Travis Tidwell

Web technology, software, and everything else that bores my wife..

Rope Maze

Today I went to the Science Museum of Oklahoma and was very intrigued by a rope maze puzzle they had there. This puzzle was basically a layout of 5 different rooms with doors between each room, and connected to this puzzle was a rope. The challenge said to use the rope to weave through all of the open doors and do not let the rope cross each other. The goal was to go through all of the doors. I approached this problem like any software engineer would and went home and wrote a program that would solve the problem for me. I did it in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Below is the result of this effort.

The code

The source code for this endeavor can be found at https://github.com/travist/ropemaze, but here is what the javascript ended up looking like.

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$(function() {
  var maze = {
    'outside':{
      'door_out_nw':{to:{room:'room_nw',door:'door_nw_n'},display:$('#door_nw_n')},
      'door_out_ne':{to:{room:'room_ne',door:'door_ne_n'},display:$('#door_ne_n')},
      'door_out_en':{to:{room:'room_ne',door:'door_ne_e'},display:$('#door_ne_e')},
      'door_out_es':{to:{room:'room_se',door:'door_se_e'},display:$('#door_se_e')},
      'door_out_se':{to:{room:'room_se',door:'door_se_s'},display:$('#door_se_s')},
      'door_out_s' :{to:{room:'room_s' ,door:'door_s_s'}, display:$('#door_s_s')},
      'door_out_sw':{to:{room:'room_sw',door:'door_sw_s'},display:$('#door_sw_s')},
      'door_out_ws':{to:{room:'room_sw',door:'door_sw_w'},display:$('#door_sw_w')},
      'door_out_wn':{to:{room:'room_nw',door:'door_nw_w'},display:$('#door_nw_w')}
    },
    'room_nw':{
      'door_nw_n':{to:{room:'outside',door:'door_out_nw'},display:$('#door_nw_n')},
      'door_nw_e':{to:{room:'room_ne',door:'door_ne_w'},display:$('#door_nw_e')},
      'door_nw_s':{to:{room:'room_sw',door:'door_sw_n'},display:$('#door_nw_s')},
      'door_nw_w':{to:{room:'outside',door:'door_out_wn'},display:$('#door_nw_w')}
    },
    'room_ne':{
      'door_ne_n':{to:{room:'outside',door:'door_out_ne'},display:$('#door_ne_n')},
      'door_ne_e':{to:{room:'outside',door:'door_out_en'},display:$('#door_ne_e')},
      'door_ne_se':{to:{room:'room_se',door:'door_se_n'},display:$('#door_ne_se')},
      'door_ne_sw':{to:{room:'room_s',door:'door_s_ne'},display:$('#door_ne_sw')},
      'door_ne_w':{to:{room:'room_nw',door:'door_nw_e'},display:$('#door_nw_e')}
    },
    'room_se':{
      'door_se_n':{to:{room:'room_ne',door:'door_ne_se'},display:$('#door_ne_se')},
      'door_se_e':{to:{room:'outside',door:'door_out_es'},display:$('#door_se_e')},
      'door_se_s':{to:{room:'outside',door:'door_out_se'},display:$('#door_se_s')},
      'door_se_w':{to:{room:'room_s',door:'door_s_e'},display:$('#door_se_w')}
    },
    'room_s':{
      'door_s_n':{to:{room:'room_ne',door:'door_ne_sw'},display:$('#door_ne_sw')},
      'door_s_e':{to:{room:'room_se',door:'door_se_w'},display:$('#door_se_w')},
      'door_s_s':{to:{room:'outside',door:'door_out_s'},display:$('#door_s_s')},
      'door_s_w':{to:{room:'room_sw',door:'door_sw_e'},display:$('#door_sw_e')}
    },
    'room_sw':{
      'door_sw_n':{to:{room:'room_nw',door:'door_nw_sw'},display:$('#door_nw_s')},
      'door_sw_e':{to:{room:'room_s', door:'door_s_w'},display:$('#door_sw_e')},
      'door_sw_s':{to:{room:'outside',door:'door_out_sw'},display:$('#door_sw_s')},
      'door_sw_w':{to:{room:'outside',door:'door_out_ws'},display:$('#door_sw_w')}
    }
  };

  var count = $("#count");
  var tries = $("#tries");
  var crosses = {};

