explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2061: Tectonics Game

2018-11-28T17:32:11Z

Jlhollin: /* It already exists as software!!! */

'''Please never move discussions to other sections; the chronological order has to be respected.''' --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:51, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

Wrote my first transcript. Hopefully it isn't terrible, haha. [[User:IYN|IYN]] ([[User talk:IYN|talk]]) 17:13, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:Not bad, but please do not remove the incomplete tag too soon. Even my smaller changes don't convince me right now that it's complete. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:34, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:There's no explanation ''OR'' transcript for the Title-text, yet. Sooo...
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:41, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

I know very little about stars. Can anyone explain what the type in the title text is? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.70|162.158.63.70]] 18:23, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

The nice thing about this game is you could represent the Earth by a 1000-pixel wide map, and it would take over a decade before anyone could tell whether you'd actually implemented anything. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 20:53, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

In Panel 2, there is a box with the following information

<pre>
Single Multi
LT 80 GT 440 T
LM 15 GT 3 GT
LA 2 MT 0 T
LL 580 GT 0 T
</pre>

What does this mean? The measurements seem to be in gigatonnes, hence a measure of mass. CO2 releases are often measured in Gigatonnes. The geochemical carbon cycle is a significant long term negative feedback loop, so I guess these relate to CO2, but I can't guess the specifics. [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 15:00, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

:Just a guess, but I think it could be the amount of life, as a goal is to "keep your biosphere rich". Single and multi then mean single- and multicelled, and the terms on the left could be "Life-Terrestrial", "-Marine", "Aerial" and "Littoral" [[User:Emil|Emil]] ([[User talk:Emil|talk]]) 11:29, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

::And if you look at the [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tectonics_game_2x.png high-DPI image] you can see that the second row of achievements in the last panel, underneath the stages of mountain, is not "{{diff|164457|achievements in the formation of an atoll}}" but evolutionary stages of life: (1) non-cellular (or cellular but prokaryotic?), (2) cellular with a nucleus (eukaryotic), (3) multicellular, and (4) what looks like a side-view of a mammalian eye. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.158|162.158.155.158]] 17:22, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

'''An Actual Game'''

Here is a section for people who are looking into actually developing a game. (With time warp obviously.)

Seriously though, this could actually be a fun (and educational) simulator, similar to KSP. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.142.10|172.69.142.10]] 02:31, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

My wife is trying to physically restrain me from immediately starting to write this game...int main ( int arggggg...ow...get off [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:52, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:If the comment section of this comic is anything to go by, you could sell it for a buck a pop and get...I dunno...$12 at least? [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 19:01, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Who wants to help me make this? [[User:Blacksilver|Blacksilver]] ([[User talk:Blacksilver|talk]]) 17:24, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

With a sufficiently large time warp, this actually sounds like it would be pretty fun. [[User:Ahiijny|Ahiijny]] ([[User talk:Ahiijny|talk]]) 18:20, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Hey, guys reading your comments I can see several people, including myself, might be interested in making a game like this. Perhaps we should coordinate efforts to make one? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.246.100|162.158.246.100]] 23:15, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

I came here specifically to see if this game existed and I'm irritated it doesn't yet. People with better coding and geological skills than me, you have an interested party. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.83}}

I'm fully on board. If and when this thing hypothetically gets popular, I'll be like, "Hey, I was there!" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.5|172.68.46.5]] 04:12, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I have a feeling that making this game would be an awful like No Man's Sky, all the physics would be extremely difficult to manage and take years to iron out fully. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.246.88|162.158.246.88]] 15:03, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I would love to help. I'm thinking something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reus_(video_game). But just with planetary modification abilities. {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.58}}

If anyone's interested I made a discord server where we can talk about making this: https://discord.gg/4MGZT7n [[User:MutedAjar|MutedAjar]] ([[User talk:MutedAjar|talk]]) 05:18, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

I'm surprised no one's brought up SimEarth, which you start out by terraforming a barren planet, making sure life forms, evolves to sentience, and watch it leave for the stars [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.140|172.69.22.140]] 00:30, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

<big>'''It's going to happen!'''</big> Working title is "Tectonica" (yeah - in the cartoon it's "Tectonics!" but you can't have a '!' in a URL and we liked "tectonica" better). Nothing to see YET but we have [https://tectonica.fun tectonica.fun] registered and active technical discussion and the promise of some minimal "getting started" code. Plan is to have it run in-browser for portability and to be written in C++/wasm and WebGL for speed. And, yes, we'll add an "accelerated realtime" button for those more impatient players <sight>. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 19:04, 28 October 2018 (UTC)
:This doesn't explain the comic, I've moved it to the trivia section. And if the provided link there will be not much more than a single picture it's even NOT valid for the trivia section. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:42, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
:: Oh good god no! It shouldn't even be in the trivia section at all until something is actually running and looking somewhat like a playable game. I didn't intend this to be something to go into the "explain" at all. Just that anyone else who thinks this might make a pretty decent game MIGHT come here - see this in the Talk and head over to make it happen. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 01:53, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
:::Thanks for your reply, it's removed from the trivia section. You could have done this too. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:27, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

<big>'''Unity version!'''</big>

A (currently) small splinter group has formed that would rather use Unity to create the game. While I respect the decision to build the game in C++/wasm, I feel that the barrier to entry is slightly too high for most people to begin contribution. In contrast, Unity is well-documented and there are many tutorials available online already for those who wish to contribute. We have a discord server available here: https://discord.gg/4QP6d6q [[Special:Contributions/172.69.42.40|172.69.42.40]] 22:07, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

'''Other Real Time Games'''

This is for discussion of other real time games. (I.E. Desert Bus) --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.142.10|172.69.142.10]] 02:34, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I have this horrible urge to find the Desert Bus source code and mod it to make "Desert Bus 2: Walt Disney Land to Walt Disney World" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.88|172.68.90.88]] 21:53, 19 October 2018 (UTC)SiliconWolf
:From what I gather, part of the "magic" of Desert Bus is the whole lotta hours of repetitive nothing, and I seriously doubt the trip between Disneys is filled with nothing to see. :) Otheriwse I find this to be an awesome idea, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

It's like playing Desert Bus for the rest of your life... :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.154|162.158.63.154]] 18:23, 19 October 2018 (UTC) Scott
:As soon as I saw the headline that this was about other real time games, first and only thought was Desert Bus, LOL! Which I've only heard of (primarily from Angry Video Game Nerd). :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

:I thought it appropriate to add Desert Bus to the main description as a real world example of a tedious real-time game that goes to a ridiculous extreme... though much less extreme and ridiculous than the one in the comic. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 21:17, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Does anyone else remember the old DOS game: 688 Attack Sub? Where it felt like you were waiting forever for your torpedo to hit? I liked that they told you that, in the real world, it's much slower than it is in the game.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.6|172.68.65.6]] 18:46, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:Back then I had a demo (I believe I recall it was on 1 disk and ran off the disk, so I could play on any computer I encountered). Been a while, but I believe it was one specific scenario with a bit of randomness thrown in (like the decisions other ships made), and I played it many, many times. Since it was the demo either the part about not-real-time torpedoes wasn't in there or I always jumped straight to the gameplay, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Not really sure where to put this, so posting it here: Too bad the comic wasn't a bit longer. Could have had Ponytail respond to "It's real time" with "Of course not. It's a million times faster." "Whew." "Yeah, just 400 more years until your first mountain achievement." {{unsigned|Trlkly}}
: Actually, at 1 million times faster, it would only take 0.4 years, or about 5 months. {{unsigned ip|141.101.88.196}}

Are you sure the second row of achievements is about atolls? It looked more like evolution of life to me (single celled, multicellular, something, fish). -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.33|162.158.62.33]] 11:35, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

