Ask HN: What is the most beautiful piece of code you've ever read?

Re:Ask HN: What is the most beautiful piece of code you've e... by scrollaway on Monday October 28, 2019 @01:01AM (#21374404)

1/2^n, I believe (where n is the number of lines after the first one, otherwise 1/2^n+1). So halved every time: 100% with 1 line, 50% with 2 lines, 25% with 3 lines, and so on. Width is irrelevant (you can do this in your head comparing w=1 n=2 to w=2 n=2 for example).

Edited for clarity and accuracy.

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Re:Ask HN: What is the most beautiful piece of code you've e... by Const-me on Monday October 28, 2019 @03:04AM (#21374869)

One line, not completable:

    /\/\/\/\

Also, I don't believe it doesn't depend on width. I think with constant height, the probability of completable one should increase with width, and become almost 1 for very large widths.

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Re:Ask HN: What is the most beautiful piece of code you've e... by scrollaway on Monday October 28, 2019 @03:13AM (#21374900)

Hm, good points, looks like I need more sleep. Looking at the video again, a path is valid if two slashes follow each other, with the same pattern shifted by 1 the line below.

But I wasn't treating /\ as an invalid on the first line. Eg thinking of:

    /\/\/\/\
    \\//////
    /\\\\\\\ … and so on

(Using the /\ pattern, paths can go back up and come back down, so this requires a lot more thought than I instinctively put into it)

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