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puzzles with formulas defining 10 different puzzle types. Nikoli, the company that popularized “Number Place” puzzles under the Japanese trademark ‘Sudoku’, publishes
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⟪Silver⟫ Solver working on each, I'll post my ⟪Sapphire⟫ definitions.
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𝟘𝟡·
coding I often pass keyword parameters to a subroutine unchanged, and ended up with alot of ‘keyword=keyword’ code in Python function calls. Reserving ‘=’ for the
𝕁
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equality predicate (I just replace ‘=’ with ‘==’ when generating Python or C) I instead use ‘→’ to pass keyword parameters - ‘keyword→7’. I added a postfix operator
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‘→←’ to pass the value of the variable as the keyword, so I can abbreviate ‘keyword→keyword’ ·as ‘keyword→←’.
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𝕦
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𝟘𝟠·
logic I've added ‘comprehensions’ which support set and sequence expressions such as { _^3 ⋮ 1⋯2026} and ⟨ ⦗str _⦘ ⋮ x y z ⟩, where the variable ‘_’ (displayed as ◒
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in logical contexts, to satisfy my aesthic preferences) which is evaluated for each of the elements to the right of the ‘⋮’ symbol. I use ‘⋯’ as an inclusive, integer
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range operator, so ⟨1⋯3⟩ is the tuple ⟨1 2 3⟩. It meshes well with my implementation of sets of integers expressed as intervals.
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𝟘𝟠·
coding I've been on a side trip to additional ‘rational’ code generation based on syntactic analysis rather than ad-hoc text manipulation. This next stage let me
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translate operators (‘⊗’ and ‘⊙’ for cross and dot-product) into calls to generic functions, but there's more work to make it remotely robust.
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𝟘𝟝·
puzzles I started on a formulation of Slitherlink rules in ⟪Sapphire⟫. Connectivity, as a pairwise relation could be easily satisfied by being true for any vertices
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that are connected to anything. I ended up defining a distance function with a special value (rather than a distinct relation) for ‘not connected’. In the next day or
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two, I'll see how ⟪Silver⟫ does trying to find a satisfying model (aka solution).
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𝟛𝟘·
coding I've been bogged down by my bootstrapping shenanigans. I finally decided to re-execl the current build when cyclic dependencies could change generated code.
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Because I'm building my tools in place, I use a “revert-bootstraps” routine often to deal with all-to-frequent breakage.
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𝟚𝟠·
coding More language infrastructure progress - I've got code generating from the ⟪Violet⟫ language layer that bridges between ⟪Cobalt⟫ (aka C) and ⟪Midnight⟫ (aka
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Python). I generate code that uses Python's ‘ctypes’ module to call C from Python, making it easy to mix and match implementations.
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𝟚𝟞·
coding I took a small step toward sensible language handling by generating a full parse tree for a small input file. Starting life as a no-op, my evolving ‘zypp’
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preprocessor converts ⟪Midnight⟫ and ⟪Cobalt⟫ to Python and C, respectively, in an entirely ad-hoc fashion. At least I know I can create an inviting bug hotel.
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Eventually, each language layer I use will share a unified parser, but different intermediate code generators which will perform first level semantic checks. The
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intermiedate language will support high level primitives that can be lowered to target subsets which can be used to emit code. My ⟪Sapphire⟫ project has a good deal
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of infrastructure to cope with.
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𝟚𝟝·
piward I finished implementing SDL ‘framebuffer’ objects which display a screen sized OpenGL texture. Framebuffer support is primarily for debugging, but also can be
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used with small ‘gadget’ displays, like Pimoroni's Display Hat Mini, ePaper displays, also available from Pimoroni or from Waveshare, which I used to prototype a
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Raspberry Pi based e-Reader.
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𝔻
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𝟚𝟜·
I finally got around to watching Jordan Peele's documentary "Get Out" the other night. I have to say, the re-enactments were grisly, but well done.
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𝕔
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𝟚𝟛·
logic I've added support for the Cartesian Product, represented by ‘×’ in Unicode (U+D7). What I call “tuple constrained quantification” (∀⟨x y⟩∈Z×Z) is accepted in
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⟪Sapphire⟫ as well as set exponentiation by an integer (Z^4 ▷ Z×Z×Z×Z) ({1⋯3}^3 ▷ {1⋯3}×{1⋯3}×{1⋯3}). Finite expressions can be evaluated in calculator fashion (⟨1 2
𝕞
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3⟩∈{1⋯3}^3 ▷ ✔) (∀⟨a b⟩∈{1⋯3}^2 a>3 ⇒ a+b>4 ▷ ✔) and can also be symbolically manipulated by ⟪Ag⟫, aka “The Silver Solver”. I've updated my Sudoku rules to use these
𝕓
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new features
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𝕣
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𝟚𝟚·
coding I'm using ‘⊙‘ for dot product and ‘⊗’ for cross product. My preprocessor translates these from binary operators into calls to ‘dot’ and ‘cross’, which are
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native in GLSL and implemented in Python to work on number sequences of equal length (dot) or only 3-tuples of numbers (cross).
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𝟚𝟚·
coding While I use Unicode extensively and appreciate its near universal adoption and support, I object to any description of it as a "character set". It is a partial
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encoding for semantically based typesetting of all human-readable text that includes representations for historic character sets. Ideally, a "character set" provides
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an abstract, finite set of symbols for computation and a visual representation that allows human beings to readily identify symbols in a sequence - a simple alphabet.
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If we remove codepoints that are control values (modifiers and typesetting indicators) and, for groups of characters which are (subjectively) visually similar,
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discard all but one, we are left with a workable character set. But it's a major bonus if human beings can naturally associate meaning with sequences to form a human
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readable language. This character set requires knowledge of every alphabet included in Unicode and fluency in at least one language that uses each alphabet. I encode
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formal languages and strings using my own (still evolving) ”Zy Logical Character Set" or "Zylch" (the "zy" is vestigial, but still makes for entertaining acronyms).
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It's a single byte encoding starting with the digits 0⋯9, followed by the 26 uppercase then 26 lowercase letters of English. Then a bunch of symbols that change from
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week to week...
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𝟚𝟙·
coding I updated my color text routines that I use in all my Python tools to proceess faster when read into Emacs. One day, I may create an IDE for my ‘neo-retro’
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logic-puzzle computing environment, but Emacs is still the best tool for me.
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𝟘𝟞·
logic I now have a somewhat general "pigeonhole solver" ...