The joy of recursion, immutable data, & pure functions: Making mazes with JS
6 days ago
- #JavaScript
- #Immutable Data
- #Recursion
- The article discusses generating mazes with JavaScript using recursion, immutable data, and pure functions.
- Maze generation is presented as a contained problem that's complex enough to be interesting but not overly practical for most web apps.
- The maze-building algorithm involves starting with a grid of unconnected rooms, randomly selecting a room, and connecting adjacent rooms recursively until all rooms are connected.
- An immutable Point class is created to represent coordinates, ensuring that points with the same values reference the same memory location, which is useful for comparing and using as keys in data structures.
- A pseudo-random number generator is implemented to maintain purity in functions, ensuring reproducible results with the same seed.
- The recursive buildMaze function updates the maze state by connecting rooms and uses the random seed to make decisions, backtracking when no more connections are possible.
- The article emphasizes the educational and creative benefits of working with constraints like immutable data and recursion, even if they're not the most performant solutions.
- A demo is mentioned, showcasing the maze generation in action, though rendering the maze is left for a separate discussion.
- The author concludes by highlighting the joy and creative thinking that comes from exploring programming concepts like immutable data and recursion, beyond just practical applications.