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diff --git a/2023/captions/emacsconf-2023-cubing--speedcubing-in-emacs--vasilij-wasamasa-schneidermann--main.vtt b/2023/captions/emacsconf-2023-cubing--speedcubing-in-emacs--vasilij-wasamasa-schneidermann--main.vtt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2ae22295 --- /dev/null +++ b/2023/captions/emacsconf-2023-cubing--speedcubing-in-emacs--vasilij-wasamasa-schneidermann--main.vtt @@ -0,0 +1,803 @@ +WEBVTT captioned by sachac, checked by sachac + +NOTE Introduction + +00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.359 +Hello, everyone, and welcome to Speedcubing in Emacs. + +00:00:08.360 --> 00:00:10.119 +First of all, a little bit about myself. + +00:00:10.120 --> 00:00:13.679 +My name is Vasilij Schneidermann. Online, I go by wasamasa. + +00:00:13.680 --> 00:00:18.039 +I'm 31 years old. I work in information security, + +00:00:18.040 --> 00:00:20.479 +and I do consulting and hacking + +00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:22.479 +and stuff like figuring out + +00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:25.279 +how to break into other people's computers + +00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:29.359 +and how to secure their systems basically. + +00:00:29.360 --> 00:00:31.439 +You can reach me by email. + +00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:36.639 +I do have a self-hosted code repository thingy going on. + +00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:40.399 +I have a blog, and you can find me + +00:00:40.400 --> 00:00:45.919 +in some other places online, like IRC for example. + +00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:48.679 +So about the talk itself, + +00:00:48.680 --> 00:00:52.839 +I used to be into the Rubik's cube when I was in school. + +00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:54.039 +I forgot about it, though, + +00:00:54.040 --> 00:00:56.279 +because these cubes were not very good. + +00:00:56.280 --> 00:01:02.279 +Recently I did find some cheap looking cube at a shop. + +00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:04.119 +Did not pay terribly much for it. + +00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:07.039 +It was so, so much better than my old cube, + +00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:08.639 +it was unreal. + +00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:11.479 +This motivated me to get back into + +00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:13.559 +this really weird kind of hobby. + +00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:17.999 +For this, you need to be good at producing + +00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:19.399 +a truly random scramble + +00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:22.319 +and timing your attempts to get any better at it. + +00:01:22.320 --> 00:01:23.719 +There is, of course, existing software + +00:01:23.720 --> 00:01:26.239 +to do the scrambling for you and the recording + +00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:28.079 +and the timekeeping and such, + +00:01:28.080 --> 00:01:31.239 +but all the good options seem to be either web or mobile, + +00:01:31.240 --> 00:01:33.239 +for example the cstimer software + +00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:35.399 +or the twisty-timer app on Android. + + +NOTE Cubing in Emacs + +00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:39.319 +To my surprise, I did not find a single decent option + +00:01:39.320 --> 00:01:41.959 +inside Emacs, so this is basically a case study + +00:01:41.960 --> 00:01:44.999 +how to do better. For this, I wanted to make use of + +00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:47.799 +all the cool new Emacs features that appeared, + +00:01:47.800 --> 00:01:50.879 +like the SVG library; Transient, + +00:01:50.880 --> 00:01:53.599 +the library used for the Magit-style interfaces; + +00:01:53.600 --> 00:01:56.439 +and the recently added sqlite-mode. + +00:01:56.440 --> 00:02:01.159 +And most importantly it was about having fun. + +NOTE Prior art + +00:02:01.160 --> 00:02:02.759 +So here's a full list of prior art, + +00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:04.279 +I will not go into detail about this, + +00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:06.239 +but basically we have things solving + +00:02:06.240 --> 00:02:08.039 +very different parts of this, + +00:02:08.040 --> 00:02:10.759 +but not all of it. For example: we have several, + +00:02:10.760 --> 00:02:14.239 +we have a timer. We have several solvers. + +00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:16.039 +We have some scramblers. + +00:02:16.040 --> 00:02:19.359 +We have some whole-cube simulators, including a 3D one. + +00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:20.759 +We have something for making it easier + +00:02:20.760 --> 00:02:23.119 +to enter your algorithms in the notation. + +00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:25.919 +But nothing that does all of those things in one package, + +00:02:25.920 --> 00:02:28.119 +which kind of surprised me. + +00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:32.039 +So I present the `wca-prep` package. + +NOTE The name + +00:02:32.040 --> 00:02:35.559 +So the name, I found it difficult + +00:02:35.560 --> 00:02:39.959 +to come up with a good name and so I looked + +00:02:39.960 --> 00:02:42.559 +and I saw, well there's this World Cube Association + +00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:46.039 +that holds these competitions where you compete. + +00:02:46.040 --> 00:02:47.759 +They do this for the Rubik's cube + +00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:48.919 +but also a few others, + +00:02:48.920 --> 00:02:50.799 +so there's like a standardized list + +00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:52.639 +of events they have for this. + +00:02:52.640 --> 00:02:55.159 +There is a standard notation for this + +00:02:55.160 --> 00:02:56.519 +and rules and everything. + +00:02:56.520 --> 00:02:58.199 +And the goal of my package is basically + +00:02:58.200 --> 00:03:01.279 +to help prepare myself for such a competition + +00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:03.679 +and in fact a week ago I went to my first one + +00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:06.719 +which was wild, but pretty cool. + +00:03:06.720 --> 00:03:10.919 +So for this reason I chose this name wca-prep, + +00:03:10.920 --> 00:03:13.639 +because it helps me prepare for this kind of competition + +00:03:13.640 --> 00:03:16.519 +and this limited the scope significantly, + +NOTE What's in wca-prep + +00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:18.999 +I have a scrambler, visualization of the scramble, + +00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:23.319 +timer, and statistics. + +00:03:23.320 --> 00:03:25.559 +I excluded pretty much everything else I've seen. + +00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:28.788 +For this reason, I only tried to focus on + +00:03:28.789 --> 00:03:32.199 +some very basic puzzles I can solve comfortably, + +00:03:32.200 --> 00:03:34.839 +and did not want to do anything else + +00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:36.439 +that may complicate things significantly. + +00:03:36.440 --> 00:03:40.479 +No other kinds of puzzles, no simulation, no solving, + +00:03:40.480 --> 00:03:43.919 +no exotic events, and no specialized scrambles + +00:03:43.920 --> 00:03:49.239 +that are only good for practicing specific algorithms. + +NOTE Demo + +00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:54.199 +So at this point the organizer should hopefully show + +00:03:54.200 --> 00:03:57.999 +a small video I've prepared, a one minute video showing how + +00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:03.080 +I actually use this to solve a cube and to time my solve. + +NOTE Challenges: Representing the cube + +00:05:19.840 --> 00:05:22.959 +Okay, so building this thing, there were several challenges. + +00:05:22.960 --> 00:05:24.959 +The first one was how do I even represent + +00:05:24.960 --> 00:05:26.919 +the state of a Rubik's cube. + +00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:29.959 +For this there are many possible representations, + +00:05:29.960 --> 00:05:32.159 +no obvious best solution. + +00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:34.079 +I did not, well, what helped me was that + +00:05:34.080 --> 00:05:36.439 +I did not have to programmatically solve this thing, + +00:05:36.440 --> 00:05:39.639 +so I picked the easiest possible representation + +00:05:39.640 --> 00:05:42.719 +which is just an array of every single facelet. + +00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:46.959 +For a 3x3 cube you have 9 facelets on one side, + +00:05:46.960 --> 00:05:51.719 +so times 6 sides you would have 54 elements in this array. + +00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:54.159 +So with this representation, it's very simple, + +00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:56.839 +but it's kind of weird to do scrambles with this. + +00:05:56.840 --> 00:05:59.359 +But otherwise, it worked very, very well. + +00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:01.719 +In the future, I plan to learn some group theory, + +00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:03.199 +pick a better representation + +00:06:03.200 --> 00:06:05.639 +and do this in a much, much more elegant way + +00:06:05.640 --> 00:06:12.319 +without compromising speed too much. + +00:06:12.320 --> 00:06:15.159 +Yes. Once I had the representation, + +00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:18.079 +the scrambling itself should not be too hard. + +00:06:18.080 --> 00:06:22.199 +For this, it's important to consider that basically + +00:06:22.200 --> 00:06:23.599 +if you do a face turn + +00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:26.879 +you end up swapping some facelets with other facelets, + +00:06:26.880 --> 00:06:30.479 +that's the easiest way to think about this. + +00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:33.719 +To determine which one goes into which one's position, + +00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:36.921 +it was pretty confusing to figure this out. + +00:06:36.922 --> 00:06:38.759 +For this I went through a few papers, + +00:06:38.760 --> 00:06:40.479 +and I found one which suggested + +00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:42.399 +to just build a cube out of paper, + +00:06:42.400 --> 00:06:44.479 +number every facelet, and turn it + +00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:48.799 +and keep track of which facelet moved into which position. + +00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:51.959 +And programmatically, the `cl-rotatef` macro + +00:06:51.960 --> 00:06:53.839 +was very, very useful for doing this kind of + +00:06:53.840 --> 00:06:56.079 +in-place swapping you need for this operation. + +00:06:56.080 --> 00:06:59.319 +So in the future, group theory would hopefully + +00:06:59.320 --> 00:07:02.439 +make this a bit less awkward. + +00:07:02.440 --> 00:07:04.559 +Here's a photo of this paper cube I made + +00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:08.319 +along with a real cube. As you can see + +00:07:08.320 --> 00:07:11.799 +mathematically speaking, they are the same thing, + +00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:13.719 +they just look very, very different. + +NOTE Scrambling + +00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:18.759 +So the scramble algorithm itself, + +00:07:18.760 --> 00:07:23.879 +I pondered how this would even be done. In the competitions, + +00:07:23.880 --> 00:07:26.039 +They do this in a very, very elaborate way. + +00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:27.199 +They generate a random cube, + +00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:29.839 +they try to solve it, and if it's solvable + +00:07:29.840 --> 00:07:32.999 +they use these solution moves + +00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:35.279 +to turn into a scramble basically. + +00:07:35.280 --> 00:07:39.399 +And they also make sure to canonicalize the moves, + +00:07:39.400 --> 00:07:42.999 +so if you have subsequent moves that can be simplified, + +00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:45.039 +they do simplify these as much as possible. + +00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:45.679 +For example, + +00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:48.199 +if you have two subsequent rotations in one direction, + +00:07:48.200 --> 00:07:51.119 +it's turned into a different kind of rotation, + +00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:53.839 +so 90 and 90 equals 180. + +00:07:53.840 --> 00:07:57.759 +And the other Elisp scramblers I looked at, + +00:07:57.760 --> 00:07:59.559 +they generate random moves. + +00:07:59.560 --> 00:08:01.959 +Some of them do canonicalize. Not all of them. + +00:08:01.960 --> 00:08:05.359 +This one tries to do the best low-fi thing, + +00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:06.839 +that is, generating random moves, + +00:08:06.840 --> 00:08:08.479 +canonicalizing and repeating + +00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:13.999 +until enough have been generated. + +NOTE Visualization + +00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:17.599 +For the visualization I had to figure out + +00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:18.959 +something else too complicated. + +00:08:18.960 --> 00:08:21.679 +For this, I tried to figure out + +00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:24.319 +where every facelift would end up in the puzzle view + +00:08:24.320 --> 00:08:25.879 +when you would unfold it. + +00:08:25.880 --> 00:08:30.119 +And for this, I did not consider the facelet orientation. + +00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:33.719 +This may be important later for some other puzzles + +00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:35.599 +where you can end up with very twisted faces, + +00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:37.479 +but for simple cubes, it's not a problem. + +00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:40.759 +My initial prototype used colored text, + +00:08:40.760 --> 00:08:43.199 +but later, I used the SVG library. + +00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:46.039 +It turned out to be easy enough to use, actually. + +00:08:46.040 --> 00:08:50.559 +Currently, I have hard-coded face-color mappings, + +00:08:50.560 --> 00:08:53.559 +but I plan to replace this so that theming is possible. + +00:08:53.560 --> 00:08:56.039 +For example, if you happen to have a cube + +00:08:56.040 --> 00:08:59.140 +that does not have the same color mappings as I do, + +00:08:59.141 --> 00:09:00.919 +then you should be able to fix this. + +NOTE UI with Transient + +00:09:00.920 --> 00:09:05.879 +Next challenge was to build + +00:09:05.880 --> 00:09:08.399 +a beautiful intuitive UI with Transient. + +00:09:08.400 --> 00:09:11.319 +The reason why I chose this is + +00:09:11.320 --> 00:09:14.799 +because it would be self-documenting and Magit-style, + +00:09:14.800 --> 00:09:16.799 +and everyone knows how Magit works basically. + +00:09:16.800 --> 00:09:19.759 +Since Transient has become part of Emacs, + +00:09:19.760 --> 00:09:21.679 +there is really no reason to not try it out. + +00:09:21.680 --> 00:09:26.119 +The problem was documentation is difficult to understand. + +00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:27.839 +It's very abstract and high level, + +00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:30.319 +and it's hard to figure out. "Okay, + +00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:31.239 +I want to do something, + +00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:33.359 +how am I supposed to do this?" + +00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:37.799 +I did find transient-showcase, which has lots of examples, + +00:09:37.800 --> 00:09:40.079 +but they don't really feel finished + +00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:43.519 +and not realistic enough. + +00:09:43.520 --> 00:09:45.199 +When I tried to use the package, + +00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:47.359 +I got plenty of unhelpful error messages + +00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:48.559 +when using it incorrectly. + +00:09:48.560 --> 00:09:50.399 +I did manage to figure it out, + +00:09:50.400 --> 00:09:55.039 +but I plan to find more actual examples of it, + +00:09:55.040 --> 00:09:57.879 +to have an executable reference basically + +00:09:57.880 --> 00:10:00.079 +and try to improve my use of it. + +NOTE Book-keeping with SQLite + +00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:05.999 +For the book-keeping, I used SQLite. + +00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.999 +This is a very recent addition to Emacs, + +00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:11.759 +it only appeared in the current major version. + +00:10:11.760 --> 00:10:13.839 +It's still very early days. + +00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:17.479 +I found some oddities, one of them turned out to be + +00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:19.279 +a bug in the transaction macro. + +00:10:19.280 --> 00:10:22.039 +Like basically, if you do an SQL transaction + +00:10:22.040 --> 00:10:24.639 +and an error happens, then every helper I found + +00:10:24.640 --> 00:10:25.399 +does a rollback on an error. + +00:10:25.400 --> 00:10:31.199 +But this one did not. It actually committed on an error, + +00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:34.319 +and this was very weird to figure out. + +00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:38.759 +I reported a bug. Eli was nice enough to send me a patch. + +00:10:38.760 --> 00:10:39.879 +We did some patch review, + +00:10:39.880 --> 00:10:42.439 +and he ended up fixing it properly. + +00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:50.119 +So yes, there's still a lot to be done there, and yeah, + +00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:51.359 +the API is very basic. + +00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:53.359 +You don't have convenience helpers + +00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:55.759 +like fetch the first row or fetch the first value + +00:10:55.760 --> 00:10:58.880 +or anything, but they're easy enough to write yourself. + +00:10:58.881 --> 00:11:00.820 +And the biggest challenge with this bookkeeping part + +00:11:00.821 --> 00:11:02.479 +was figuring out a decent