Tech

Better than Soduku

I always think writing software is the ultimate game, the perfect puzzle. You get to dream the goal, you make up the rules. The game can be as hard as you like and will be as rewarding as you can make it.

Is it any wonder I cut code for fun?

This past three months my goal has been simple: figure out how to display maps of the country. I'd set myself a time limit of the end of the month. And when today - over breakfast - I realised this was the equation I'd been looking for, I knew my task was complete.

f(x,y) = a + bx + cy + dx² + exy + fy² + gx³ + hx²y + ixy² + jy³

The thing to understand is that this makes me very happy. It's like solving a huge Soduku puzzle, but with 4.6 million numbers rather than the usual hundred or so. Better than that it also has a point: expect maps of my walks on this website in the next couple of months.