This repo contains TypeScript solutions for the Advent of Code 2024 puzzles. The scripts are written to executed in the Deno runtime.
I have been using Deno for a while for personal scripting needs. Also, I always wanted to finish the Advent of Code puzzles. So, I decided to give a shot at solving this year's AoC using TypeScript. This way I can improve my TypeScript as well as solve the puzzles.
So far, my experience with TypeScript has been subpar at solving AoC puzzles. Deno is a great runtime, but the TypeScript has been a bit of a pain to write data structures and algorithms. Coming from the Rust ecosystem, I missed some features very much.
- Data is passed using references implicitly. If I change some value in a function, it changes the value in the caller function. Rust uses immutable borrow for this.
- No hash function for objects. The
MapandSetdata structures uses object pointers for keys. So I can havenew Set([[1, 2], [1, 2]])with size 2 because the two arrays are different objects, even though they have the same values. I had to use string keys for objects when using them as keys in a map or set. - No standard data structure libraries. I had to maintain my own set, maps and
other data structures.
- Must say that
jsr:@std/data-structureshelped me withBinaryHeap.
- Must say that
- Not strong typing and type inference. I had to write concrete types at some places.
- Not strong pattern matching. I missed Rust's pattern matching very much.
- No pairs, tuples or constant size arrays.
- Footguns like
==and===orconst elem of arrayandconst elem in array.
Deno has been great. I would have stopped using TypeScript if it weren't for
Deno. The runtime is great, and the jsr:@std library is very useful. None of
my solution uses any external dependencies except jsr:@std. Deno's test and
assert libraries allowed me to test my solutions. I can use a single binary for
everything. The lint and fmt commands kept my code clean.