have you checked out 2019? About half (1/3rd?) of the challenges involve a VM for "intcode". First few challenges get it up and running, then concurrency is added, and then challenges are presented inside it.

Thanks, I'll check it out. Definitely close to my definition of fun :D

I also cannot tolerate hard problems so probably will stop around the same number.

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#18

Post by hk1337 » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:22 AM UTC

Have you been impish or admirable?

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#19

Post by Jtsummers » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:23 AM UTC

markus_zhang wrote: post #17

Jtsummers wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not CPU design, but does involve a simple VM, have you checked out 2019? About half (1/3rd?) of the challenges involve a VM for "intcode". First few challenges get it up and running, then concurrency is added, and then challenges are presented inside it.

Thanks, I'll check it out. Definitely close to my definition of fun :D I also cannot tolerate hard problems so probably will stop around the same number.

If you enjoy that, the same guy made Synacor Challenge: http://challenge.synacor.com

Similar basic problem as the intcode VM but less need to dive into concurrency.

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#20

Post by tomberek » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 4:23 AM UTC

b5n wrote: post #15

Elixir ended up being a great choice last year. I contemplated using ocaml, sbcl, or guile this go round but ultimately decided to see how far I can get with awk. I'm feeling confident I can get by with awk using getline as needed, we'll see how long I endure... Best of luck to everyone!

Yes! I did two years in awk (https://github.com/tomberek/advent) and loved the ability to dig in and truly grok the language. The performance wasn’t bad, but the multidimensional array support and ergonomics were…meh. I’m contemplating Elixir.