Advent of Code 2024 day 11 part 1

from sys import argv


def parse(src):
    '''Convert the input to a list of integers.'''
    return [int(x) for x in src.split()]


def step(stones):
    '''Perform one blink.'''
    new_stones = list()
    for stone in stones:
        if stone == 0:
            new_stones.append(1)
            continue

        stone_str = str(stone)
        if len(stone_str) % 2 == 0:
            middle = len(stone_str) // 2
            new_stones += [int(stone_str[:middle]), int(stone_str[middle:])]

        else:
            new_stones.append(stone * 2024)

    return new_stones


def main(stones):
    '''Perform 25 blinks and return the total number of stones.'''
    for _ in range(25):
        stones = step(stones)

    return len(stones)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    # pass the path to the puzzle input as the first argument
    print(main(parse(open(argv[1]).read())))