Everything about advent-of-code
This time around, we're porting a solution from C++ to Rust and seeing how it feels, how it performs, and what we can learn about both languages by doing that.
Advent of Code gets harder and harder, and I'm not getting any smarter. Or any more free time. So, in order to close out this series anyway, I'm going to try and port other people's solutions from "language X" to Rust. That way, they already figured out the hard stuff, and we can just focus on the Rust bits!
The day 15 puzzle falls into the "math puzzle" territory more than "let's learn something new about Rust", but since several folks asked if I was going to continue... let's continue.
I like how the day 14 puzzle sounds, because I think it'll give me an opportunity to show off yet another way to have Rust embedded in a web page.
The day 13 puzzle needs a speech therapist.
???
...because it has an awful lisp!! Ahhhahahahhhh
Are you ok? What is.. what is going on with you?
Alright! The day 12 puzzle involves path finding, and it seems like a good time to lean more heavily on the WASM embeds I've set up for the previous parts.
It's a new day, it's a new advent of code puzzle.
In that one, we have to apparently cosplay as an IBM mainframe and just.. crunch them numbers. This doesn't look fun, and I can't think of a clever twist to make it fun, so let's try to make it short and sweet.
Parsing
Onwards! To the day 10 puzzle.
I don't see a way to make part 1 especially fun — so let's just get to it.
Parsing
The Advent of Code is not a sprint: it's a marathon: sometimes you've got to stop and smell the roses.
I... what? That's not.. have you done a marathon before?
In the day 8 problem, our input is a height map:
30373 25512 65332 33549 35390
This is a 5x5 grid, and every number denotes the height of a tree. For part 1, we must find out how many trees are visible from the outside of the grid.
The day 7 challenge talks about trees! File trees that is.
The temptation to solve it before starting to write this article so I don't look silly is high, but I'm explicitly not doing so, so that we can bang our collective heads against any walls at the same time, and see how we can get out of it! Trees are serious business!
Part 1
Today I am joining you from the relative discomfort of my living room (since my better half has commandeered the home office due to Way Too Many Calls) to tackle the day 6 challenge, which I'm excited about: maybe despite, maybe because of, the low-grade fever I'm under.
Part 1
Two years ago, I did part of Advent of Code 2020 using the Rust language. It was a lot of fun, so let's try it again!
The problem statement
It's time for the Day 14 problem!
After the hassle that was Day 13, I hope this time we'll have a relatively chill time. And, at least for Part 1, that is true.
In the Day 13 problem, we're trying to take the bus.
Our input looks like this:
939 7,13,x,x,59,x,31,19
The first line indicates the earliest minute we can leave from the bus terminal, and the second line indicates the "identifier" of the buses that are active.
Time for the Day 12 problem!
In this problem, we have a ship. And we have navigation instructions:
- Action
Nmeans to movenorthby the given value. - Action
Smeans to movesouthby the given value. - Action
Emeans to moveeastby the given value. - Action
Wmeans to movewestby the given value. - Action
Lmeans to turnleftthe given number of degrees. - Action
Rmeans to turnrightthe given number of degrees. - Action
Fmeans to moveforwardby the given value in the direction the ship is currently facing.
Another day, another problem.
This time the problem looks suspiciously like Conway's Game of Life, or, I guess, any old Cellular automaton.
Day 9's problem statement is convoluted - the "ah maybe that's why I don't usually do Advent of Code" kind of convoluted, but let's give it a go anyway.
Time for another Advent of Code 2020 problem!
That one sounds like it's going to be fun. Our input is pretty much assembly, like this:
nop +0 acc +1 jmp +4 acc +3 jmp -3 acc -99 acc +1 jmp -4 acc +6
Another day, another Advent of Code 2020 problem.
That one seems fun! For some nerdy values of fun.
Our input is a set of rules:
light red bags contain 1 bright white bag, 2 muted yellow bags. dark orange bags contain 3 bright white bags, 4 muted yellow bags. bright white bags contain 1 shiny gold bag. muted yellow bags contain 2 shiny gold bags, 9 faded blue bags. shiny gold bags contain 1 dark olive bag, 2 vibrant plum bags. dark olive bags contain 3 faded blue bags, 4 dotted black bags. vibrant plum bags contain 5 faded blue bags, 6 dotted black bags. faded blue bags contain no other bags. dotted black bags contain no other bags.
The end of Advent of Code 2020 is fast approaching, and we're nowhere near done. Time to do Day 6!
The problem statement here is a little contrived, as uh, as the days that came before it, but that won't stop us.
Time for another day of Advent of Code 2020.
For Day 5, we're going to have to do...
Let me guess: more parsing?
Hello all, and welcome back to Advent of Code 2020, featuring Cool Bear.
Hey y'all!
Let's get right to it.
The problem statement for Day 3 is as follows: we're given a map, that looks like this:
..##....... #...#...#.. .#....#..#. ..#.#...#.# .#...##..#. ..#.##..... .#.#.#....# .#........# #.##...#... #...##....# .#..#...#.#
Day 2, Day 2! Woo!
The Advent of Code 2020, Day 2 problem talks about passwords. Sounds familiar.
Basically, our input looks like this:
1-3 a: abcde 1-3 b: cdefg 2-9 c: ccccccccc
I was not planning on doing anything specific this December, but a lot of folks around me (on Twitter, at work) have chosen this Advent of Code to pick up Rust, and I've got big FOMO energy, so, let's see where this goes.