I was immediately reminded of Wobbler's (or Pratchett's, depending on which side of the 4th wall you look from) "Journey to Alpha Centauri" - and it turns out it was actually made into a "real" game too. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.210.22|162.158.210.22]] 09:03, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Didn't / doesn't have the MS Flight Simulator a real time mode? I think I somewhere read something about that some time ago. Dunno if true, wikipedia doesn't say anything about that. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:23, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
:@Elektrizikekswerk: yes, it did. I recall one of the challenges on Message Boards at the time was to complete Sydney-LAX in real time (~12 hours continuous flying) in poor weather. I'm searching for evidence of this and will update once I can link it together. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.88|162.158.63.88]] 14:03, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
::Some facts: MS Flight Simulator (MSFS) is dead since 2009, MS closed it and they sold something to someone but not much happened since than. AND it wasn't really a game, it was a realistic simulator you couldn't use it without some general knowledge about aviation. Fifteen years ago I've flown many legs about two up to four hours, in real-time. Besides the starting and landing phase it was boring, just because the autopilot does nearly everything - the only important thing was interacting with ATC (Air Traffic Control) and following their instructions along your flight path. Four hours monitoring the radio, adjusting your flight level slightly, drinking coffee or getting a meal - just as the real thing is for a professional pilot (assisted by the autopilot). --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:37, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

I think it's important to note that the 10k final achievement requires the player to "Out do" Everest (8,848m) which might not be possible under Earths gravity. Unless the achievement for mountains isn't measured from Sea-Level (in which case, Hawaii's Mauna Kea would've JUST made this achievemnt at 10,203M) or if it doesn't take place on Earth. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.238|108.162.237.238]] 18:05, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

Other than the aforementioned Desert Bus, the only real-time thing I can think of is part of the The Simpsons Freemium game Tapped Out. Cletus has a farm that can grow various crops which are generally silly and many related to the show, but one is titled "Corn. Actual corn", which takes 90 days to complete (most of the longest things are 24 hours, with only a handful of items being longer), the gag being that in real life corn apparently takes 90 days to grow. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

== It already exists as software!!! ==

This kind of program already (sort of) exists and is used by professional geologists. In general it's called section balancing (Wikipedia calls it [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_restoration section restoration]). The objective of the programs is normally to move backwards through time to see how the earth looked in the distant past, but they can either animate starting from the past up to the present day or could move into the future. Some examples are [https://www.mve.com/software/3d-kinematic 3D Kinematic] from Midland Valley, [http://www.beicip.com/2d-kinematics-basin-modeling KronosFlow] from Beicip-FranLab or their older product LOCACE, [http://www.pdgm.com/products/kine3d Kine3D] from Paradigm, and [https://www.software.slb.com/products/igeoss Dynel3D] from iGeoss (now Schlumberger). [[User:Jlhollin|Jlhollin]] ([[User talk:Jlhollin|talk]]) 17:24, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2061: Tectonics Game

2018-11-28T17:31:20Z

Jlhollin: made hyperlinks instead of explicit URLs on my topic

'''Please never move discussions to other sections; the chronological order has to be respected.''' --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:51, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

Wrote my first transcript. Hopefully it isn't terrible, haha. [[User:IYN|IYN]] ([[User talk:IYN|talk]]) 17:13, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:Not bad, but please do not remove the incomplete tag too soon. Even my smaller changes don't convince me right now that it's complete. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:34, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:There's no explanation ''OR'' transcript for the Title-text, yet. Sooo...
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:41, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

I know very little about stars. Can anyone explain what the type in the title text is? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.70|162.158.63.70]] 18:23, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

The nice thing about this game is you could represent the Earth by a 1000-pixel wide map, and it would take over a decade before anyone could tell whether you'd actually implemented anything. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 20:53, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

In Panel 2, there is a box with the following information

<pre>
Single Multi
LT 80 GT 440 T
LM 15 GT 3 GT
LA 2 MT 0 T
LL 580 GT 0 T
</pre>

What does this mean? The measurements seem to be in gigatonnes, hence a measure of mass. CO2 releases are often measured in Gigatonnes. The geochemical carbon cycle is a significant long term negative feedback loop, so I guess these relate to CO2, but I can't guess the specifics. [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 15:00, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

:Just a guess, but I think it could be the amount of life, as a goal is to "keep your biosphere rich". Single and multi then mean single- and multicelled, and the terms on the left could be "Life-Terrestrial", "-Marine", "Aerial" and "Littoral" [[User:Emil|Emil]] ([[User talk:Emil|talk]]) 11:29, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

::And if you look at the [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tectonics_game_2x.png high-DPI image] you can see that the second row of achievements in the last panel, underneath the stages of mountain, is not "{{diff|164457|achievements in the formation of an atoll}}" but evolutionary stages of life: (1) non-cellular (or cellular but prokaryotic?), (2) cellular with a nucleus (eukaryotic), (3) multicellular, and (4) what looks like a side-view of a mammalian eye. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.158|162.158.155.158]] 17:22, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

'''An Actual Game'''

Here is a section for people who are looking into actually developing a game. (With time warp obviously.)

Seriously though, this could actually be a fun (and educational) simulator, similar to KSP. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.142.10|172.69.142.10]] 02:31, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

My wife is trying to physically restrain me from immediately starting to write this game...int main ( int arggggg...ow...get off [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:52, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:If the comment section of this comic is anything to go by, you could sell it for a buck a pop and get...I dunno...$12 at least? [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 19:01, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Who wants to help me make this? [[User:Blacksilver|Blacksilver]] ([[User talk:Blacksilver|talk]]) 17:24, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

With a sufficiently large time warp, this actually sounds like it would be pretty fun. [[User:Ahiijny|Ahiijny]] ([[User talk:Ahiijny|talk]]) 18:20, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Hey, guys reading your comments I can see several people, including myself, might be interested in making a game like this. Perhaps we should coordinate efforts to make one? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.246.100|162.158.246.100]] 23:15, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

I came here specifically to see if this game existed and I'm irritated it doesn't yet. People with better coding and geological skills than me, you have an interested party. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.83}}

I'm fully on board. If and when this thing hypothetically gets popular, I'll be like, "Hey, I was there!" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.5|172.68.46.5]] 04:12, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I have a feeling that making this game would be an awful like No Man's Sky, all the physics would be extremely difficult to manage and take years to iron out fully. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.246.88|162.158.246.88]] 15:03, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I would love to help. I'm thinking something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reus_(video_game). But just with planetary modification abilities. {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.58}}

If anyone's interested I made a discord server where we can talk about making this: https://discord.gg/4MGZT7n [[User:MutedAjar|MutedAjar]] ([[User talk:MutedAjar|talk]]) 05:18, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

I'm surprised no one's brought up SimEarth, which you start out by terraforming a barren planet, making sure life forms, evolves to sentience, and watch it leave for the stars [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.140|172.69.22.140]] 00:30, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

<big>'''It's going to happen!'''</big> Working title is "Tectonica" (yeah - in the cartoon it's "Tectonics!" but you can't have a '!' in a URL and we liked "tectonica" better). Nothing to see YET but we have [https://tectonica.fun tectonica.fun] registered and active technical discussion and the promise of some minimal "getting started" code. Plan is to have it run in-browser for portability and to be written in C++/wasm and WebGL for speed. And, yes, we'll add an "accelerated realtime" button for those more impatient players <sight>. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 19:04, 28 October 2018 (UTC)
:This doesn't explain the comic, I've moved it to the trivia section. And if the provided link there will be not much more than a single picture it's even NOT valid for the trivia section. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:42, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
:: Oh good god no! It shouldn't even be in the trivia section at all until something is actually running and looking somewhat like a playable game. I didn't intend this to be something to go into the "explain" at all. Just that anyone else who thinks this might make a pretty decent game MIGHT come here - see this in the Talk and head over to make it happen. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 01:53, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
:::Thanks for your reply, it's removed from the trivia section. You could have done this too. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:27, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