  // Get an indexed array of all the doors.
  var doors = {};
  for(var roomName in maze ) {
    doors[roomName] = [];
    var room = maze[roomName];
    for( var doorName in room ) {
      doors[roomName].push(doorName);
    }
  }

  // Build a collision map.
  for( var roomName in maze ) {
    var num_doors = doors[roomName].length;
    var i=0;
    for(i=0; i<num_doors; i++) {
      var iDoor = doors[roomName][i];
      var j=0;
      for(j=i+2; j<num_doors; j++) {
        var jDoor = doors[roomName][j];
        var k=0;
        crosses[iDoor + ":" + jDoor] = {};
        for(k=i+1; k<j; k++) {
          var kDoor = doors[roomName][k];
          var l=0;
          for(l=j+1; l<num_doors; l++) {
            var lDoor = doors[roomName][l];
            crosses[iDoor + ":" + jDoor][kDoor + ":" + lDoor] = true;
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }

  var rooms = [];
  rooms[0] = {
    fromDoor:'',
    toDoor:'',
    room:'outside',
    tried:{}
  };

  // Checks to see if this path crosses with any prevoious path.
  function doesCross( fromDoor, toDoor ) {
    var path1 = fromDoor + ":" + toDoor;
    var path2 = toDoor + ":" + fromDoor;
    var retVal = false;
    for( var step in rooms ) {
      var room = rooms[step];
      var temp1 = room.fromDoor + ":" + room.toDoor;
      var temp2 = room.toDoor + ":" + room.fromDoor;
      if( (crosses[path1] && crosses[path1][temp1]) ||
        (crosses[path2] && crosses[path2][temp1]) ||
        (crosses[path1] && crosses[path1][temp2]) ||
        (crosses[path2] && crosses[path2][temp2]) ||
        (crosses[temp1] && crosses[temp1][path1]) ||
        (crosses[temp2] && crosses[temp2][path1]) ||
        (crosses[temp1] && crosses[temp1][path2]) ||
        (crosses[temp2] && crosses[temp2][path2]) ) {
        retVal = true;
        break;
      }
    }
    return retVal;
  }

  // Find a door.
  function findDoor( step ) {
    var door = null;
    if( rooms[step] && rooms[step].room ) {
      for( var toDoor in maze[rooms[step].room] ) {
        var thisDoor = maze[rooms[step].room][toDoor];
        if( thisDoor &&
            !thisDoor.display.hasClass("entered") &&
            !rooms[step].tried[toDoor] &&
            !doesCross(rooms[step].fromDoor,toDoor) ) {
          door = thisDoor;
          door.display.text(step+1).removeClass('tried').addClass("entered");
          rooms[step].toDoor = toDoor;
          break;
        }
      }
    }
    return door;
  }

  var step = 0;
  var numTries = 0;
  var running = false;

  // Step our maze forward one step.
  function stepForward() {
    var door = findDoor(step);
    if( door ) {
      // Enter this door.
      step++;
      rooms[step] = {};
      rooms[step].tried = {};
      rooms[step].door = door;
      rooms[step].fromDoor = door.to.door;
      rooms[step].room = door.to.room;
      tries.text(++numTries);
    }
    else {
      // Step back and try again...
      rooms[step].tried = {};
      rooms[step].door.display.text('').removeClass("entered").addClass('tried');
      step--;
      rooms[step].tried[rooms[step].toDoor] = true;
    }
  }

  $('#nextstep').click(function() {
    stepForward();
  });

  $('#run').click(function() {
    running = true;
      (function() {
        if( running ) {
          stepForward();
          var doorCount = $("div.door.entered").length;
      count.text(doorCount);
      if( doorCount != 15 ) {
            setTimeout( arguments.callee, 1 );
          }
        }
      })();
  });

  $('#stop').click(function() {
      running = false;
  });

});

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