Chapter 27 // Exercise 8 - Principles & Practice Using C++

In this exercise I'm using Visual Studio 2022.

Chapter 27 // Exercise 8

What is the lexicographical order on your machine? Write out every character on your keyboard together with its integer value; then, write the characters out in the order determined by their integer value.

Github: https://github.com/l-paz91/principles-practice/blob/master/Chapter%2027/Exercises/Exercise%208.c

Ah finally, a nice "easy" one. Although I kind of cheated. I basically just looped through the ascii table from 0 to 255 and printed everything. I think maybe he wanted us to actually write a string and fill it with the actual characters on our keyboard but I have no idea how to get special characters out of my keyboard so I just left it to the for loop.

Chapter 27 // Exercise 6, 7 - Principles & Practice Using C++

In this exercise I'm using Visual Studio 2022.

Chapter 27 // Exercise 6

Change the representation of Link and List from section 27.9 without changing the user interface provided by the functions. Allocate Links in an array of links and have the members first, last, pre, and suc be ints (indices into the array).

Github: https://github.com/l-paz91/principles-practice/blob/master/Chapter%2027/Exercises/Exercise%206.c

I honestly had no idea what he meant when I read this so I asked ChatGPT to explain it to me like I'm 5. It was very helpful and I realised that what he wanted us to do was kind of create a vector where you can traverse the list via an index and then access the data at that index.

I had a stab at it for a couple of hours but honestly, my head just wasn't in it. I cannot stand anything to do with linked lists, never mind linked lists in C. So I left it half finished. The code I linked above kind of works but it also kinda doesn't.

Chapter 27 // Exercise 7

What are the advantages and disadvantages of intrusive containers compared to C++ standard (non-intrusive) containers? Make a list of pros and cons.

Github: N/A

I won't write an entire essay but from what I've seen intrusive containers would've been very normal back when C ruled the land. They're extremely lightweight versions of C++ templated containers, only you don't get the flexibility/generic-ness of the templated container but you get better performance. 

I suppose they would be useful in embedded systems where you know exactly what you're working with and have specific memory constraints. 

Chapter 27 // Exercise 4, 5 - Principles & Practice Using C++

In this exercise I'm using Visual Studio 2022.

Chapter 27 // Exercise 4

If you didn't already, write a C++ version of the intrusive List example in section 27.9 and test it using every function.

Github: https://github.com/l-paz91/principles-practice/tree/master/Chapter%2027/Exercises/Exercise%204

This took me a good hour. I still hate linked lists. For this one I decided to make the list templated instead of Name storing a linked list. All the functions are now part of the list and I considered having it use a std::unique_ptr but in the end decided to just go with new and delete as the whole point of an intrusive list is to be as efficient as possible.

Chapter 27 // Exercise 5

Compare results of exercises 3 and 4.

Github: N/A

I think it's obvious that I much prefer exercise 4. I don't like having all the functions on their own, the classes aren't managing their own memory and the syntax to create new ones of different types is just hideous. 

Chapter 27 // Exercise 2, 3 - Principles & Practice Using C++

In this exercise I'm using Visual Studio 2019 and ISO C11 Standard.

Chapter 27 // Exercise 2

Complete the intrusive List example in section 27.9 and test it using every function.

Github: https://github.com/l-paz91/principles-practice/blob/master/Chapter%2027/Exercises/Exercise%202.c

This was quite a painful exercise. Mainly because I hate linked lists and they confuse me with their mPrev->mNext->mPrev malarky but this time I had to do it in C! C also just has so many parenthesis.

Chapter 27 // Exercise 3

"Pretty up" the intrusive List example in section 27.9 as best you can to make it convenient to use. Do catch/handle as many errors as you can. it is fair game to change the details of the struct definitions, to use macros, whatever.

So I turned the code into my usual style and found a bug? I'm not sure but I couldn't get it to run using the code in the book. In the main() function it needs to be struct Link* curr. I think he did that on purpose though as the for loop doesn't work otherwise because a List doesn't have suc as a member variable.

Apart from that, I didn't really bother with the other things.

Unreal Free For The Month Jam // September 2023 - Escape The Palace Hall

What is Free For The Month Jam?? I explain it all here in great detail:

https://lptcp.blogspot.com/p/free-for-month-jam.html

Basically, it's a game jam I made up where you have to use the current Unreal Free For The Month Assets to do, something.

It's called a jam instead of a game jam because you don't have to make a game. It can just be a simple mechanic. Whatever floats your boat.

This month I sat down and was actually able to complete my own jam for the first time since I started it almost year ago.

My entry this month came from ChatGPT which told me to create:

So that's what I did. And I made it into a video:

It's very basic, but I really struggle with finishing projects so I was proud I managed to get this to a packaged state and was happy to call it finished.

I ended up creating a very small game that requires you to find 2 items, pick them up and place them on pedestals to unlock the doors. If you don't do it within 60 seconds, you lose. It features a grab mechanic and a simple interact mechanic with the doors, as well as two trigger box events that cause spooky things to happen. I then added some sounds and music for ambience.

Keeping the scope small was really difficult and hopefully I'll be able to complete next months faster.