Creating and solving mazes with Go
Programming Snapshot – Go Mazes
© Photo by Henri Lajarrige Lombard on Unsplash
Mazes fascinated even the ancient Greeks. Mike Schilli uses his Go programming skills to create a maze and then efficiently travel through it.
In Europe, mazes are said to have come into fashion during the 15th century, mostly on manorial estates where guests were politely invited to "lose themselves" in gardens segregated by high hedges. However, winding paths (some of which even lead you in circles), where you need to make it from a starting point to an endpoint, can also be drawn on paper or simulated on computers. Algorithms usually represent a maze's path system internally as a graph along the edges of which the virtual explorer traverses from one node to the next, discarding dead ends, breaking out of endless loops, and eventually arriving at the destination node.
Computational handling of mazes is divided into two tasks: creating mazes and traversing them as effectively as possible by using a solver. You wouldn't think it possible, but on Amazon you can actually find a book entitled Mazes for Programmers [1]. The Kindle version of this book is a total failure due to font problems, but the paper edition shows some useful methods for creating and solving mazes.
From Cell to Cell
A maze consists of a matrix of MxN cells. In Figure 1, red arrows show the directions in which a traveler advances from cell to cell. These options then define the walls that are drawn to separate a cell from its neighbors.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.