Code Golf: Lasers

Answer 1

Golfscript - 83 chars (mashup of mine and strager's)

The newline is just here for wrapping

:|'v^><'.{|?}%{)}?:$@=?{.[10|?).~)1-1]=$+
:$|=' \/x'?\[.\2^.1^'true''false']=.4/!}do

Golfscript - 107 chars

The newline is just there for clarity

10\:@?):&4:$;{0'>^<v'$(:$=@?:*>}do;
{[1 0&--1&]$=*+:*;[{$}{3$^}{1$^}{"true "}{"false"}]@*=' \/x'?=~5\:$>}do$

How it works.

First line works out the initial location and direction.
Second line steps through turning whenever the laser hits a mirror.

Answer 2

Golfscript (83 characters)

Hello, gnibbler!

:\'><v^'.{\?}%{)}?:P@=?{:O[1-1\10?).~)]=P+
:P\=' \/x'?[O.2^.1^'true''false']=.4/!}do

Answer 3

House of Mirrors

Not an actual entry to the challenge, but I wrote a game based on this concept (not too long back).

It's written in Scala, open-source and available here:

It does a little bit more; deals with colors and various types of mirrors and devices, but version 0.00001 did exactly what this challenge asks. I have lost that version though and it was never optimised for character count anyway.

Answer 4

This is was a direct port of Brian's solution to C#3, minus the console interactions. This isn't an entry in the challenge since it isn't a complete program, I was just wondering how some of the F# constructs he used could be represented in C#.

bool Run(string input) {
    var a = input.Split(new[] {Environment.NewLine}, StringSplitOptions.None);
    var p = a.SelectMany((line, y) => line.Select((d, x) => new {x, y, d}))
             .First(x => new[] {'v', '^', '<', '>'}.Contains(x.d));
    var NEXT = new[] {
            new {d = '>', dx = 1, dy = 0, s = '^', b = 'v'},
            new {d = 'v', dx = 0, dy = 1, s = '<', b = '>'},
            new {d = '<', dx = -1, dy = 0, s = 'v', b = '^'},
            new {d = '^', dx = 0, dy = -1, s = '>', b = '<'}
        }.ToDictionary(x => x.d);
    while (true) {
        var n = NEXT[p.d];
        int x = p.x + n.dx,
            y = p.y + n.dy;
        var d = a[y][x];
        switch (d) {
            case '/':  d = n.s; break;
            case '\\': d = n.b; break;
            case ' ':  d = p.d; break;
            default: return d == 'x';
        }
        p = new {x, y, d};
    }
}

Edit: After some experimentation, the following rather verbose search code:

int X = a[0].Length, Y = a.Length;
var p = new {x = 0, y = 0, d = 'v'};
for (var y = 0; y < Y; y++) {
    for (var x = 0; x < X; x++) {
        var d = a[y][x];
        switch (d) {
            case 'v': case '^': case '<': case '>':
                p = new {x, y, d}; break;
        }
    }
}

has been replaced with some much more compact LINQ to Objects code:

var p = a.SelectMany((line, y) => line.Select((d, x) => new {x, y, d}))
         .First(x => new[] {'v', '^', '<', '>'}.Contains(x.d));