<big>'''Unity version!'''</big>

A (currently) small splinter group has formed that would rather use Unity to create the game. While I respect the decision to build the game in C++/wasm, I feel that the barrier to entry is slightly too high for most people to begin contribution. In contrast, Unity is well-documented and there are many tutorials available online already for those who wish to contribute. We have a discord server available here: https://discord.gg/4QP6d6q [[Special:Contributions/172.69.42.40|172.69.42.40]] 22:07, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

'''Other Real Time Games'''

This is for discussion of other real time games. (I.E. Desert Bus) --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.142.10|172.69.142.10]] 02:34, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I have this horrible urge to find the Desert Bus source code and mod it to make "Desert Bus 2: Walt Disney Land to Walt Disney World" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.88|172.68.90.88]] 21:53, 19 October 2018 (UTC)SiliconWolf
:From what I gather, part of the "magic" of Desert Bus is the whole lotta hours of repetitive nothing, and I seriously doubt the trip between Disneys is filled with nothing to see. :) Otheriwse I find this to be an awesome idea, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

It's like playing Desert Bus for the rest of your life... :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.154|162.158.63.154]] 18:23, 19 October 2018 (UTC) Scott
:As soon as I saw the headline that this was about other real time games, first and only thought was Desert Bus, LOL! Which I've only heard of (primarily from Angry Video Game Nerd). :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

:I thought it appropriate to add Desert Bus to the main description as a real world example of a tedious real-time game that goes to a ridiculous extreme... though much less extreme and ridiculous than the one in the comic. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 21:17, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Does anyone else remember the old DOS game: 688 Attack Sub? Where it felt like you were waiting forever for your torpedo to hit? I liked that they told you that, in the real world, it's much slower than it is in the game.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.6|172.68.65.6]] 18:46, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:Back then I had a demo (I believe I recall it was on 1 disk and ran off the disk, so I could play on any computer I encountered). Been a while, but I believe it was one specific scenario with a bit of randomness thrown in (like the decisions other ships made), and I played it many, many times. Since it was the demo either the part about not-real-time torpedoes wasn't in there or I always jumped straight to the gameplay, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Not really sure where to put this, so posting it here: Too bad the comic wasn't a bit longer. Could have had Ponytail respond to "It's real time" with "Of course not. It's a million times faster." "Whew." "Yeah, just 400 more years until your first mountain achievement." {{unsigned|Trlkly}}
: Actually, at 1 million times faster, it would only take 0.4 years, or about 5 months. {{unsigned ip|141.101.88.196}}

Are you sure the second row of achievements is about atolls? It looked more like evolution of life to me (single celled, multicellular, something, fish). -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.33|162.158.62.33]] 11:35, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

I was immediately reminded of Wobbler's (or Pratchett's, depending on which side of the 4th wall you look from) "Journey to Alpha Centauri" - and it turns out it was actually made into a "real" game too. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.210.22|162.158.210.22]] 09:03, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Didn't / doesn't have the MS Flight Simulator a real time mode? I think I somewhere read something about that some time ago. Dunno if true, wikipedia doesn't say anything about that. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:23, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
:@Elektrizikekswerk: yes, it did. I recall one of the challenges on Message Boards at the time was to complete Sydney-LAX in real time (~12 hours continuous flying) in poor weather. I'm searching for evidence of this and will update once I can link it together. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.88|162.158.63.88]] 14:03, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
::Some facts: MS Flight Simulator (MSFS) is dead since 2009, MS closed it and they sold something to someone but not much happened since than. AND it wasn't really a game, it was a realistic simulator you couldn't use it without some general knowledge about aviation. Fifteen years ago I've flown many legs about two up to four hours, in real-time. Besides the starting and landing phase it was boring, just because the autopilot does nearly everything - the only important thing was interacting with ATC (Air Traffic Control) and following their instructions along your flight path. Four hours monitoring the radio, adjusting your flight level slightly, drinking coffee or getting a meal - just as the real thing is for a professional pilot (assisted by the autopilot). --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:37, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

I think it's important to note that the 10k final achievement requires the player to "Out do" Everest (8,848m) which might not be possible under Earths gravity. Unless the achievement for mountains isn't measured from Sea-Level (in which case, Hawaii's Mauna Kea would've JUST made this achievemnt at 10,203M) or if it doesn't take place on Earth. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.238|108.162.237.238]] 18:05, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

Other than the aforementioned Desert Bus, the only real-time thing I can think of is part of the The Simpsons Freemium game Tapped Out. Cletus has a farm that can grow various crops which are generally silly and many related to the show, but one is titled "Corn. Actual corn", which takes 90 days to complete (most of the longest things are 24 hours, with only a handful of items being longer), the gag being that in real life corn apparently takes 90 days to grow. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

== It already exists as software!!! ==

This kind of program already (sort of) exists and is used by professional geologists. In general it's called section balancing (Wikipedia calls it [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_restoration section restoration]). The objective of the programs is normally to move backwards through time to see how the earth looked in the distant past, but they can either animate starting from the past up to the present day or could move into the future. Some examples are [https://www.mve.com/software/3d-kinematic 3D Kinematic] from Midland Valley, [http://www.beicip.com/2d-kinematics-basin-modeling KronosFlow] from Beicip-FranLab or their older product LOCACE, [http://www.pdgm.com/products/kine3d Kine3D] from Paradigm, and [https://www.software.slb.com/products/igeoss Dynel3D] from iGeoss (now Schlumberger).[[User:Jlhollin|Jlhollin]] ([[User talk:Jlhollin|talk]]) 17:24, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2061: Tectonics Game

2018-11-28T17:24:38Z

Jlhollin: /* It already exists as software!!! */

'''Please never move discussions to other sections; the chronological order has to be respected.''' --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:51, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

Wrote my first transcript. Hopefully it isn't terrible, haha. [[User:IYN|IYN]] ([[User talk:IYN|talk]]) 17:13, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:Not bad, but please do not remove the incomplete tag too soon. Even my smaller changes don't convince me right now that it's complete. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:34, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:There's no explanation ''OR'' transcript for the Title-text, yet. Sooo...
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:41, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

I know very little about stars. Can anyone explain what the type in the title text is? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.70|162.158.63.70]] 18:23, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

The nice thing about this game is you could represent the Earth by a 1000-pixel wide map, and it would take over a decade before anyone could tell whether you'd actually implemented anything. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 20:53, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

In Panel 2, there is a box with the following information

<pre>
Single Multi
LT 80 GT 440 T
LM 15 GT 3 GT
LA 2 MT 0 T
LL 580 GT 0 T
</pre>

What does this mean? The measurements seem to be in gigatonnes, hence a measure of mass. CO2 releases are often measured in Gigatonnes. The geochemical carbon cycle is a significant long term negative feedback loop, so I guess these relate to CO2, but I can't guess the specifics. [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 15:00, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

:Just a guess, but I think it could be the amount of life, as a goal is to "keep your biosphere rich". Single and multi then mean single- and multicelled, and the terms on the left could be "Life-Terrestrial", "-Marine", "Aerial" and "Littoral" [[User:Emil|Emil]] ([[User talk:Emil|talk]]) 11:29, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

::And if you look at the [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tectonics_game_2x.png high-DPI image] you can see that the second row of achievements in the last panel, underneath the stages of mountain, is not "{{diff|164457|achievements in the formation of an atoll}}" but evolutionary stages of life: (1) non-cellular (or cellular but prokaryotic?), (2) cellular with a nucleus (eukaryotic), (3) multicellular, and (4) what looks like a side-view of a mammalian eye. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.158|162.158.155.158]] 17:22, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

'''An Actual Game'''

Here is a section for people who are looking into actually developing a game. (With time warp obviously.)

