Problem 820. Eliminate unnecessary polygon vertices

any hints on how to reduce the size of this thing?

Hi Anton, here's a hint: You're chopping down P then taking the difference between itself and its circshift. This is very close to just a simple diff() command. Circshift is a useful function, but not quite where you've got it ;)

Think of it this way:
A diff() will get vectors from one point to the next. If any neighbouring vectors point in the exact same direction, they are fair game to remove. More specifically, whenever the direction of the line *changes*, you've found a vertex you want to keep. How can you detect that?