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Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

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Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#21

Post by Snild »

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.

Each year does vary slightly in theme and focus, so it's possible you'll have more fun this time if you give it another chance. Or not. But remember that it's never too late to give up. :)

My favorite so far is 2019, where several of the problems had you write and extend an emulator for the imaginary (and wacky) "IntCode" computer.

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#22

Post by bugfix-66 »

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.

A different kind of programming puzzle: https://BUGFIX-66.com

The idea is that you read and understand a small piece of code (full of useful techniques) and make a small change to demonstrate understanding.

Games that require you to write the code are limited to rehashing the same old tired algorithms... reverse a string and other sequence techniques, edit distance and dp variants, optimization by binary search and evaluation, etc., the standard leetcode stuff. Basically, useless wankery you will never use. The competitive programming standards.

If you don't have to write it, just understand it, the game can cover some very interesting new algorithmic terrain. It becomes part book, part game. Like Hacker's Delight: The Game.

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#24

Post by markus_zhang »

Jtsummers wrote: post #19
markus_zhang wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks! This is really cool~

One of my dreams is to consume small pieces of challenges of some topic, one sightly more involved than the previous, then viola! At the end I get to learn say 50% of a CS course.

Books are good but they don't force me to write code. I'm a bad learner :D

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#26

Post by xavdid »

AoC is one of my favorite events of the year! I find the puzzles generally approachable, but interesting enough to spend time on. I also like that there's a definitively right answer, which motivates me in an interesting way. I've developed a base class over the years that handles input parsing, so I can focus more on the solutions themselves.

Additionally I've been solving for a number of years, but for the past 2 years, I've done a daily explanation of the solution. I use interesting parts of the Python stdlib and walk readers through common algorithms. I've found it _incredibly_ rewarding and plan on doing it again this year.

You can see all of those solutions here: https://github.com/xavdid/advent-of-code/tree/main/solutions

Please let me know if you enjoy reading these, I love hearing from folks!

Re: Advent of Code 2022 is nigh

#27

Post by birdfood »

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.

I felt similar last year. I was trying to do them in Zig and Rust, and it felt like most of the challenge was just writing custom data parsers for poorly formatted data which felt too much like my day job.
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