Seriously though, this could actually be a fun (and educational) simulator, similar to KSP. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.142.10|172.69.142.10]] 02:31, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

My wife is trying to physically restrain me from immediately starting to write this game...int main ( int arggggg...ow...get off [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:52, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:If the comment section of this comic is anything to go by, you could sell it for a buck a pop and get...I dunno...$12 at least? [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 19:01, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Who wants to help me make this? [[User:Blacksilver|Blacksilver]] ([[User talk:Blacksilver|talk]]) 17:24, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

With a sufficiently large time warp, this actually sounds like it would be pretty fun. [[User:Ahiijny|Ahiijny]] ([[User talk:Ahiijny|talk]]) 18:20, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Hey, guys reading your comments I can see several people, including myself, might be interested in making a game like this. Perhaps we should coordinate efforts to make one? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.246.100|162.158.246.100]] 23:15, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

I came here specifically to see if this game existed and I'm irritated it doesn't yet. People with better coding and geological skills than me, you have an interested party. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.83}}

I'm fully on board. If and when this thing hypothetically gets popular, I'll be like, "Hey, I was there!" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.5|172.68.46.5]] 04:12, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I have a feeling that making this game would be an awful like No Man's Sky, all the physics would be extremely difficult to manage and take years to iron out fully. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.246.88|162.158.246.88]] 15:03, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I would love to help. I'm thinking something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reus_(video_game). But just with planetary modification abilities. {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.58}}

If anyone's interested I made a discord server where we can talk about making this: https://discord.gg/4MGZT7n [[User:MutedAjar|MutedAjar]] ([[User talk:MutedAjar|talk]]) 05:18, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

I'm surprised no one's brought up SimEarth, which you start out by terraforming a barren planet, making sure life forms, evolves to sentience, and watch it leave for the stars [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.140|172.69.22.140]] 00:30, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

<big>'''It's going to happen!'''</big> Working title is "Tectonica" (yeah - in the cartoon it's "Tectonics!" but you can't have a '!' in a URL and we liked "tectonica" better). Nothing to see YET but we have [https://tectonica.fun tectonica.fun] registered and active technical discussion and the promise of some minimal "getting started" code. Plan is to have it run in-browser for portability and to be written in C++/wasm and WebGL for speed. And, yes, we'll add an "accelerated realtime" button for those more impatient players <sight>. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 19:04, 28 October 2018 (UTC)
:This doesn't explain the comic, I've moved it to the trivia section. And if the provided link there will be not much more than a single picture it's even NOT valid for the trivia section. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:42, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
:: Oh good god no! It shouldn't even be in the trivia section at all until something is actually running and looking somewhat like a playable game. I didn't intend this to be something to go into the "explain" at all. Just that anyone else who thinks this might make a pretty decent game MIGHT come here - see this in the Talk and head over to make it happen. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 01:53, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
:::Thanks for your reply, it's removed from the trivia section. You could have done this too. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:27, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

<big>'''Unity version!'''</big>

A (currently) small splinter group has formed that would rather use Unity to create the game. While I respect the decision to build the game in C++/wasm, I feel that the barrier to entry is slightly too high for most people to begin contribution. In contrast, Unity is well-documented and there are many tutorials available online already for those who wish to contribute. We have a discord server available here: https://discord.gg/4QP6d6q [[Special:Contributions/172.69.42.40|172.69.42.40]] 22:07, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

'''Other Real Time Games'''

This is for discussion of other real time games. (I.E. Desert Bus) --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.142.10|172.69.142.10]] 02:34, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I have this horrible urge to find the Desert Bus source code and mod it to make "Desert Bus 2: Walt Disney Land to Walt Disney World" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.88|172.68.90.88]] 21:53, 19 October 2018 (UTC)SiliconWolf
:From what I gather, part of the "magic" of Desert Bus is the whole lotta hours of repetitive nothing, and I seriously doubt the trip between Disneys is filled with nothing to see. :) Otheriwse I find this to be an awesome idea, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

It's like playing Desert Bus for the rest of your life... :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.154|162.158.63.154]] 18:23, 19 October 2018 (UTC) Scott
:As soon as I saw the headline that this was about other real time games, first and only thought was Desert Bus, LOL! Which I've only heard of (primarily from Angry Video Game Nerd). :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

:I thought it appropriate to add Desert Bus to the main description as a real world example of a tedious real-time game that goes to a ridiculous extreme... though much less extreme and ridiculous than the one in the comic. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 21:17, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Does anyone else remember the old DOS game: 688 Attack Sub? Where it felt like you were waiting forever for your torpedo to hit? I liked that they told you that, in the real world, it's much slower than it is in the game.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.6|172.68.65.6]] 18:46, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:Back then I had a demo (I believe I recall it was on 1 disk and ran off the disk, so I could play on any computer I encountered). Been a while, but I believe it was one specific scenario with a bit of randomness thrown in (like the decisions other ships made), and I played it many, many times. Since it was the demo either the part about not-real-time torpedoes wasn't in there or I always jumped straight to the gameplay, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Not really sure where to put this, so posting it here: Too bad the comic wasn't a bit longer. Could have had Ponytail respond to "It's real time" with "Of course not. It's a million times faster." "Whew." "Yeah, just 400 more years until your first mountain achievement." {{unsigned|Trlkly}}
: Actually, at 1 million times faster, it would only take 0.4 years, or about 5 months. {{unsigned ip|141.101.88.196}}

Are you sure the second row of achievements is about atolls? It looked more like evolution of life to me (single celled, multicellular, something, fish). -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.33|162.158.62.33]] 11:35, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

I was immediately reminded of Wobbler's (or Pratchett's, depending on which side of the 4th wall you look from) "Journey to Alpha Centauri" - and it turns out it was actually made into a "real" game too. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.210.22|162.158.210.22]] 09:03, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Didn't / doesn't have the MS Flight Simulator a real time mode? I think I somewhere read something about that some time ago. Dunno if true, wikipedia doesn't say anything about that. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:23, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
:@Elektrizikekswerk: yes, it did. I recall one of the challenges on Message Boards at the time was to complete Sydney-LAX in real time (~12 hours continuous flying) in poor weather. I'm searching for evidence of this and will update once I can link it together. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.88|162.158.63.88]] 14:03, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
::Some facts: MS Flight Simulator (MSFS) is dead since 2009, MS closed it and they sold something to someone but not much happened since than. AND it wasn't really a game, it was a realistic simulator you couldn't use it without some general knowledge about aviation. Fifteen years ago I've flown many legs about two up to four hours, in real-time. Besides the starting and landing phase it was boring, just because the autopilot does nearly everything - the only important thing was interacting with ATC (Air Traffic Control) and following their instructions along your flight path. Four hours monitoring the radio, adjusting your flight level slightly, drinking coffee or getting a meal - just as the real thing is for a professional pilot (assisted by the autopilot). --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:37, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

I think it's important to note that the 10k final achievement requires the player to "Out do" Everest (8,848m) which might not be possible under Earths gravity. Unless the achievement for mountains isn't measured from Sea-Level (in which case, Hawaii's Mauna Kea would've JUST made this achievemnt at 10,203M) or if it doesn't take place on Earth. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.238|108.162.237.238]] 18:05, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

Other than the aforementioned Desert Bus, the only real-time thing I can think of is part of the The Simpsons Freemium game Tapped Out. Cletus has a farm that can grow various crops which are generally silly and many related to the show, but one is titled "Corn. Actual corn", which takes 90 days to complete (most of the longest things are 24 hours, with only a handful of items being longer), the gag being that in real life corn apparently takes 90 days to grow. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

