DWITE Online Computer Programming Contest
January 2010
Problem 5
Ice Maze

Yes, it's a maze, but it's one of those fancy puzzle mazes where there is no friction on the floor and one must bump into walls to stop.

You will start at a point of interest, and must traverse to the next point in alphabetical order. You may only travel in straight lines, and will continue to slide until there is a # wall directly in front of the path. Once stopped, you can push off in any of 4 directions. Assume that the maze's boundary is surrounded by walls.

The objective is to stop at the target, not simply slide through it.

For example, in a distance of 13. Note that arrows are to illustrate the shortest path, and will not actually be in the data file. 

A>>>#
###v#
^>>B#
<<<v#
...##

The input file DATA5.txt will contain a single 10x10 maze as describe above.

The output file OUT5.txt will contain 5 integers, distance travelled from starting at a point of interest to stopping at the next. That is, sets A-B, B-C, C-D, D-E, E-F.

Sample Input: 
A....E...B
..........
..........
..........
..........
..........
F.........
#.........
......#...
.....D...C
Sample Output: 
9
9
16
9
11