I wonder a shorter solution for Robozzle puzzle number 132, "Split."
Puzzle is shown below. I have solved it but I'm wondering shorter solution for this and there many exist.
Basically, the rocket has to collect stars.
You give certain commands to the rocket and it obeys them. The less command, the better. Commands for this puzzle are shown below.
Commands are displayed on bottom right corner. From top to down they are: go straight, turn left, turn right; execute F1 function, execute F2 function; execute this command no matter what the colour of cell is, execute this command in red cell and execute this command in green cell.
Each time it starts with F1 function. If you don't call F2 function in F1 then it will not execute commands in F2.
Let me show you how to play this game in another easy puzzle.
This puzzle is called "Stairs." You can see the commands and given
function on the bottom right corner again. They are blank. If I click on
Go! nothing happens because there are no commands given in function.
Now, let's fill in the function with some necessary commands.
You can see where robot stays. It hasn't collected all the stars. Function was called but it was executed just once. Why? Because there is no iteration (or recursion) or repetition of commands.
Remember we need to collect all the stars, so let's call F1 function again at the end of commands so that it iterates (or recurses) or repeats itself.
The rocket has collected all the stars because F1 was called again at
the end so that it repeatedly goes beginning when it finishes executing
all the commands. At the bottom you can see what the next steps are
such as turn left, go, turn right and F1. This was completed in 5 commands (or steps).
Now, hoping that you understood the fundamentals of this puzzle let me show you my longer solution for Robozzle puzzle number 132 - "Stairs". It contains 11 commands (or steps).
I screenshot it during the execution of commands so that you can see
the upcoming steps (or commands) on bottom command line. I directly
called F2 because F1 was very short. In F2 I turned 180 degree back, stepped forward, turned 180 degree back again, and stepped forward twice. I repeated these steps as long as the cells were blue. After blue cells I put turn right on green and go straight on any colour.
Basically, I stepped back once and stepped forward twice. Repeated this action (or recalled F2) as long as the rocket was in blue cells. Since there were a lot of blue cells, the F2 called itself again and again postponing the commands (or steps) I entered after F2 there: turn right on green and go straight on any colour.
As far as I know this is called "stacks" (or "stacking") in
programming. You can see them piled up on the command line at the bottom
of the image. When the rocket arrives at the green cell it gives up
calling F2 and executes the stack or piled steps after F2: it turns right on the green cell and goes straight. It ignores turn right on green afterwards. Why? Because there are no green cells except the corner.
My solution contains 11 commands (or steps). I'm looking for a shorter solution for this Robozzle "Split" puzzle: http://www.robozzle.com/js/play.aspx?puzzle=132.
There exist 7 command (or 7 step) solution.
Thanks for your time and efforts beforehand!
I asked this question Puzzling Stack Exchange website: https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/119505/shorter-solution-for-robozzle-puzzle-no-132-split