== It already exists as software!!! ==

This kind of program already (sort of) exists and is used by professional geologists. In general it's called section balancing (Wikipedia calls it section restoration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_restoration). The objective of the programs is normally to move backwards through time to see how the earth looked in the distant past, but they can either animate starting from the past or could move into the future. Some examples are 3D Kinematic from Midland Valley (https://www.mve.com/software/3d-kinematic), KronosFlow from Beicip-FranLab (http://www.beicip.com/2d-kinematics-basin-modeling) or their older product LOCACE, Kine3D from Paradigm (http://www.pdgm.com/products/kine3d), and Dynel3D from iGeoss (now Schlumberger https://www.software.slb.com/products/igeoss).[[User:Jlhollin|Jlhollin]] ([[User talk:Jlhollin|talk]]) 17:24, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2061: Tectonics Game

2018-11-28T17:23:57Z

Jlhollin: /* It already exists as software!!! */ new section

'''Please never move discussions to other sections; the chronological order has to be respected.''' --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:51, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

Wrote my first transcript. Hopefully it isn't terrible, haha. [[User:IYN|IYN]] ([[User talk:IYN|talk]]) 17:13, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:Not bad, but please do not remove the incomplete tag too soon. Even my smaller changes don't convince me right now that it's complete. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:34, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:There's no explanation ''OR'' transcript for the Title-text, yet. Sooo...
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:41, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

I know very little about stars. Can anyone explain what the type in the title text is? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.70|162.158.63.70]] 18:23, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

The nice thing about this game is you could represent the Earth by a 1000-pixel wide map, and it would take over a decade before anyone could tell whether you'd actually implemented anything. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 20:53, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

In Panel 2, there is a box with the following information

<pre>
Single Multi
LT 80 GT 440 T
LM 15 GT 3 GT
LA 2 MT 0 T
LL 580 GT 0 T
</pre>

What does this mean? The measurements seem to be in gigatonnes, hence a measure of mass. CO2 releases are often measured in Gigatonnes. The geochemical carbon cycle is a significant long term negative feedback loop, so I guess these relate to CO2, but I can't guess the specifics. [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 15:00, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

:Just a guess, but I think it could be the amount of life, as a goal is to "keep your biosphere rich". Single and multi then mean single- and multicelled, and the terms on the left could be "Life-Terrestrial", "-Marine", "Aerial" and "Littoral" [[User:Emil|Emil]] ([[User talk:Emil|talk]]) 11:29, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

::And if you look at the [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tectonics_game_2x.png high-DPI image] you can see that the second row of achievements in the last panel, underneath the stages of mountain, is not "{{diff|164457|achievements in the formation of an atoll}}" but evolutionary stages of life: (1) non-cellular (or cellular but prokaryotic?), (2) cellular with a nucleus (eukaryotic), (3) multicellular, and (4) what looks like a side-view of a mammalian eye. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.158|162.158.155.158]] 17:22, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

'''An Actual Game'''

Here is a section for people who are looking into actually developing a game. (With time warp obviously.)

Seriously though, this could actually be a fun (and educational) simulator, similar to KSP. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.142.10|172.69.142.10]] 02:31, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

My wife is trying to physically restrain me from immediately starting to write this game...int main ( int arggggg...ow...get off [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:52, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:If the comment section of this comic is anything to go by, you could sell it for a buck a pop and get...I dunno...$12 at least? [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 19:01, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Who wants to help me make this? [[User:Blacksilver|Blacksilver]] ([[User talk:Blacksilver|talk]]) 17:24, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

With a sufficiently large time warp, this actually sounds like it would be pretty fun. [[User:Ahiijny|Ahiijny]] ([[User talk:Ahiijny|talk]]) 18:20, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Hey, guys reading your comments I can see several people, including myself, might be interested in making a game like this. Perhaps we should coordinate efforts to make one? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.246.100|162.158.246.100]] 23:15, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

I came here specifically to see if this game existed and I'm irritated it doesn't yet. People with better coding and geological skills than me, you have an interested party. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.83}}

I'm fully on board. If and when this thing hypothetically gets popular, I'll be like, "Hey, I was there!" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.5|172.68.46.5]] 04:12, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I have a feeling that making this game would be an awful like No Man's Sky, all the physics would be extremely difficult to manage and take years to iron out fully. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.246.88|162.158.246.88]] 15:03, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I would love to help. I'm thinking something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reus_(video_game). But just with planetary modification abilities. {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.58}}

If anyone's interested I made a discord server where we can talk about making this: https://discord.gg/4MGZT7n [[User:MutedAjar|MutedAjar]] ([[User talk:MutedAjar|talk]]) 05:18, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

I'm surprised no one's brought up SimEarth, which you start out by terraforming a barren planet, making sure life forms, evolves to sentience, and watch it leave for the stars [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.140|172.69.22.140]] 00:30, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

<big>'''It's going to happen!'''</big> Working title is "Tectonica" (yeah - in the cartoon it's "Tectonics!" but you can't have a '!' in a URL and we liked "tectonica" better). Nothing to see YET but we have [https://tectonica.fun tectonica.fun] registered and active technical discussion and the promise of some minimal "getting started" code. Plan is to have it run in-browser for portability and to be written in C++/wasm and WebGL for speed. And, yes, we'll add an "accelerated realtime" button for those more impatient players <sight>. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 19:04, 28 October 2018 (UTC)
:This doesn't explain the comic, I've moved it to the trivia section. And if the provided link there will be not much more than a single picture it's even NOT valid for the trivia section. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:42, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
:: Oh good god no! It shouldn't even be in the trivia section at all until something is actually running and looking somewhat like a playable game. I didn't intend this to be something to go into the "explain" at all. Just that anyone else who thinks this might make a pretty decent game MIGHT come here - see this in the Talk and head over to make it happen. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 01:53, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
:::Thanks for your reply, it's removed from the trivia section. You could have done this too. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:27, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

<big>'''Unity version!'''</big>

A (currently) small splinter group has formed that would rather use Unity to create the game. While I respect the decision to build the game in C++/wasm, I feel that the barrier to entry is slightly too high for most people to begin contribution. In contrast, Unity is well-documented and there are many tutorials available online already for those who wish to contribute. We have a discord server available here: https://discord.gg/4QP6d6q [[Special:Contributions/172.69.42.40|172.69.42.40]] 22:07, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

'''Other Real Time Games'''

This is for discussion of other real time games. (I.E. Desert Bus) --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.142.10|172.69.142.10]] 02:34, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

I have this horrible urge to find the Desert Bus source code and mod it to make "Desert Bus 2: Walt Disney Land to Walt Disney World" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.88|172.68.90.88]] 21:53, 19 October 2018 (UTC)SiliconWolf
:From what I gather, part of the "magic" of Desert Bus is the whole lotta hours of repetitive nothing, and I seriously doubt the trip between Disneys is filled with nothing to see. :) Otheriwse I find this to be an awesome idea, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

It's like playing Desert Bus for the rest of your life... :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.154|162.158.63.154]] 18:23, 19 October 2018 (UTC) Scott
:As soon as I saw the headline that this was about other real time games, first and only thought was Desert Bus, LOL! Which I've only heard of (primarily from Angry Video Game Nerd). :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

