Small update post incoming. I am just back from a week-long holiday and my laptop is fixed. This means I can resume working on some of the projects that I’ve been tinkering away at for the last few months. I’m just gonna lay them out here for my own benefit; if anything sounds interesting then feel free to [let me know](http://lukescanlan.com/contact).

### Web sudoku solver

Just today, I encountered a video about the wave function collapse algorithm. The context in which it’s presented is to generate video game levels, but the explanation of how the algorithm works uses sudoku. I coded a sudoku “solver” using some similar patterns a few months ago (I even used similar `neighbours` variable names shown in the video code snippets), without any knowledge of the wave function collapse algorithm. From some cursory additional research, it appears the original idea was to generate bitmaps from tiles (repo [here](https://github.com/mxgmn/WaveFunctionCollapse)).

I’ll go into what the algorithm is, what it does, why it’s called that, etc., in a dedicated post if I choose to pursue that next. I’d also deploy it to sudoku[dot]lukescanlan[dot]com and flesh the solving out a bit more. In its current iteration, it ‘get[s] candidates’, ‘filters’, and not much else. From my implementation of those, you can solve most easy–hard puzzles, but once you get to very difficult puzzles it can get stuck. Also, it isn’t a very good user experience. It’d be nice to add an automated solving option, with animated steps like [this fascinating demonstration](https://oskarstalberg.com/game/wave/wave.html), as well as the option to click through the steps manually. Given that I’ve never programmed a proper game on the web—never mind something as ostensibly tricky as this—some of that functionality may be a tall order. It could be more manageable to first take on—

### Command line sudoku game

I started this a little while after I got bored of my react-based one. The idea was to go back to basics and make a fully-functional sudoku game; no messing about with UI. So I started that, and immediately got bogged down making the UI pretty. I didn’t get much further than displaying a grid and writing some functions to figure out what’s in each row, column, and box. The main difference here was that I was trying quite hard to write good code, and I increased the challenge by allowing for grids of any size (< 100 x 100 for now) instead of the standard 9x9.

The next thing I wanted to do, was add a board generator. This is a much trickier problem than I anticipated. I haven’t looked at any algorithms that do this yet, but as I’m writing this, I’m realising that the wave function collapse is a potential candidate for both solving *and* generating boards. This idea interests me. Command line sudoku occupies provisional first place in the potential project placement.

### Finally start with machine learning

I have had tabs open about getting started with machine learning (ML) since February and I’ve intended on doing it since forever. Unfortunately, it might be a little more advanced than I currently am. I’d like to try and bodge together a simple neural network that takes the red, green and blue values of a colour as input, and predicts whether white or black text would be more visible. It’d start guessing more or less at random, but I’d have buttons to allow you to give it feedback, i.e. tell it if it’s prediction is correct. I think this type of ML is called reinforcement learning, but obviously I’ll find that out as I research it. I think I got this idea from something I started on machine learning a few years ago, but I don’t remember where, unfortunately. It’s a fairly generic idea anyway. This is unlikely to be my next project, but it is definitely something I’d like to work on in the future.

### Work on this damn site more

I shouldn’t even write this one down, really. I’ve pumped far too much time and effort into the fine details of this site, and yet here I am, unsatisfied. I want to automatically generate a table of contents in articles with headings like this. I want to implement a proper contact form instead of the link to my email that’s currently there. I want to make the article page not ugly. I’ve yet to add a ‘topic’ page. I’d like to add some transition animations to give the images time to load. There are loads of things I’d like to do. I should not do them now. I have a working website. That’s all that matters.

Website improvements stride into close second in the standings.

### 2D physics simulation in the browser

I’ve done a tiny bit of game development in the past, but nothing with any concept of physics and never in the browser. Given that I’ve got this site, I’d like to start experimenting with more browser stuff and see if I can get some game dev skills under my belt.

I haven’t done any research into this really, it’s just a bit of a pipe dream. The most likely thing I’ll use for this is P5.js, but I’ll have a look at other options before I start. It’d probably help with the web sudoku solver if I wanted to go that route. It’d be a precursor to the next project as well. Provisional third place, it seems.

### Flock simulator

I saw a video by [the coding train](https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCodingTrain/videos) a few years ago that really caught my imagination. It simulated different flocking algorithms, causing simple shapes to move like flocks of birds. I’d like to implement something like this in the browser, allowing the user to change the algorithm the flock follows to see the differences between them. Also probably an option to make the flock follow your cursor for fun. I don’t want to go back and watch the video, because I prefer to implement these things my own way first, and see what I can come up with and how it differs from the thing that inspired me.

### Conclusion

Okayyyyyy. Those are the ones buzzing around my brain just now. I think I’ll do the command line sudoku one first, as the wave function collapse algorithm really interests me just now. The vague outline of an idea I had for board generation a few months ago has sharpened into a crisp silhouette. I’ll get started soon.

P.S. I created a [site logo](https://prod-lukescanlan.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/sitelogo2_fdfca72b11.png) because I wanted to try some vector graphics software. It’s not final, but it’ll do instead of the rubbish ‘ls’ that ~was there before~ is still there. I haven’t actually put the logo anywhere yet, but that would delay me getting started with this project, so I’ll do it later. Also, I found a drawing tablet in a charity shop, so maybe I’ll make something better with that at some point.


So many projects, so little time…

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