34S Mini-Challenge : A to Z

[Nick]

Bob,

You were right -- I just showed this to someone and it was confusing to present it to them across two threads.

If you look at the library code though, it's maintained neatly with revision commentary. I think it's the separate discussion that's confusing which does belong here, but how can you tell when something like this can't be optimized further?

I considered brute-forcing the problem, trying a number of potential iterations over a cluster computer but that would be cheating. (It worked for Google and the Rubik's Cube.)

Thanks,
Nick

Edit: Was more confusing than I had realized.