[VA] My 2024's very first little teaser

[PeterP]

Ok, assuming that i got the rules correct (which is a big assumption and if I have not I do apply for forgiveness), here is my attempt.
It is not pushing things into as few lines as possible as I was taught as a young kid at CERN that my code has to be readable easily if I want to survive there.... I think if one wanted to, the code could be squished into 4 lines, but it wont be pretty and I certainly would have a hard time understanding it)

10 Option Base 0 @ Dim A(2,2), B(2,2), C(5), D(5), X1(1), D2(1)
20 Mat B = ZER @ Mat D = CON @ Mat D2 = CON @ Mat Input A
30 For y = 0 to 3 Step 3
40 For x = 0 to 2 @ X1(0) = x
50 For i = 0 to 2 @ X1(1) = i
60 B(i,i) = A(i, Mod (dot(XI,D2),3))
70 Next i
80 X1(1)=y @ C(dot(X1,D2)) = Det(B)
90 Next x //
100 Mat A = TRN(A) @ For i = 0 to 2 @ Varswap A(0,i),A(2,i) @ Next i
110 Next y
120 Disp Dot(C,D) @ End

This, upon run, and entering the variables from the matrix, delivers the expected result -36

(The code uses the dot product extensively to add two numbers and det to calculate a product).

Cheers, Peter.