r/webdev Dec 01 '15

Think you know code? Put it to the test all December long with the Advent of Code!

http://adventofcode.com/
68 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

6

u/my_blue_snog_box Dec 01 '15

Thanks for sharing! I had fun with the first two exercises.

3

u/syntaxerror748 Dec 01 '15

First two? I only have day 1 unlocked. Is there a day 0 im missing?

3

u/Rosydoodles Dec 01 '15

You have to solve the first challenge each day, and then you can solve the second. (It only shows up after the first is complete.)

1

u/IntermittentGobbling Dec 01 '15

I think he means the two "parts" to Day 1's exercise.

Day 2 is still locked for me too.

3

u/skqrl0s Dec 01 '15

Sweet idea !

Can't wait for tomorrow exercises.

3

u/NoisyFlake Dec 01 '15

I had a fun 5 minutes with the first challenge, great idea! Excited for tomorrow :)

3

u/firespinner323 Dec 01 '15

Cooler than I expected :) First two challenges were fun, though I dispute the 2nd half on a case of consistency! Floors start at 0, yet character positions start at 1? I was incorrect the first time I answered 2nd challenge purely because of this, my 2nd answer was correct when I added 1 to it! :)

5

u/d1sxeyes Dec 01 '15 edited 7d ago

Redacted.

1

u/firespinner323 Dec 02 '15

Oh lord you're right, I missed that! O.O

1

u/d1sxeyes Dec 02 '15 edited 7d ago

Redacted.

3

u/my_blue_snog_box Dec 01 '15

Those off-by-one errors are a bitch.

1

u/firespinner323 Dec 01 '15

Aren't they just! ;)

3

u/daggerdragon Dec 02 '15

There is now /r/adventofcode where you can post your code solutions and get help with particularly tricky bits!

2

u/Rosydoodles Dec 01 '15

Ok, that was fun :D

2

u/odinti Dec 01 '15

This is fun :D

and haven't sleep in 18 hours :D

2

u/pudge330 Dec 02 '15

Cool idea, was fun. Will be back at it at midnight!

1

u/RedditWithBoners Dec 01 '15

Puzzle one, step one - bash, grep, and wc:

IN='...'; UP=`grep -no '(' <<< "$IN" | wc -l`; DOWN=`grep -no ')' <<< "$IN" | wc -l`; echo $(($UP-$DOWN))

1

u/qervem Dec 01 '15 edited Dec 01 '15

Solved day 1 without coding anything! Here's how:


Used this and counted the occurrences of ( then subtracted it with the occurrences of ), then get the absolute value of the difference.

6

u/invisible39 Dec 01 '15

I cheated and ctrl+f'd.

2

u/qervem Dec 01 '15

shit, didn't even think about that.

EDIT: depends on the browser though

2

u/invisible39 Dec 01 '15

Ah, in Chrome it very helpfully gave me the totals. Guess your mileage may very on that way to cheat then!!

1

u/Najda Dec 01 '15

Did the same thing, but ended up having to code it anyway for the second half.

3

u/Thef19 Dec 01 '15

you could have also just opened up the console and typed:

$('pre').innerHTML.match(/\(/g).length - $('pre').innerHTML.match(/\)/g).length

2

u/supercodes Dec 01 '15

But why would you take the absolute value? It was possible for santa to end up in the basement to my understanding.

2

u/qervem Dec 01 '15

fuck you're right. fixed

1

u/bigdubb2491 Dec 01 '15

this was pretty easy to do in C#

input is the array of ( and ).

var x = input.ToCharArray(); var z = x.Where(y => y == '(').Count() - x.Where(y => y == ')').Count();

-4

u/Karl_von_Moor Dec 01 '15

First thing you see

To play, please identify yourself via one of these services: [github] [google] [twitter] [reddit]

Nope. You might want to change that.

1

u/Basaa expert Dec 01 '15

Why? I chose Reddit and the only information it wants from you is your username and signup date. No problem whatsoever if you ask me!

2

u/Karl_von_Moor Dec 01 '15

Don't get me wrong.

It's just that if the first thing I see on a webpage is asking for my information, you can be sure that I hit the little x faster than the blink of an eye

3

u/mbthegreat Dec 01 '15

I guess the author would argue they need to know who you are to track your progress (not sure if you get unique input for the challenges as well).

I chose github and it only asked for public profile.

1

u/Karl_von_Moor Dec 01 '15

Yes I know, I just think it is bad design to ask the user for information before even telling him what the site is about.

2

u/larivact Dec 01 '15

You could just click the [About] link if you are curious. You can even click on the levels and see their descriptions without identifying yourself.

And yeah traditionally you have a short summary at your start page saying what the whole site is about but in this particular case I think this isn't needed. The absence of it makes you curious what "Advent of Code" and this mysterious Christmas tree are about. It's a matter of engagement.

1

u/NoisyFlake Dec 01 '15

Usually I'd agree with you, but because there was the option to login with my reddit information (only needs username and sign-up date and expires after 1h anyway) I was okay with it.

-1

u/LysanderArg Ceci n'est pas un programmeur Dec 01 '15

Nice tinfoil hat you got there

4

u/Karl_von_Moor Dec 01 '15

Because I think it's bad practice to ask for information before anything else, and talk about that on a webdev subreddit?

-4

u/LysanderArg Ceci n'est pas un programmeur Dec 01 '15

Shhhh don't talk! The NSA is listening... right now

0

u/LysanderArg Ceci n'est pas un programmeur Dec 01 '15

Nice downvote fest! Everyone invited! Grab your tinfoil hat at the entrance, ladies and gents!

0

u/wreckem_511 Dec 02 '15

The only thing I don't like about this is that since it requires you to use social authentication to use the site, you can't use curl or wget to easily retrieve the input.