vanessa/algorithms repository overview

⁠Fireworks

This is a "problem" that I made up, inspired by interval scheduling⁠ but it went in a different direction very quickly. I really like making generators, and this one is special because it also models a real life thing, fireworks! Here is the summary:

(s=start,e=end, and the number indicates the firework number!)
[start]  [s1]   [s2]  [s3]  [s4] [s5][s6][sN] [end]

We are going to do the following:

1. start with a number of fireworks, a start and end time
2. randomly generate a firework, meaning design and size
3. calculate trigger times for a firework depending on increasing size. This means that we start at the smallest size, and fire N times so that we fill the fireworks range between it's custom start and end time.

I had originally created an event loop so the fireworks went off at the same time, but it looks much nicer to run in serial (so the more techy cool thing doesn't look better in this case!)

• Writeup⁠
• My Solution⁠

⁠Usage

If you want to see this post in action:

docker run -it vanessa/algorithms:fireworks

or forget an entire show, just generate one random "boum"

docker run -it vanessa/algorithms:fireworks --boum

That will automatically select between complex and simple designs. To force a simple or a complex design:

docker run -it vanessa/algorithms:fireworks --boum --simple
docker run -it vanessa/algorithms:fireworks --boum --complex

You can also control the firework size:

docker run -it vanessa/algorithms:fireworks --boum --simple --size 5

Or the specific kind of --complex design (try a random integer!):

docker run -it vanessa/algorithms:fireworks --boum --complex --design 5

or generate an entire fireworks show with one kind of complex design:

docker run -it vanessa/algorithms:fireworks --complex --design 5

Read more about the algorithm or watch shows here⁠