HN user
It is equivalent because it's not a plus-scan but a (0^+)-scan which resets every time it hits a null (there's a more in depth explanation here https://robertandrewspencer.com/aoc_2022_1/ )
Perhaps q did both force you to consider what was happening, and hide it from you...
It was intended to split a list of `int|None` into its non-none stretches. Much like how `string.split('x')` splits a string by matching the character 'x'
I had a similar thought a few years ago with an Advent of Code problem for which my solution in python might have been
max(map(sum, input_list.split(None)))
The author would probably suggest rust's syntax* of
values.iter().split(None).map(Iterator::sum).max().unwrap_or(0)
max((0^+)\)l
If you want to read a sci-fi drawing from it, I'm surprised to see no-one yet mention Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Without spoiling too much, it asks what would happen if the bicameral mind could be reconstructed.
Has this result appeared in any publications yet? It should be pretty easy to check, as the post says, but I'm curious to know if it will be written up. I'd be interested to see how they found the particular chunk of agar and whether there was evidence suggesting they look there.