Haven't written up the last few days but I thought today's Advent of Code problem was worth a few words. I might still go back and write up a few other ones, and who knows if I'll finish any more problems - Is stopped around here last year. We'll see. I liked today's challenge because it was a nice introduction to hash tables. Specifically, to solve the problem, you implement a simple open hash table.

I wanted to add a bit to yesterday's post. Yesterday I wrote that for part 2 I just counted the cycles from each starting point. If you looked at my code you'd notice that I didn't actually do that. If you recall, nodes were identified by 3 letter codes. All nodes that end in an A like AAA or BBA are start nodes and all nodes that end in a Z are end nodes and we had to find the step, when starting simultaneously at all start nodes, that they all get to end nodes.

Today's puzzle was just what I needed this morning. Made me think, but not too much :-). You can find the problem here. Part 1 was pretty straightforward. You had a set of locations and for each location you could go left or right. So, for example, if node AAA is defined as AAA = (BBB,CCC) then, if your next instruction was L or left, you'd go to BBB, if it was R, then CCC.

I haven't and probably won't write up problems 2 through 5 and to be honest, don't know how many days I'll go on solving this year. I thought that today's problem was interesting enough for a write up so if you're interested, keep reading. Here's a link to the problem: https://adventofcode.com/2023/day/6 And my solution(s) are here. What I liked about today's problem is that there are various, let's say levels to the solution(s).

It's that time again. Advent of Code 2023. A new two part programming problem each day from now through December 25th. Since 2015 I've looked forward to the event, taken part, and posted at least a few write ups here on my blog. I figured this year would be the same. Of course, it does end up putting a crunch in my routine. Usually each morning I wake up, work out, usually a run unless the weather's bad, have my coffee, do the puzzle, read blogs and other content over breakfast and then I'm ready for the rest of my day.

Day 3 ended up being a quick one. That is, as long as your language supports set operations. You can do it without set operations but it's easier if you've got them. Part 1 Input is a file of text where each line is an input. You have to read each line, split it in half and then find the common letter between the left and right halves and then apply their scoring rules on that letter.

It's Advent of Code season again. Every day a new two part programming challenge and once again I'm taking part. At least until grading and other end of term obligations end up eating my lunch. I wasn't planning on writing anything up but the first two days looked like nice problems for CS1 or even CS0 students and since my friend Steve was writing up his take, I thought I'd at least comment on the first two.

No post so far on day 12. I finished part 1 but my code was pretty messy which turned part 2 into a mess. I still have to go back to get that second star so just like day 10, my day 12 write up is on hold. That said, I really enjoyed [[https://adventofcode.com/2021/day/13 ][today's]] challenge. Paper foldind. You're given transparent paper with a bunch of marks on it. You have to fold the paper over horizontal or vertical lines and examine the results.

I wasn't particularly motivated to start day 11 but took a look over coffee. A grid of points where on each turn or step the points are modified by some rule. Hey, this sounds familiar - cellular automata like Conway's Game of Life. You set up your grid and then on each turn just follow the rules. In a traditional Cellular Automaton like Conway's Game of Life, on each turn each cell looks at its six neighbors and makes a decision as to its next state based on the neighbors and a rule.

I know, where's day 9? Thursdays (and Mondays) are already tight for me - I teach all morning and it's been a rough week. I just had very little energy and focus all day yesterday. I snuck some time in to finish part 1 but couldn't focus on part 2. Today, however, my body gave me an extra half hour of sleep (til 4:30am) so I had extra time and energy.