:I thought it appropriate to add Desert Bus to the main description as a real world example of a tedious real-time game that goes to a ridiculous extreme... though much less extreme and ridiculous than the one in the comic. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 21:17, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Does anyone else remember the old DOS game: 688 Attack Sub? Where it felt like you were waiting forever for your torpedo to hit? I liked that they told you that, in the real world, it's much slower than it is in the game.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.6|172.68.65.6]] 18:46, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
:Back then I had a demo (I believe I recall it was on 1 disk and ran off the disk, so I could play on any computer I encountered). Been a while, but I believe it was one specific scenario with a bit of randomness thrown in (like the decisions other ships made), and I played it many, many times. Since it was the demo either the part about not-real-time torpedoes wasn't in there or I always jumped straight to the gameplay, LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Not really sure where to put this, so posting it here: Too bad the comic wasn't a bit longer. Could have had Ponytail respond to "It's real time" with "Of course not. It's a million times faster." "Whew." "Yeah, just 400 more years until your first mountain achievement." {{unsigned|Trlkly}}
: Actually, at 1 million times faster, it would only take 0.4 years, or about 5 months. {{unsigned ip|141.101.88.196}}

Are you sure the second row of achievements is about atolls? It looked more like evolution of life to me (single celled, multicellular, something, fish). -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.33|162.158.62.33]] 11:35, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

I was immediately reminded of Wobbler's (or Pratchett's, depending on which side of the 4th wall you look from) "Journey to Alpha Centauri" - and it turns out it was actually made into a "real" game too. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.210.22|162.158.210.22]] 09:03, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Didn't / doesn't have the MS Flight Simulator a real time mode? I think I somewhere read something about that some time ago. Dunno if true, wikipedia doesn't say anything about that. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:23, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
:@Elektrizikekswerk: yes, it did. I recall one of the challenges on Message Boards at the time was to complete Sydney-LAX in real time (~12 hours continuous flying) in poor weather. I'm searching for evidence of this and will update once I can link it together. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.88|162.158.63.88]] 14:03, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
::Some facts: MS Flight Simulator (MSFS) is dead since 2009, MS closed it and they sold something to someone but not much happened since than. AND it wasn't really a game, it was a realistic simulator you couldn't use it without some general knowledge about aviation. Fifteen years ago I've flown many legs about two up to four hours, in real-time. Besides the starting and landing phase it was boring, just because the autopilot does nearly everything - the only important thing was interacting with ATC (Air Traffic Control) and following their instructions along your flight path. Four hours monitoring the radio, adjusting your flight level slightly, drinking coffee or getting a meal - just as the real thing is for a professional pilot (assisted by the autopilot). --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:37, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

I think it's important to note that the 10k final achievement requires the player to "Out do" Everest (8,848m) which might not be possible under Earths gravity. Unless the achievement for mountains isn't measured from Sea-Level (in which case, Hawaii's Mauna Kea would've JUST made this achievemnt at 10,203M) or if it doesn't take place on Earth. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.238|108.162.237.238]] 18:05, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

Other than the aforementioned Desert Bus, the only real-time thing I can think of is part of the The Simpsons Freemium game Tapped Out. Cletus has a farm that can grow various crops which are generally silly and many related to the show, but one is titled "Corn. Actual corn", which takes 90 days to complete (most of the longest things are 24 hours, with only a handful of items being longer), the gag being that in real life corn apparently takes 90 days to grow. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:45, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

== It already exists as software!!! ==

This kind of program already (sort of) exists and is used by professional geologists. In general it's called section balancing (Wikipedia calls it section restoration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_restoration). The objective of the programs is normally to move backwards through time to see how the earth looked in the distant past, but they can either animate starting from the past or could move into the future. Some examples are 3D Kinematic from Midland Valley (https://www.mve.com/software/3d-kinematic), KronosFlow from Beicip-FranLab (http://www.beicip.com/2d-kinematics-basin-modeling) or their older product LOCACE, Kine3D from Paradigm (http://www.pdgm.com/products/kine3d), and Dynel3D from iGeoss (now Schlumberger https://www.software.slb.com/products/igeoss).

1313: Regex Golf

2014-02-02T17:02:43Z

Jlhollin: /* Regular expressions */

{{comic
| number = 1313
| date = January 6, 2014
| title = Regex Golf
| image = regex_golf.png
| titletext = <nowiki>/bu|[rn]t|[coy]e|[mtg]a|j|iso|n[hl]|[ae]d|lev|sh|[lnd]i|[po]o|ls/ matches the last names of elected US presidents but not their opponents.</nowiki>
}}

== Explanation ==
The comic talks about {{w|regular expressions}}, which are a way to specify textual patterns. Given a regular expression, one can search for the pattern it specifies inside a text string. If the pattern is found, it’s said that the pattern “matches” the string; if it's not found, it's said they do not match.

The title of the comic and the first panel is based on “[http://regex.alf.nu/ regex golf]”, which is a discipline of “{{w|code golf}}”, a game in which programmers attempt to solve a given programming problem using as few characters as possible, analogous to the number of {{w|golf}} shots it takes to reach the goal. In regex golfing, the programmer is given two sets of text fragments, and he/she tries to write the shortest possible regular expression which would match all elements of one set, while at the same time not matching any element from the other set.

The regex golf challenge Megan faces consists of matching all subtitles of ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' episodes, while not matching any subtitle of ''{{w|Star Trek}}'' episodes. ({{w|Subtitle (titling)|Subtitles}} are the secondary titles of the movies, after the ''“Star Trek: ”'' or ''“Star Wars Episode N: ”''. For example, in ''Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'', the subtitle is ''The Phantom Menace''.) In the first panel, she created a 12-character regex solving the challenge.

Then she moved on to building a tool which would automatically build such a regex for arbitrary lists of text, which could be described as {{w|meta}}- regex golfing. But as she has lost this tool, she needs to search through her files and chooses a tool called “{{w|grep}}” to find it. This implies that she needs a regular expression that would find any code that appears to be a regex golf generator, which leads to another “meta-” layer of abstraction. At the end, Megan notes this sequence of meta-meta-... might go to infinity and Cueball quips that she now has “infinite problems” as a result of her efforts; Megan retorts that she already had "infinite problems" because she's geeky enough to run meta-versions of programs on themselves, and stubborn enough to continue on until she fails, to the exclusion of all else. This also seems to be a reference to a famous quote (see also ''[[1171: Perl Problems]]''):

<blockquote>''Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I'll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems.''</blockquote>

===Regular expressions===
The first regex Megan uses is <code>/m | [tn]|b/</code>, said to match ''Star Wars'' subtitles but not ''Star Trek''.

The forward slashes <code>/</code> just mark the start and end of the regex. The <code>|</code> character means “or”, so the regex matches any string that contains the patterns “<code>m </code>”, “<code> [tn]</code>” or “<code>b</code>” (including the spaces). The square brackets match one of the enclosed characters, meaning that “<code> [tn]</code>” matches either “<code> t</code>” or “<code> n</code>”. The regex is apparently case-insensitive, because it wouldn't work otherwise.

The Star Wars subtitles match the parts of the regex in the following way:
* “The Phantom Menace” is matched by “<code>m </code>”.
* “Attack of the Clones” is matched by “<code> [tn]</code>”.
* “Revenge of the Sith” is matched by “<code> [tn]</code>”.
* “A New Hope” is matched by “<code> [tn]</code>”.
* “The Empire Strikes Back” is matched by “<code>b</code>”.
* “Return of the Jedi” is matched by “<code> [tn]</code>”.
Note that if one included the animated film “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” it would be matched by “<code> [tn]</code>”.

On the other hand, none of the Star Trek subtitles contains an M followed by a space, a T or an N preceded by a space, or any B, so the regex does not match any of them. Note that in the original series all subtitles start with a “T” but it's the first character so it's not preceded by a space.

