I think 90% of the reason I enjoy the Advent of Code problems is it's the most targeted venue I have to do test-driven-development. Well-defined problems, example inputs/outputs, no legacy baggage, etc.
TDD isn't a panacea, but there's something therapeutic about a concise red/green/refactor loop.
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@mattdsteele I stared at day 8 for 5 minutes, couldn't parse the problem into a computation problem. Seemed more like a word problem. I'm behind on my day coding, so have dropped AoC for now, maybe I'll be back
@deafferret Made it to day 8, and yeah this one may test my patience
@deafferret I’m only on day 3! But the moment I learned Go supports first class functions and I could refactor some duplicate code into strategies, while keeping my tests green, was magical indeed.
Jessica has been solving them in excel this year, she’s hardcore.