November 1, 2025
Regexle vs Reality
RegEx Crossword
Fun brain teaser or impossible trap? Regex Crossword splits the crowd
TLDR: Regex Crossword, a pattern puzzle with color cues and saved progress, wowed some and frustrated others. The thread argues fun vs impossible, showcases a Z3 solver and a simpler Redoku, turning it into a showdown between human persistence and machine help.
Regex Crossword is back stirring brains and comments: it’s a grid you fill with letters so every row and diagonal matches pattern rules, with clues turning green when you nail it and red when you don’t. It even saves your progress, there’s a solution link, and the code’s by Jimb Esser. But the comments? Pure chaos. One fan gushes that it inspired the Wordle-style regexle.com and says it was a chill two-hour “afternoon well spent.” Then a skeptic crashes the party: “It seems impossible?” They point to a fiery clash of rules—one line starts with “F” while a diagonal seems to forbid it—sparking a mini referendum on how “full match” rules and empty-as-space actually work. The hottest twist: a power-user drops Z3 solver receipts, basically saying, “Let a math engine solve it,” which kicked off jokes about bringing robots to a word fight. For those backing away slowly, another commenter offers a gentler gateway puzzle, Redoku, and the crowd splits: masochists vs casuals, humans vs machines, fun vs frustration. Bonus drama: the page sneaks in a plug for a Steam brain-melter, QuantumPulse 2A—because why not add more temptation.
Key Points
- •RegEx Crossword is a hex-based puzzle where each sequence must fully match provided regex clues.
- •Clues change appearance to show status: bold green when satisfied, red when not, underlined when active.
- •Empty cells are treated as spaces for the purposes of regex matching.
- •The puzzle includes complex regex constructs, including character classes, alternations, quantifiers, and backreferences.
- •Implemented in JavaScript by Jimb Esser, with source code on GitHub; solution link provided and progress is saved.