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I'm going to talk about "Twisty Little Passages" and rediscovering the joy in programming. How many of you have had fun programming in the last week?
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Awesome! I love it! How many of you had fun writing code yesterday? A few more hands. Not everyone? Okay, that’s okay; you can’t enjoy it all the time.
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For me, it's been a journey. Actually, before I go any further, I need to do a shameless plug. As Mike mentioned, I am writing a book called "Mazes for Programmers," and I have a free electronic copy to give away.
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It’s not going to grace your bookshelves or anything, but if you're interested in this book—and you should be, because it’s awesome—let me continue.
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Over the past year or so, I've really started feeling burned out on writing code. How many of you have ever felt burned out on coding? Yeah, it’s not a good place to be, and it’s really kind of scary, especially if coding is your livelihood.
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It's a tough spot to be in, and I struggled with it for a long time. I discovered that in order to conquer that burnout, one of the things I had to do was rediscover what made programming fun and enjoyable for me. That's been my journey over the past year.
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What makes coding fun for you? I don’t know what’s going to be fun for everyone, but here are some things I particularly enjoy.
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First, it has to be intellectually challenging but not intimidating. For example, I went through a period about ten years ago where I wrote a ray tracer. How many of you have ever used a ray tracer? A few hands. How many of you have written a ray tracer? A few more hands. You’ll know what I mean when I say that it can be intellectually challenging but also a little intimidating.
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Especially when you start moving beyond spheres and want to do things like parametric surfaces. After you've ray traced a dozen spheres, the joy does start to wear a little thin. But fractals are where the excitement lies. How many of you have played with fractals, like iterated function systems? Those are always refreshing to experiment with.
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Another important factor is a rapid feedback cycle. You can't spend days getting to where you have something to show; you need something quick and easy to experiment with. Fractals fit this perfectly—one little change can yield a totally different result.
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Also, if the project is visually interesting, that helps a lot. If I can share it with others, that counts too. I enjoy showing my family different projects like my ray tracing work. It’s exciting to get a sphere reflecting a checkered plane, but my kids often don’t grasp the nuances, whereas they might appreciate something colorful like a fractal.
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I've worked on various projects like ray tracers, fractals, generators, Celtic knots, and programming languages. Today, I'm going to focus on mazes because they tick every box on my list for enjoyment.
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Mazes are challenging but not intimidating. You can accomplish a lot with very simple algorithms that scale up to more complexity. The best part is that every time you run the maze logic, you get a different result and can adjust it easily.
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What’s intriguing is how randomly generated mazes can be visually interesting and immensely shareable. For example, I created a maze on a Möbius strip the other day, and my seven-year-old spent hours tracing the path.
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So now I'm going to dive into some code while holding this mic, which presents an interesting challenge.
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What we have here is a binary tree algorithm. It works by creating a 10 by 10 grid of cells, and then, for each cell, it randomly links to its north or east neighbor.
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If you run this, you will get a maze—the simplicity and effectiveness of this approach is part of what makes it enjoyable and accessible.
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One thing I absolutely love about these projects is the ability to adjust various parameters. Let’s change the maze size from 10 by 10 to 40 by 80. Then when we run it, we get another maze seamlessly.
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I can also modify the algorithm and change the directions we choose from north and east to south and east, modifying the texture of the maze drastically.
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Another interesting method of altering our maze could be to prefer one direction over another and see how that changes the overall feel.
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For instance, what if we prioritize south more heavily by adding it multiple times to an array? We can then visualize how that changes the dynamics of the whole maze.
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This creativity builds a game of possibilities, prompting questions like 'What if I change this?' or 'How can I make the maze behave differently?'. This is the beauty of the algorithm.
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There are other ways to vary the maze, too; we can change the way it’s displayed. Instead of just rendering walls as lines, what if we showed them as blocks? It gives a completely new perspective.
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We can even change the thickness of these walls or highlight them in different colors to play with aesthetics and algorithm outputs.
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Let’s consider another algorithm called the growing tree, which establishes a list of inactive cells and starts linking cells in a random manner until all have been visited.
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What's exciting about this method is the ability to experiment with the pathways by selecting seeds randomly.
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For instance, if we mix random selection and last chosen cells, we can visualize two mazes side by side and see how their structures differ.
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As we move forward, let’s iterate on the results and change the seed selection strategy further. With these modifications, we explore how varying the algorithms affects the overall maze structure.
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The two methodologies yield different mazes, demonstrating the artistic nature of coding through algorithmic exploration.
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Now, why restrict ourselves to square cells? Let’s use hexagons or octagons, even polar grids, and see how these alternative patterns affect maze generation.
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With a polar grid of nested circles, if we apply our algorithms, we can create unconventional mazes that intrigue the mind.
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Now let’s return to spheres. The ability to take the flat polar grid and wrap it creates opportunities for generating spherical mazes.
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Using the same growth method, we can generate a maze on the surface of the sphere. This presents an exciting challenge.
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We can visualize these mazes with Dijkstra's algorithm to observe the paths on this newly created surface.
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Next, let’s increase the maze's complexity and scale, increasing resolution and reflecting on how altering parameters can give rise to art.
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With a larger grid, the mazes reveal their intricacies more vibrantly as we explore render options and how they change the maze presentations.
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We can even experiment with colors or manipulating how the viewer perceives the maze, creating an immersive experience.
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As we animate these processes, we get to see how the maze evolves in real-time, adding excitement to our exploration.
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This fluidity keeps me enthralled—seeing how these algorithms develop and transform our understanding of programming.
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As we fly through the surface of the sphere, we come face to face with the fruition of our coding, allowing everyone to visualize the outcomes of their creativity.
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As we walk through the maze we’ve created, the immersive experience becomes apparent. I appreciate the simplicity with which we can navigate and get lost in our own creations.
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The idea of swooping in allows us to emphasize the potential of our digital mazes and where they can lead us. The frantic excitement has a touch of chaos.
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If we can engage our algorithms, every pathway opens up a new journey, which feels reminiscent of the programming we once did for fun.
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While this may not solve all problems or cure all burnout, it serves as a reminder of why we started coding—to explore fun and creativity.
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By keeping the playful spirit alive, we can infuse our daily work with the joy of exploration.
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Remember, the thrill of programming often originates from the joy of creating something new. So, in the spirit of these mazes, don’t be afraid to explore.
