DB asked the following question on Ask, and it shall be given # 7:
Lars H: This was what I wrote to address a similar problem a couple of years ago. The code is documented using docstrip and tclldoc, so all the comments are in LaTeX code, but I switched to # comments here so it should be directly sourcable.
The problem to solve here is not the general packing problem, but rather the problem of where to place a rectangle on top of a given arrangement of rectangles so that it obscures as little as possible (no attempt to rotate). By assigning a weight, that decreases over time, to each of the existing rectangles, one can introduce an incentive for the routine to pick a placement that mostly covers old material.
# This procedure computes a position for a new rectangle with given # width and height that such that the weight of the covered area is # minimised. # The call syntax is # \begin{quote} # |best_rectangle_position| \word{boundary} \word{old rectangles} # \word{width} \word{height} \word{visible-var}\regopt # \end{quote} # and the return value is the pair $(x,y)$ of coordinates for the # new value. The \word{boundary} is a rectangle in the form of a # list # \begin{quote} # \word{min-x} \word{min-y} \word{max-x} \word{max-y} # \end{quote} # within which the new rectangle should be positioned. The # \word{old rectangles} is a list of lists with the structure # \begin{quote} # \word{min-x} \word{min-y} \word{max-x} \word{max-y} # \word{weight} # \end{quote} # where the first four elements are integer coordinates of the # sides of the rectangle, and the \word{weight} is a double that will # be multiplied by the area of this rectangle. The order of the # rectangles is assumed to be from bottom to top, so that later # rectangles cover earlier ones. The \word{width} and \word{height} # are of course the sides of the new rectangle to position. # # The \word{visible-var} is, if specified, # the name of a variable in the calling context that will be set to # the list of indices of those \word{old rectangles} which are not # completely covered by other rectangles. A |-1| in this list means # that some part of the window is not covered by any rectangle. # # From a strictly mathematical prespective, the problem considered # here is to find a global minimum of ``covered area counted with # weight'' seen as a function of position. This function is # piecewise bilinear and thus possible to optimise through the # general method of checking all critical points, all singular # points, and all boundary points, but in view of (i) the # bilinearity and (ii) the rather large number of singular points # (typically, every boundary of a rectangle will be a set of # singular points), it seems unlikely that there will be any # minimum in a critical point that is not attained also in some # boundary point. (Possibly this can even be proved, but I don't # really have the patience to work it out right now.) Hence the # procedure follows the simpler algorithm of locating all # coordinate values where there may be a boundary and finds the # minimum among these; maybe it isn't completely optimal, but I # suspect it will be good enough. proc best_rectangle_position {boundary oldL width height {visiblevar ""}} { # The first step is to find the $x$- and $y$-coordinates of points # where there may be a boundary. This is (surprisingly?) simple. set xL [list [lindex $boundary 0] [lindex $boundary 2]] set yL [list [lindex $boundary 1] [lindex $boundary 3]] foreach rect $oldL { foreach {x1 y1 x2 y2 w} $rect break lappend xL $x1 $x2; lappend yL $y1 $y2 } set xL [lsort -integer -unique $xL] set yL [lsort -integer -unique $yL] # The next step is to construct a description of the existing # tiling. Since all boundaries are present in |xL| and |yL|, the # cartesian product of these two contain not only all corners of # the rectangles, but also all corners of the visible parts of the # rectangles. This means |xL| and |yL| induce a partition of the # container rectangle into smaller rectangles such that each of # these are visible as part of precisely one of the rectangles from # |oldL|. This means that the weights of different parts of the # plane can be conveniently stored in a matrix. # # It is also convenient to precompute lists of the interval lengths # in the $x$- and $y$-axis partitions. set dxL [list]; set x0 [lindex $xL 0] foreach x1 [lrange $xL 1 end] { lappend dxL [expr {$x1-$x0}] set x0 $x1 } set dyL [list]; set y0 [lindex $yL 0] foreach y1 [lrange $yL 1 end] { lappend dyL [expr {$y1-$y0}] set y0 $y1 } # In order to be consistent about the order of indices, let it be # so that |lindex $weightM |$i$| |$j$ returns the weight associated # with points $(x,y)$ such that |lindex $xL |$i$\({}\leqslant x # \leqslant{}\)|lindex $xL |$i$|+1| and |lindex $yL |$j$\({} # \leqslant x \leqslant{}\)|lindex $yL |$j$|+1|. set weightM [lrepeat [llength $dxL] [lrepeat [llength $dyL] 0.0]] set visM [lrepeat [llength $dxL] [lrepeat [llength $dyL] -1]] # Now go through the list of rectangles and update the weight for # those elements which are covered (here is thus where we rely on # the stacking order). A trick that is used (and will be reused # below) is to first compile lists of the index elements which are # of interest here, and then |foreach| over these lists, rather # than to use a |for|. set rcount 0 foreach old_rect $oldL { foreach {x1 y1 x2 y2 weight} $old_rect break set iL [list]; set i 0 foreach x $xL { if {$x >= $x1 && $x < $x2} then {lappend iL $i} incr i } set jL [list]; set j 0 foreach y $yL { if {$y >= $y1 && $y < $y2} then {lappend jL $j} incr j } foreach i $iL { foreach j $jL { lset weightM $i $j $weight lset visM $i $j $rcount } } incr rcount } # As an optimisation, a second matrix giving the weighted areas for # each little rectangle is computed as well. These will be needed # comparatively often. set wgtaM [list] foreach column $weightM dx $dxL { set c2 [list] foreach w $column dy $dyL { lappend c2 [expr {$w * $dx * $dy}] } lappend wgtaM $c2 } # Now we get to the loop over all possible placements of the # rectangle and the evaluation of which is best. An important part # of this work is carried out by |interval_positions|, which is # first used to find all possible positions on each axis. The parts # of computing weighted areas can then be handled by two nested # loops. # # In case several positions would cover the same minimal weighted # area (which is not entirely unlikely if the rectangles being # covered are large in comparison to the rectangle to position), # then the area of the smallest rectangle with one corner at a # boundary corner and containing the postitioned rectangle is used # as a tie-breaker. This has the effect of choosing more peripheral # positions whenever possible. The so far best weighted area is # kept in |best|, whereas the associated peripherial area is kept # in |best2|. set ipL [interval_positions $xL $width] set jpL [interval_positions $yL $height] set best infinity; set best2 infinity set midx [expr { ([lindex $boundary 2] - $width + [lindex $boundary 0]) / 2 }] set midy [expr { ([lindex $boundary 3] - $height + [lindex $boundary 1]) / 2 }] foreach ip $ipL { foreach jp $jpL { set area 0 foreach i [lindex $ip 2] { foreach j [lindex $jp 2] { set area [expr {$area + [lindex $wgtaM $i $j]}] } foreach {j dy} [lindex $jp 3] { set area [expr {$area + [lindex $weightM $i $j] * [lindex $dxL $i] * $dy }] } } foreach {i dx} [lindex $ip 3] { foreach j [lindex $jp 2] { set area [expr {$area + [lindex $weightM $i $j] * $dx * [lindex $dyL $j] }] } foreach {j dy} [lindex $jp 3] { set area [expr {$area + [lindex $weightM $i $j] * $dx * $dy }] } } if {$area <= $best} then { set area2 [expr { ( [lindex $ip 0]<$midx ? [lindex $ip 1] - [lindex $boundary 0] : [lindex $boundary 2] - [lindex $ip 0] ) * ( [lindex $jp 0]<$midy ? [lindex $jp 1] - [lindex $boundary 1] : [lindex $boundary 3] - [lindex $jp 0] ) }] if {$area < $best || $area==$best && $area2<$best2} then { set ip0 $ip; set jp0 $jp set best $area set best2 $area2 } } } } # Finally, if visibility information is requested then the # positioned rectangle is imposed here and the result is returned. if {$visiblevar ne ""} then { foreach i [lindex $ip0 2] { foreach j [lindex $jp0 2] { lset visM $i $j [llength $oldL] } } uplevel 1 [list ::set $visiblevar [ lsort -unique -integer [eval [list concat] $visM] ]] } return [list [lindex $ip0 0] [lindex $jp0 0]] } # The |interval_positions| procedure is a helper for # |best_rectangle_position| that determines all the intervals of a # given length that have one endpoint in a given partition. This is # the one-dimensional analogue of placing a rectangle with one # corner in one of the given points, and is applied separately to # the $x$- and $y$-coordinates. # # The call syntax is # \begin{quote} # |interval_positions| \word{partition} \word{length} # \end{quote} # where \word{partition} is a (sorted) list of points (numbers) # in the partition and \word{length} is the length of the interval # which should be positioned. The return value is the list of all # possible positions. A position is a list # \begin{quote} # \word{lower endpoint} \word{upper endpoint} # \word{fully covered} \word{partially covered} # \end{quote} # where \word{lower endpoint} and \word{upper endpoint} are the # endpoints of the interval at this position. # \word{fully covered} is a list of indices (of intervals # in the partition, i.e., indices into \word{partition}) for those # intervals which are completely covered in this position, and # \word{partially covered} is a list with the structure # \begin{quote} # \begin{regblock}[\regstar]\word{index} \word{width}\end{regblock} # \end{quote} # where each \word{index} is an index of a partially covered # interval and the \word{width} is the width of the covered part of # that interval. There are typically zero or one such pair in this # list. # # The main loop simply goes through all the points of the # partition, first looking backwards from and point and then # forwards. In between, the index counter |n| of the interval in # the partition that contains the current end of the positioned # interval is incremented. Positions without a partial overlap # interval are only added when looking forward. proc interval_positions {partL length} { set min [lindex $partL 0] set max [lindex $partL end] set res [list] set n -1 foreach p $partL { if {$p - $length >= $min} then { set fullL [list] set c_prev 0 for {set m $n} {[ set covered [expr {$p - [lindex $partL $m]}] ] < $length} {incr m -1} { lappend fullL $m set c_prev $covered } if {$covered > $length} then { lappend res [list [expr {$p-$length}] $p $fullL\ [list $m [expr {$length - $c_prev}]]] } } incr n if {$p + $length <= $max} then { set fullL [list] set covered 0 for {set m $n}\ {[set q [lindex $partL [expr {$m+1}]]] < $p + $length}\ {incr m} { lappend fullL $m set covered [expr {$q - $p}] } lappend res [list $p [expr {$p+$length}] {} {}] if {$q == $p + $length} then { lappend fullL $m } else { lset res end 3 [list $m [expr {$length - $covered}]] } lset res end 2 $fullL } } set res }