minimicro-editor-themes VS advent-of-code

Last weekend I participated in Micro Jam 013, which had a theme of "Lava" and a prerequisite of "Time is Limited". As I'm a sponsor of that jam, I wasn't eligible for any prizes, but I wanted to enter anyway, both for fun and to demonstrate what can be done with MiniScript and Mini Micro.

“Coding joyfully” couldn’t be a better description of the goals of MiniScript and Mini Micro as well. MiniScript is a relatively new language, created in 2017 to provide a clean, simple, powerful, and fun language for computer programming. It’s small enough that the language core can be described in a single page. But with functions as first-class objects, support for object-oriented programming, and sophisticated handling of lists and maps, it’s powerful enough for real work.

I recently discovered a C++ library (circle) that simplifies writing C++ programs to run on the Raspberry Pi, directly "on the metal" — without any operating system. I've had a Raspberry Pi 400 on my side table for a couple years now, running the standard Linux distribution, but not getting much use. What I really wanted was an experience like the classic home computers of the 80s: turn it on, and within seconds you are at a friendly blinking cursor, waiting for you to type some BASIC (or in our case, MiniScript) code.

Since its introduction in 2017, MiniScript's community has been steadily growing. And a delightful community it is — it spans the gamut from brand-new, never-coded-before beginners to experienced software engineers.

[LANGUAGE: MiniScript]

I am sponsoring a private leaderboard/contest for people tackling AoC 2023 using MiniScript, a new(ish), simple, clean programming language. Join us! No previous experience in MiniScript is needed; check out the 1-page Quick Reference and you will quickly see what the language is like.

is MiniScript a dialect of BASIC

We've started a community collection of themes for the Mini Micro code editor at https://github.com/JoeStrout/minimicro-editor-themes. The README file there explains how to browse and install the themes therein, either temporarily, or more permanently by loading them in your startup script.

Part 1: Over complicated, does several twists on the map, adding in extra .... lines where needed. Then plots where each galaxy [x,y] is, loop through each against any further galaxies. Simple difference between the x and y cords gives the distance. Sum all together.

Part 2: Using the Part 1 as a start point for moving around the path, this time I created a grid twice the size and then tracked each space I moved around filling in the gap between the neighbouring cells, this then left a 1 "pixel" gap for later. Ran a flood fill function at 0,0. My first attempt at a recursive function caused JS to RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded so I Googled some JS flood fill functions and adapted one. Finally I ran through all the even pixels, counting any that remained empty.

Part 1: Loop creating an array of differences to add to the main array, until you reach 0,0,0. Take the last number from each and add to get the next in the sequence.

Part 1: Pretty simple, sure I could reduce it a bit, but was quick with the answer.

Part 1: Parsed the input first, creating two scores for each hand, the first was how good the hand was giving 7 for a five of a kind, down to just 1 for high card. The second was an integer value of the hand in sudohex (T -> a, J -> b, Q -> c, K -> d, A -> e). I then just ran a quick sort on the array, using these two values to compare. (Thinking about it, I could have just appended the score from the first calc to the sudohex as it would have been the most significant digit).

Part 1 - simple brute force loop

Part 1 - Brute force, but was please with my parsing logic. Solved on day 5. When I realised what Part 2 needed, tried the brute force option whilst going away for lunch, but when I returned and it was still running knew that it wasn't going to be a great idea.

Part 1 Part 2