Hello HN, due to some unforeseen trouble in both my private and professional lives I had a lot of free & alone time over the winterbreak and I decided to tackle a worthwile project. :) It taught me a heck of a lot about python modules (which I hate, but slightly less so now) and .. jeah well I wanted to put it out there and ask for opinions, constructive criticism etc. Shoot!
Oh and the theory is definitely not mine, only the implementation is.. more can be found here: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/papers...
Cool! A very nice read.. thanks for sharing. I actually looked at that puzzle but decided strawberry fields was more interesting. My solution comes up with reasonably efficient answers within a minute or so, even on a 1000h eeepc :) I don't have a nice writeup like you but the README contains a brief explanation (in concordance with the rules for the puzzle): https://github.com/BruceJillis/Strawberry-Fields I decided to post this because you mention constraints and my solution is written up in a constraint logic programming language (eclipse), it might be interesting to translate your solution and compare.
Came here to make a remark about Knuth. Indeed, in TACP vol 1, fascicle 1 (the new MMIX design) he talks about being able to address memory in chunks larger than 8 bits and specifically remarks about the unused bits: "we will find precious use for them later". :)
Agreed, there is a pretty good discussion over on the portland pattern repository that echoes your take: "Elegance" really just means "has a lot of nice properties". So, when someone claims 'elegance', you should stop them and ask for clarification on the precise properties or features they are examining.