Day 14: Advent Calendar

[Kathis]

Today's puzzle will be a bit more easier. But at the same time, it's more of a lesson, and probably one of the last few.

 

We have talked about the code compression formula in the past few puzzles, because we have a limit on the characters the codes can be, which is 25.  

 

So today's puzzle will focus solely on that aspect, since this mechanic will be required and no longer mentioned in future puzzles. IF the code ends up being 25 characters or greater, you will be expected to do this. 

 

So far this is what you have been doing.

 

• Pair everything into groups of 2. If your code has an odd number of characters or symbols, you will need to remove the last to make it even.
• For Letters convert to their number equivalent, add them together and divide by 2, (ie. get the average.)
• If the result is greater .5, you will round up if the first character of your symbols is greater than the second, otherwise you round down.

 

Now we have to get into the more gritty of instructions that may confuse some in future.

• symbols like . , - ! + / \ | [ ] ( ) etc.  are treated as separators. They do not get converted. (no answer should have more than 4).
• groups with numbers and letters, will treat the numbers as if they had already been converted from letters. a12B = a1, 2B
• Lower case letters are additions to the alphabet, A = 1, a = 27, Z = 26, z = 52
• If your code is still greater than 25 characters by the end (after you deal with pure number groups, see below), you balance out the groups cutting off the last character until they are even. A number group may end up smaller than it's size. This is fine. Below is the separator group sizes. Use it know help understand this rule.
  • 123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO
  • 1234-1234-1234-1234-1234
  • 12345-12345-12345-12345
  • 1234567-1234567-1234567
  • 123456789ABC-123456789ABC
• Pure number groups are groups of no letters but pure numbers. You reduce pure number groups by the same group pairing that you did for letters. Unlike letters you repeat doing this until your number can fit in the group. 
  • Example: if you had to reduce this down to a group size of 2. 
    • 999999  would be  paired to 99 99 99, 
    • (9+9)/2, (9+9)/2, (9+9)/2  = 9 9 9.
    • 999 is too many digits, repeat.
    • 99 , 9?  toss the odd one out. 
    • 18/2 = 9.  answer would be 9. 
• A hex number is still treated as a pure number group, and must follow the same rules as one. If the group looks looks mix, check to see if any Letter is greater than F. It keeps it's Hex status.
• The base 35 symbol codes are treated as decimal for your benefit. (though I could easily have it go from 0-Y)

 

 

So now we're going to give you 5 practices,

 

Good luck everyone, remember to show your work, if an error is done on my part (or my program I made to double check my work...) then I would rather make sure it's fixed and I'll throw in some extra prizes to the reward string.