schema, + +00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:04.599 +like how to organize data correctly + +00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:06.799 +so that it would not be awkward to manipulate. + +00:11:06.800 --> 00:11:10.199 +And with this, you can finally build a package + +00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:11.839 +that remembers its state properly + +00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:14.919 +and don't have to run into foot guns + +00:11:14.920 --> 00:11:17.079 +with Lisp-style serialization, deserialization. + +NOTE Conclusion + +00:11:17.080 --> 00:11:22.639 +So yes, that concludes it so far. + +00:11:22.640 --> 00:11:26.639 +So what did I learn from this exercise? + +00:11:26.640 --> 00:11:28.959 +Well, there are still plenty of packages + +00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:30.039 +for Emacs to be written. + +00:11:30.040 --> 00:11:33.359 +If you think everything you can think of + +00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:35.799 +or you need has already been written, well, guess what? + +00:11:35.800 --> 00:11:36.239 +No. + +00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:38.495 +These are still plenty of specialized things + +00:11:38.496 --> 00:11:41.239 +that could need your help. + +00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:44.239 +These cubes do not require advanced mathematics, + +00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:45.599 +contrary to what you may think. + +00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:49.159 +Yes, you can apply advanced mathematics to them + +00:11:49.160 --> 00:11:51.919 +if you want to, but you don't have to. + +00:11:51.920 --> 00:11:55.439 +What surprised me about this is basically group theory. + +00:11:55.440 --> 00:11:56.519 +I've heard of it before. + +00:11:56.520 --> 00:11:58.279 +It seemed to be a meme, basically, + +00:11:58.280 --> 00:12:00.919 +because it has been like mostly Haskell people + +00:12:00.920 --> 00:12:02.639 +being very excited about this + +00:12:02.640 --> 00:12:06.959 +and it seemed kind of, like, divorced from reality, basically. + +00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:10.399 +But this puzzle, it actually proves that yes, + +00:12:10.400 --> 00:12:11.399 +it has its use. + +00:12:11.400 --> 00:12:12.879 +It definitely has. + +00:12:12.880 --> 00:12:15.839 +You just have to find the right problem matching it, + +00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:17.919 +and yeah. + +00:12:17.920 --> 00:12:19.839 +So yeah, once I understand it better, + +00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:22.999 +the topic, I expect to write better code. + +00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.919 +These new Emacs features, they work well enough. + +00:12:28.920 --> 00:12:30.359 +There are some rough edges. + +00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:31.879 +They definitely need more testing. + +00:12:31.880 --> 00:12:35.119 +So please, please, everyone, + +00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:38.999 +if you write Elisp, please try SQLite or Transient + +00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:41.159 +or anything else that looks cool and shiny. + +00:12:41.160 --> 00:12:42.919 +Report bugs. + +00:12:42.920 --> 00:12:46.039 +Find ways to improve them, anything. And yeah, + +00:12:46.040 --> 00:12:49.319 +I'm sure that if we do this, + +00:12:49.320 --> 00:12:52.119 +then Emacs will continue to get even better. + +00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:56.239 +So yeah, what's next for this package? + +00:12:56.240 --> 00:13:00.439 +Well, I could... There are lots of obvious UI improvements + +00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:01.799 +and testing to be done. + +00:13:01.800 --> 00:13:04.159 +I basically want to reach feature parity + +00:13:04.160 --> 00:13:06.879 +with the twisty-timer app, which this is very much inspired by. + +00:13:06.880 --> 00:13:11.119 +I want nice-looking stats like graphical ones + +00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:13.239 +instead of just a simple list of times. + +00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:15.679 +And I want support for more puzzles, of course, + +00:13:15.680 --> 00:13:16.999 +not just the simple cubes, + +00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:19.039 +but as I progress learning these puzzles, + +00:13:19.040 --> 00:13:22.519 +I want to have Emacs supporting me for this. + +00:13:22.520 --> 00:13:26.879 +But generally, it's a very open-ended package. + +00:13:26.880 --> 00:13:31.079 +And this concludes the talk. + +00:13:31.080 --> 00:13:35.360 +Thank you very much. |