Re: Comments on Cipher Minigolf

[email protected] wrote:
> 
> First off, thanks go to Mercutio and Terje for this contest, which would
> have been a lot more fun if I had a better score :)

I had fun, too, even though the post-mortem was familiarly frustrating.
 
> Also congratulations to MTV Europe for his 8th consecutive victory! I
> add my personal thanks to you for moving Jasper down 14 points, allowing
> me to hold on to my #5 spot on the player list. There's always next
> time, Jasper :)

I'd have gotten away with it if it wasn't for that pesky mtve.
 
> I also was surprised by Ton's post-mortem only appearance. This is the
> second time he has added his score just after the contest. The
> good-sport policy of posting scores early is intended to keep players
> from purposely holding out to surprise the others. However, if you don't
> actually *have* a score until near the end there is no holding out
> involved. So please post if you have a good score and the contest is
> still going on. Unless I'm in the lead, that is :)

Slightly bewildered for his reasoning on this too. If I get a solution, I
submit it, whether I've spent 5 minutes on it, or 5 days. I suppose that
shows sometimes :)
 
> And now some discussion about the solutions to encourage even more
> players next round and get Eugene to keep coming back:
> 
> There were not a lot of different approaches here, but there were some
> interesting tricks (that I missed).
> 
> 1)      Using $& in a y/// replace
> 2)      /\pL/ instead of /[A-Z]/ (I don't have 5.8, and I don't get this)

I lost out big time in one of the TPRs not using this. I wasn't about to
forget!

> 3)      uc<> on the way in.

Kinda similar to the sort<> that was used by almost everyone in the TPR02 ? The
old post-mortems are a gold mine.

> 4)      Using vec is always a trick to me :)

Not gonna disagree with that

> 5)      Jasper's neat use of $#a to keep $&th element of A-Z

Moderately surprised that no one else used this

> 6)      Auto split to @_ (I forgot about this one too)
> 7)      INIT{} which jinx just learned about

IMO the best trick was mtve's "$'$k"=~ jobbie. When I saw this I was stunned
that it hadn't occurred to me, or to anyone else (with the possible exception
of ton). I was playing with rubbish like ($k.=$k)=~s/// which a) didn't work,
and b) didn't work. The merest possibility of using postmatch didn't enter into
my tiny little mind :). Then again, not one of my solutions used ord or chr, so
I seem to have been straightline thinking all week.

Thanks again Terje and mercutio..

Next time Michael, next time...

Jasper
-- 
Jar-Jar makes the f**king ewoks look like Shaft