Talk:Maze solving

From Rosetta Code

PicoLisp Example

The output of the PicoLisp example (the initial implementation in this draft task) doesn't appear to solve the maze. The last mark is in the SW (bottom left) corner, whereas the exit appears to be in the SE (bottom right) corner. --DanBron 17:11, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

"Solving" means here to find the shortest path to the next exit. The example passes 'a1' as the first argument, and plots the path to the next exit ('a12' in this case). If we gave 'a12' as the starting point, the search would be over immediately, as the exit is just there. --Abu 17:32, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
I tried to make the text more clear. Hope it is better now. --Abu 17:36, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
I just tried to clear it up a bit more. We assumed that a1 was the entrance, p12 was the exit, and this program would find the path from the entrance to the exit. It turns out it assumes that a1 and p12 are BOTH exits and the player starts somewhere in the middle of the maze. --Mwn3d 17:43, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
Probably the way I defined it is confusing. I assumed that when you are in a maze you want to find the shortest way *out*, but when looking at the diagram I understand that this might not be what people expect. Shall we change the spec so that the shortest path between the two exit points is plotted? --Abu 18:10, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
Changed it. Seems indeed to be much clearer now :) --Abu 18:27, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Hi Dkf, displaying the direction with arrows is a good idea :) --Abu 19:12, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Glad you liked it. I put it in to better show off that the path was understood. –Donal Fellows 08:08, 23 December 2010 (UTC)