Category Archives: Open Source

Articles about open source projects

Solving Knifflidiffels – Scramble Squares With Duplicate Cards

I recently stumbled upon a type of game that is not uncommon here in Germany. It is called a Scramble Squares puzzle (in German “Legespiel”). One of the most popular ones is called Knifflidiffels by Diddl. Similar pictures have to be put together. The different versions involving the cute mouse are not only very suitable for beginners, but also introduce another interesting aspect: duplicate cards.

Juggling with Trees – How to Layout Hierarchical Information Compactly

Hierarchical information is everywhere: Family trees, organizational charts, taxonomies or product breakdown structures. A good graphical representation can convey a lot of information very quickly. However, creating such a drawing manually is cumbersome. This article will show how such a task can be performed automatically.

Rounding Errors And Arbitrary Precision Arithmetic

The computer computes. Plus, minus, times and sometimes even divide. The results are always correct. Really? Computers usually use floating point numbers, which are very flexible, but still can cause quite substantial rounding errors – at least when you are doing complex calculations with many steps. These small inaccuracies can accumulate and become a creeping poison. Arbitrary precision arithmetic offers a way out.