Not Black and White: Cryptic Crosswords, Code Golf, and the Rules of a Language
summary
Shows how cryptic crossword techniques map to real Python tricks and then shrinks a solution from a classroom 211 characters down to 55 characters using concrete moves: anagrams ↔ parsing, containers ↔ list comprehensions and concatenation, reversals ↔ slicing with ::-1 reversal, selectors ↔ index truthiness, substitutions ↔ bitwise ops, ternary and the walrus operator to collapse assignments, aggressive whitespace removal and math hacks — a worked code golf pipeline with exact tactics and character counts.
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chapters (19)
- 0:00Cryptic crosswords and code golf
- 1:53Code golf challenge and Mitchell’s solution
- 3:40AI struggles with cryptic crosswords
- 5:03Anagrams in crosswords and Python
- 6:30Aliasing functions and list ops
- 8:16Pattern problem with string multiply
- 9:20Puns and ternary operators in Python
- 11:05Containers vs list comprehensions
- 13:11Loop reduction in code golf
- 13:54Reversals and slicing tricks
- 15:02Selected letters and conditionals
- 16:48Substitutions and bitwise ops
- 19:14Homophones and walrus operator
- 20:57Onomatopoeia and splat operator
- 22:44Deletions and whitespace removal
- 24:09Final optimizations and 55-char solution
- 24:53Resources for crosswords and code golf
- 25:38Eggs on toast cryptic clue
- 26:20Q&A on crosswords and community
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