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Solving a wooden puzzle using Haskell

https://glocq.github.io/en/blog/20250428/
22•Bogdanp•3d ago

Comments

fjfaase•3d ago
Solving this kind of puzzles is equal to solving an exact cover. Exact cover is known to be NP-complete.
OskarS•1h ago
Indeed it is, and Donald Knuth spends a substantial part of the latest volume (4B) of The Art of Computer Programming on solving exact cover problems like this using Dancing Links! He presented an earlier version of the algorithm in this legendary article [1], but as good as that article is, the book is even better (and the algorithm improved!). It also has tons of exercises like this. Cannot recommend it highly enough.

[1]: https://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0011047

asplake•1h ago
I missed any link to the puzzle itself. Does anyone here know where you might get one from?
_ache_•44m ago
Here is the one from the article.

https://linsoluble-casse-tete.fr/products/25-y-constantin

kqr•1h ago
I have a 2D variant of this puzzle and got curious about the solvability of various starting positions so I made this graphical tool: https://xkqr.org/info/tetrispuzzlesolver.html

Being able to solve starting from various constraints have turned out really useful for building an intuition for the puzzle.

_ache_•49m ago
I did the exact same thing in C++ 10 years ago ! Same puzzle. :D

I wonder if I can still find the source code. (Found it! Source code was in French and not very elegant but it works, glorified brute force aka Backtracking).

I'm eager to improve it to find ALL solutions, not just the first one.

https://ache.one/polycube.cpp

gerdesj•38m ago
Good job. When you said "in French" ... well, "IS_VALIDE" is quite something to see!

It seems you are fluent in Franglais - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franglais. I have only respect for someone who can flit between languages with that facility.

Invasive Israeli-founded bloatware is harvesting data from Samsung users in WANA

https://smex.org/invasive-israeli-software-is-harvesting-data-from-samsung-users-in-wana/
28•like_any_other•7m ago•0 comments

Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

https://seattleultrasonics.com/
217•hemloc_io•5h ago•157 comments

Designing NotebookLM

https://jasonspielman.com/notebooklm
101•vinhnx•4h ago•39 comments

Knitted Anatomy

https://www.knitted-anatomy.at/cardiovascular-system/
21•blikstiender•3d ago•0 comments

A revolution in English bell ringing

https://harpers.org/archive/2025/10/a-change-of-tune-veronique-greenwood-bell-ringing/
13•ascertain•1h ago•11 comments

After Babel Fish: The promise of cheap translations at the speed of the Web

https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/lessons-of-babel/articles/after-babel-fish
17•miqkt•2d ago•4 comments

Philips announces digital pathology scanner with native DICOM JPEG XL output

https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/articles/2025/philips-announces-digi...
50•ksec•1h ago•23 comments

Solving a wooden puzzle using Haskell

https://glocq.github.io/en/blog/20250428/
22•Bogdanp•3d ago•7 comments

Scream cipher

https://sethmlarson.dev/scream-cipher
228•alexmolas•2d ago•91 comments

Cormac McCarthy's tips on how to write a science paper (2019) [pdf]

https://gwern.net/doc/science/2019-savage.pdf
169•surprisetalk•7h ago•64 comments

I'm Not a Robot

https://neal.fun/not-a-robot/
192•meetpateltech•4d ago•110 comments

Images over DNS

https://dgl.cx/2025/09/images-over-dns
139•dgl•9h ago•36 comments

Escapee pregnancy test frogs colonised Wales for 50 years (2019)

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-44886585
98•Luc•4d ago•40 comments

MapSCII – World map in terminal

https://github.com/rastapasta/mapscii
121•_august•2d ago•17 comments

TV Time Machine: A Raspberry Pi That Plays Random 90s TV

https://quarters.captaintouch.com/blog/posts/2025-09-20-tv-time-machine-a-raspberry-pi-that-plays...
39•capitain•2h ago•20 comments

FLX1s phone is launched

https://furilabs.com/flx1s-is-launched/
117•slau•10h ago•100 comments

Vapor chamber tech keeps iPhone 17 Pro cool

https://spectrum.ieee.org/iphone-17-pro-vapor-chamber
61•rbanffy•7h ago•130 comments

Evals in 2025: going beyond simple benchmarks to build models people can use

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43•jxmorris12•2d ago•3 comments

Show HN: Math2Tex – Convert handwritten math and complex notes to LaTeX text

43•leoyixing•3d ago•13 comments

Living microbial cement supercapacitors with reactivatable energy storage

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-physical-science/fulltext/S2666-3864(25)00409-6
70•PaulHoule•7h ago•39 comments

Systemd can be a cause of restrictions on daemons

https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/linux/SystemdCanBeRestrictionCause
82•zdw•5h ago•83 comments

Claude can sometimes prove it

https://www.galois.com/articles/claude-can-sometimes-prove-it
170•lairv•3d ago•51 comments

Are touchscreens in cars dangerous?

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/09/19/are-touchscreens-in-cars-dangerous
146•Brajeshwar•5h ago•141 comments

Is Zig's new writer unsafe?

https://www.openmymind.net/Is-Zigs-New-Io-Unsafe/
120•ibobev•7h ago•104 comments

PYREX vs. pyrex: What's the difference?

https://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/products/life-sciences/resources/stories/in-the-field/pyrex-...
78•lisper•14h ago•65 comments

Bezier Curve as Easing Function in C++

https://asawicki.info/news_1790_bezier_curve_as_easing_function_in_c
43•ibobev•7h ago•5 comments

Bringing restartable sequences out of the niche

https://lwn.net/Articles/1033955/
21•PaulHoule•2h ago•1 comments

If all the world were a monorepo

https://jtibs.substack.com/p/if-all-the-world-were-a-monorepo
245•sebg•4d ago•68 comments

If you are good at code review, you will be good at using AI agents

https://www.seangoedecke.com/ai-agents-and-code-review/
124•imasl42•16h ago•118 comments

Git: Introduce Rust and announce it will become mandatory in the build system

https://lore.kernel.org/git/20250904-b4-pks-rust-breaking-change-v1-0-3af1d25e0be9@pks.im/
281•WhyNotHugo•9h ago•249 comments