These are my solutions to this year's Advent of Code. I'd initially set out with the plan to use this year's edition to learn Rust, like how I used last year's edition to learn Go, but private-life stress dictated that I instead just focus on doing the challenges at all in order to still have time/energy left once I'm done on a given day.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
4:15 PM — Yeah, screw learning Rust, I just want to get through the AoC. Go it is.
2:00 PM — Feels inelegant, but it's done and it works. Elegant enough to be understandable, I think.
11:15 AM — Had to rush rush rush cause of other commitments but I did it. I can't help but feel like there's a much more efficient way to do this, but it eludes me and I am momentarily not allowed the time to work that out. Maybe I'll revisit later on in the month and find the improved efficiency.
1:00 PM — Took me an embarrassingly long time to realise my mistake in part 2, and I'm sure I can simplify the code flow of (*knotPoint).follow() more, but I'm satisfied nonetheless.
2:00 PM — Yesssssssss this is exactly the kinda puzzle I love! It went by super quickly, but it was sweet. Also gosh bless the shout-out to Retro Game Mechanics Explained.
3:40 PM — I will freely admit that I've relied on a tip from a friend to get part 2 done; I would've never come up with it otherwise. I'm fine with this, not because it got me another star to my total for this year, but because it allowed me to learn something new. So yeah, today was a mess, and I think my code certainly looks the part, but I'm OK. This is OK. This is fine.
5:00 PM — Path-finding, nice, something I know a bit about but have little experience implementing. I've been slowed down by private life, as well as by just taking more time than I needed, and in the end, after figuring out how to solve for part 2, I chose to skip it, for now at least. I think choosing A* over Dijkstra might've been my downfall. Though I won't exclude just being wholly out of it as an option. Again, I might revisit another day. However, for this one in particular, don't count on it.
3:40 PM — Hnnnnngh, I feel so satisfied right now. What a delightful puzzle.