Advent of Code solutions in C++98
How to run
Open your favourite console, compile the source code of a solution, which is always contained in one single file called main.cpp, with your favourite C++ compiler, like this: g++ main.cpp. Run the solution against the input which is given to the program via stdin like this: a < sample1\in.txt.
Goals
The goal of this project is to solve the challenges with code that satisfies the following three criteria:
- Good performance, low usage of CPU cycles and RAM
- Beautiful and easy to read, as terse and expressive as possible, without code duplication
- Robust and handles all possible inputs without crashing or unexpected behaviour
I call code that satisfies these criteria elegant. Because these criteria are idealistic and hard to quantify, it is left up to the reader to decide if the solutions are elegant.
Why C++98?
C++98 is one of the few languages in which it is even possible to write elegant code. Higher level languages often have just-in-time-compilation and a garbage collector which distorts the performance of the actual program. They also often lack performance. Lower level languages like C make it difficult to write beautiful code (though it is certainly possible to write elegant C code, just more tedious). For example, C does not have namespaces like C++ which causes function and struct names to be cluttered.
Another contender would have been Rust, which seems to have all the performance benefits of C++ combined with increased robustness and more powerful macros. Unfortunately, I did not have time to both learn Rust from scratch and solve the problems.
I chose C++98 and not a newer standard because for these small problems, the new standards like C++11 don't give me anything I really need. Yes, auto is nice and std::unique_ptr is extremely useful, but for these small programs, it's just not worth sacrificing the broad compatibility of C++98 for a couple neat features. For larger projects, C++11 is a vastly superior choice due to its move semantics.