kcycle

kcycle is a command-line utility designed for managing and manipulating cycle-based data structures in computer programming. It allows users to represent and interact with circular arrangements of elements, often found in algorithms, data structures like linked lists with a circular component, or specific problem-solving scenarios. The core functionality of kcycle revolves around defining, traversing, and modifying these cyclical sequences.

Users can initialize a kcycle structure by specifying the total number of elements and the starting point. The tool provides operations to move forward or backward through the cycle, wrapping around when reaching the end or beginning, respectively. This is analogous to pointer manipulation in a circular linked list but abstracted for easier use. Furthermore, kcycle supports operations like retrieving the element at a specific position within the cycle, or determining the distance between two elements.

The primary use cases for kcycle lie in scenarios where problems naturally exhibit a cyclic pattern. This can include simulations where entities move in a fixed, repeating order, or optimization problems that involve iterating through a set of choices in a round-robin fashion. By providing a dedicated tool for cycle management, kcycle aims to simplify the implementation of algorithms that rely on such structures, reducing the potential for off-by-one errors or incorrect wrapping logic that can be common when implementing these manually. Its command-line interface makes it suitable for scripting and integration into larger workflows.