Ruby Challenge for Beginners #3 - Short Circuit

Ruby
1

Ruby beginners: The third installment of the Ruby P.ming Challenge
for
Newbies (Short Circuit) is now live. The problem has been set by Gautam
Rege. Entry is free and registration is optional. You stand a chance to
win
a prize. Hurry. Only 20 days per challenge -

Satish T.

2

On Oct 30, 6:04 am, Paul S. [email protected] wrote:

I think the problem is just looking for a simple shortest path
algorithm Dijkstra or something.

I think the challenge also suffers from a disconnect between the
apparently intended goal and the stated goal. To solve the problem,
you need to go through the effort of finding the shortest path; rather
than return this path as the solution, you need to indicate which
segments are not part of the path.

3

On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 10:52 AM, Satish T. [email protected]
wrote:

Ruby beginners: The third installment of the Ruby P.ming Challenge for
Newbies (Short Circuit) is now live. The problem has been set by Gautam
Rege. Entry is free and registration is optional. You stand a chance to win
a prize. Hurry. Only 20 days per challenge -
Learn How to Blog and Build Websites for Profit!

I totally read that as “Entry fee is optional”

The problem statement might be flawed by trying to frame it in an
electrical context. The author uses the phrase “Electricity always
follows the path of least resistance” but I understood that current
could flow down multiple routes in proportion inverse to the
resistances, i.e. that if one path had a 10% higher resistance, it
would receive 10% less current, not that all current would flow
through the less resistive(?) path.

Feel free to correct my knowledge of physics and electrical engineering
though.

I think the problem is just looking for a simple shortest path
algorithm Dijkstra or something.

–
Paul S.
http://www.nomadicfun.co.uk

[email protected]

4

On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 9:00 PM, Yossef M. [email protected]
wrote:

I think the challenge also suffers from a disconnect between the
apparently intended goal and the stated goal. To solve the problem,
you need to go through the effort of finding the shortest path; rather
than return this path as the solution, you need to indicate which
segments are not part of the path.

that’s actually a pretty good test of your datastructure.

martin