Here is the list that Megan probably used:
* Original series:
** The Motion Picture
** The Wrath of Khan
** The Search For Spock
** The Voyage Home
** The Final Frontier
** The Undiscovered Country
* The Next Generation:
** Generations
** First Contact
** Insurrection
** Nemesis
* Reboot series:
** ''the one without a subtitle''
** Into Darkness

In the last panel “and beyond” Megan uses the regular expression <code>/(meta-)*regex golf/</code> to describe her problem. <code>*</code> means “zero or more” of the preceding character/group (parentheses <code>()</code> group characters). So this regex matches “regex golf”, “meta-regex golf”, “meta-meta-regex golf”, etc. In a way this is regex golf in itself, matching all levels of meta-regex golf while not matching anything else.

In the title text, there is a long regex that is the solution of another regex golf challenge: matching the last names of all elected US presidents but not their opponents. Note that the list of opponents include some people who were previously or later became presidents, so taken literally this is impossible. To make this work the list of opponents must exclude anyone who was also president. The regular expression itself works in a very similar way to the Star Wars/Trek one, including several different patterns separated by <code>|</code>. Each elected president matches one pattern while each opponent matches none.

Here is a list of elected president and the patterns they match:
{| class="wikitable"
!Number
!President
!Matched expression
|-
|1
|{{w|George Washington|George Washington}}
|<code>sh</code>
|-
|2
|{{w|John Adams|John Adams}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|3
|{{w|Thomas Jefferson|Thomas Jefferson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|4
|{{w|James Madison|James Madison}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|5
|{{w|James Monroe|James Monroe}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|6
|{{w|John Quincy Adams|John Quincy Adams}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|7
|{{w|Andrew Jackson|Andrew Jackson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|8
|{{w|Martin Van Buren|Martin Van Buren}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|9
|{{w|William Henry Harrison|William Henry Harrison}}
|<code>iso</code>
|-
|11
|{{w|James K. Polk|James K. Polk}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|12
|{{w|Zachary Taylor|Zachary Taylor}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|14
|{{w|Franklin Pierce|Franklin Pierce}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|15
|{{w|James Buchanan|James Buchanan}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|16
|{{w|Abraham Lincoln|Abraham Lincoln}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|17
|{{w|Andrew Johnson|Andrew Johnson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|18
|{{w|Ulysses S. Grant|Ulysses S. Grant}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|19
|{{w|Rutherford B. Hayes|Rutherford B. Hayes}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|20
|{{w|James A. Garfield|James A. Garfield}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|22
|{{w|Grover Cleveland|Grover Cleveland}}
|<code>lev</code>
|-
|23
|{{w|Benjamin Harrison|Benjamin Harrison}}
|<code>iso</code>
|-
|24
|{{w|Grover Cleveland|Grover Cleveland}}
|<code>lev</code>
|-
|25
|{{w|William McKinley|William McKinley}}
|<code>n[hl]</code>
|-
|26
|{{w|Theodore Roosevelt|Theodore Roosevelt}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|27
|{{w|William Howard Taft|William Howard Taft}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|28
|{{w|Woodrow Wilson|Woodrow Wilson}}
|<code>ls</code>
|-
|29
|{{w|Warren G. Harding|Warren G. Harding}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|30
|{{w|Calvin Coolidge|Calvin Coolidge}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|31
|{{w|Herbert Hoover|Herbert Hoover}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|32
|{{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin D. Roosevelt}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|33
|{{w|Harry S. Truman|Harry S. Truman}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|34
|{{w|Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight D. Eisenhower}}
|<code>n[hl]</code>
|-
|35
|{{w|John F. Kennedy|John F. Kennedy}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|36
|{{w|Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon B. Johnson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|37
|{{w|Richard Nixon|Richard Nixon}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|39
|{{w|Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|40
|{{w|Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|41
|{{w|George H. W. Bush|George H. W. Bush}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|42
|{{w|Bill Clinton|Bill Clinton}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|43
|{{w|George W. Bush|George W. Bush}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|44
|{{w|Barack Obama|Barack Obama}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|}

Note that some presidents are missing because they weren't elected but became presidents after the resignation/death of their formers.

Note also that Randall's regular expression must be modified slightly, because it also matches {{w|John C. Fremont|John C. Fremont}}, the runner-up to James Buchanan in 1856, as discussed by {{w|Peter Norvig}} at [http://nbviewer.ipython.org/url/norvig.com/ipython/xkcd1313.ipynb xkcd 1313: Regex Golf]. Note that Norvig provides a small amount of Python code which actually plays regex golf with arbitrary lists, and found a shorter solution than Randall's for the ''Star Wars'' vs ''Star Trek'' game.

== Transcript ==
:Regex golf:
:[Megan is sitting at a laptop. Cueball is standing behind her.]
:Megan: You try to match one group but not the other.
:Megan: /m | [tn]|b/ matches ''Star Wars'' subtitles but not ''Star Trek''.
:Cueball: Cool.

:Meta-regex golf:
:Megan: So I wrote a program that plays regex golf with arbitrary lists...
:Cueball: Uh oh...

:Meta-meta-regex golf:
:Megan: ...But I lost my code, so I'm grepping for files that look like regex golf solvers.

:...And beyond:
:Megan: Really, this is all /(meta-)*regex golf/.
:Cueball: Now you have ''infinite'' problems.
:Megan: No, I had those already.

== Trivia ==
*There are now at least four comics that references regular expressions. The other three are: [[208: Regular Expressions]], [[224: Lisp]] and [[1171: Perl Problems]].
*Additionally, regular expressions are mentioned in title text of [[1277: Ayn Random]].
*Also, Randall mentions [http://regex.alf.nu/ a website with a regexp golf game] he got distracted by while researching for the [http://what-if.xkcd.com/78/ 78th] episode of [[what if?]] (which was published one day after this comic).

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]

1313: Regex Golf

2014-02-02T17:02:25Z

Jlhollin: /* Regular expressions */

{{comic
| number = 1313
| date = January 6, 2014
| title = Regex Golf
| image = regex_golf.png
| titletext = <nowiki>/bu|[rn]t|[coy]e|[mtg]a|j|iso|n[hl]|[ae]d|lev|sh|[lnd]i|[po]o|ls/ matches the last names of elected US presidents but not their opponents.</nowiki>
}}

== Explanation ==
The comic talks about {{w|regular expressions}}, which are a way to specify textual patterns. Given a regular expression, one can search for the pattern it specifies inside a text string. If the pattern is found, it’s said that the pattern “matches” the string; if it's not found, it's said they do not match.

The title of the comic and the first panel is based on “[http://regex.alf.nu/ regex golf]”, which is a discipline of “{{w|code golf}}”, a game in which programmers attempt to solve a given programming problem using as few characters as possible, analogous to the number of {{w|golf}} shots it takes to reach the goal. In regex golfing, the programmer is given two sets of text fragments, and he/she tries to write the shortest possible regular expression which would match all elements of one set, while at the same time not matching any element from the other set.

The regex golf challenge Megan faces consists of matching all subtitles of ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' episodes, while not matching any subtitle of ''{{w|Star Trek}}'' episodes. ({{w|Subtitle (titling)|Subtitles}} are the secondary titles of the movies, after the ''“Star Trek: ”'' or ''“Star Wars Episode N: ”''. For example, in ''Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'', the subtitle is ''The Phantom Menace''.) In the first panel, she created a 12-character regex solving the challenge.

Then she moved on to building a tool which would automatically build such a regex for arbitrary lists of text, which could be described as {{w|meta}}- regex golfing. But as she has lost this tool, she needs to search through her files and chooses a tool called “{{w|grep}}” to find it. This implies that she needs a regular expression that would find any code that appears to be a regex golf generator, which leads to another “meta-” layer of abstraction. At the end, Megan notes this sequence of meta-meta-... might go to infinity and Cueball quips that she now has “infinite problems” as a result of her efforts; Megan retorts that she already had "infinite problems" because she's geeky enough to run meta-versions of programs on themselves, and stubborn enough to continue on until she fails, to the exclusion of all else. This also seems to be a reference to a famous quote (see also ''[[1171: Perl Problems]]''):

<blockquote>''Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I'll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems.''</blockquote>

===Regular expressions===
The first regex Megan uses is <code>/m | [tn]|b/</code>, said to match ''Star Wars'' subtitles but not ''Star Trek''.

The forward slashes <code>/</code> just mark the start and end of the regex. The <code>|</code> character means “or”, so the regex matches any string that contains the patterns “<code>m </code>”, “<code> [tn]</code>” or “<code>b</code>” (including the spaces). The square brackets match one of the enclosed characters, meaning that “<code> [tn]</code>” matches either “<code> t</code>” or “<code> n</code>”. The regex is apparently case-insensitive, because it wouldn't work otherwise.

The Star Wars subtitles match the parts of the regex in the following way:
* “The Phantom Menace” is matched by “<code>m </code>”.
* “Attack of the Clones” is matched by “<code> [tn]</code>”.
* “Revenge of the Sith” is matched by “<code> [tn]</code>”.
* “A New Hope” is matched by “<code> [tn]</code>”.
* “The Empire Strikes Back” is matched by “<code>b</code>”.
* “Return of the Jedi” is matched by “<code> [tn]</code>”.
Note if one included the animated film “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” it would be matched by “<code> [tn]</code>”.

On the other hand, none of the Star Trek subtitles contains an M followed by a space, a T or an N preceded by a space, or any B, so the regex does not match any of them. Note that in the original series all subtitles start with a “T” but it's the first character so it's not preceded by a space.

Here is the list that Megan probably used:
* Original series:
** The Motion Picture
** The Wrath of Khan
** The Search For Spock
** The Voyage Home
** The Final Frontier
** The Undiscovered Country
* The Next Generation:
** Generations
** First Contact
** Insurrection
** Nemesis
* Reboot series:
** ''the one without a subtitle''
** Into Darkness

In the last panel “and beyond” Megan uses the regular expression <code>/(meta-)*regex golf/</code> to describe her problem. <code>*</code> means “zero or more” of the preceding character/group (parentheses <code>()</code> group characters). So this regex matches “regex golf”, “meta-regex golf”, “meta-meta-regex golf”, etc. In a way this is regex golf in itself, matching all levels of meta-regex golf while not matching anything else.

In the title text, there is a long regex that is the solution of another regex golf challenge: matching the last names of all elected US presidents but not their opponents. Note that the list of opponents include some people who were previously or later became presidents, so taken literally this is impossible. To make this work the list of opponents must exclude anyone who was also president. The regular expression itself works in a very similar way to the Star Wars/Trek one, including several different patterns separated by <code>|</code>. Each elected president matches one pattern while each opponent matches none.

Here is a list of elected president and the patterns they match:
{| class="wikitable"
!Number
!President
!Matched expression
|-
|1
|{{w|George Washington|George Washington}}
|<code>sh</code>
|-
|2
|{{w|John Adams|John Adams}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|3
|{{w|Thomas Jefferson|Thomas Jefferson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|4
|{{w|James Madison|James Madison}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|5
|{{w|James Monroe|James Monroe}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|6
|{{w|John Quincy Adams|John Quincy Adams}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|7
|{{w|Andrew Jackson|Andrew Jackson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|8
|{{w|Martin Van Buren|Martin Van Buren}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|9
|{{w|William Henry Harrison|William Henry Harrison}}
|<code>iso</code>
|-
|11
|{{w|James K. Polk|James K. Polk}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|12
|{{w|Zachary Taylor|Zachary Taylor}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|14
|{{w|Franklin Pierce|Franklin Pierce}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|15
|{{w|James Buchanan|James Buchanan}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|16
|{{w|Abraham Lincoln|Abraham Lincoln}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|17
|{{w|Andrew Johnson|Andrew Johnson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|18
|{{w|Ulysses S. Grant|Ulysses S. Grant}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|19
|{{w|Rutherford B. Hayes|Rutherford B. Hayes}}
|<code>[coy]e</code>
|-
|20
|{{w|James A. Garfield|James A. Garfield}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|22
|{{w|Grover Cleveland|Grover Cleveland}}
|<code>lev</code>
|-
|23
|{{w|Benjamin Harrison|Benjamin Harrison}}
|<code>iso</code>
|-
|24
|{{w|Grover Cleveland|Grover Cleveland}}
|<code>lev</code>
|-
|25
|{{w|William McKinley|William McKinley}}
|<code>n[hl]</code>
|-
|26
|{{w|Theodore Roosevelt|Theodore Roosevelt}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|27
|{{w|William Howard Taft|William Howard Taft}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|28
|{{w|Woodrow Wilson|Woodrow Wilson}}
|<code>ls</code>
|-
|29
|{{w|Warren G. Harding|Warren G. Harding}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|30
|{{w|Calvin Coolidge|Calvin Coolidge}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|31
|{{w|Herbert Hoover|Herbert Hoover}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|32
|{{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin D. Roosevelt}}
|<code>[po]o</code>
|-
|33
|{{w|Harry S. Truman|Harry S. Truman}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|34
|{{w|Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight D. Eisenhower}}
|<code>n[hl]</code>
|-
|35
|{{w|John F. Kennedy|John F. Kennedy}}
|<code>[ae]d</code>
|-
|36
|{{w|Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon B. Johnson}}
|<code>j</code>
|-
|37
|{{w|Richard Nixon|Richard Nixon}}
|<code>[lnd]i</code>
|-
|39
|{{w|Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|40
|{{w|Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|-
|41
|{{w|George H. W. Bush|George H. W. Bush}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|42
|{{w|Bill Clinton|Bill Clinton}}
|<code>[rn]t</code>
|-
|43
|{{w|George W. Bush|George W. Bush}}
|<code>bu</code>
|-
|44
|{{w|Barack Obama|Barack Obama}}
|<code>[mtg]a</code>
|}

Note that some presidents are missing because they weren't elected but became presidents after the resignation/death of their formers.

Note also that Randall's regular expression must be modified slightly, because it also matches {{w|John C. Fremont|John C. Fremont}}, the runner-up to James Buchanan in 1856, as discussed by {{w|Peter Norvig}} at [http://nbviewer.ipython.org/url/norvig.com/ipython/xkcd1313.ipynb xkcd 1313: Regex Golf]. Note that Norvig provides a small amount of Python code which actually plays regex golf with arbitrary lists, and found a shorter solution than Randall's for the ''Star Wars'' vs ''Star Trek'' game.

== Transcript ==
:Regex golf:
:[Megan is sitting at a laptop. Cueball is standing behind her.]
:Megan: You try to match one group but not the other.
:Megan: /m | [tn]|b/ matches ''Star Wars'' subtitles but not ''Star Trek''.
:Cueball: Cool.

:Meta-regex golf:
:Megan: So I wrote a program that plays regex golf with arbitrary lists...
:Cueball: Uh oh...

:Meta-meta-regex golf:
:Megan: ...But I lost my code, so I'm grepping for files that look like regex golf solvers.

:...And beyond:
:Megan: Really, this is all /(meta-)*regex golf/.
:Cueball: Now you have ''infinite'' problems.
:Megan: No, I had those already.

== Trivia ==
*There are now at least four comics that references regular expressions. The other three are: [[208: Regular Expressions]], [[224: Lisp]] and [[1171: Perl Problems]].
*Additionally, regular expressions are mentioned in title text of [[1277: Ayn Random]].
*Also, Randall mentions [http://regex.alf.nu/ a website with a regexp golf game] he got distracted by while researching for the [http://what-if.xkcd.com/78/ 78th] episode of [[what if?]] (which was published one day after this comic).

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]