Simple Sudoku - Puzzle maker and solver for Windows

rossburnett · Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 4:49 pm Post subject: Suggestion on hints

SS is the best solver I've seen and I appreciate the new version requiring XYwing and multi-color methods for extreme puzzles.

One thing I would like to see is another type of hint that just names the technique but does not highlight the solution.

Thanks for the great program, Angus.

angusj · Site Admin

lio · Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 11:03 pm Post subject:

Hi Angus,

Thanks for Simple Sudoku program!
I have made translation of the program into Russian and Ukrainian language.
If you want, you can use them in SS.
http://www.biblprog.org.ua/langv/russian.zip
http://www.biblprog.org.ua/langv/ukrainian.zip

angusj · Site Admin

falcons75scp

Angus,

I have been using Simple Sudoku as an aid, puzzle generator and teaching tool for a few months now. Thanks for creating such a useful program. It is indeed excellent.

I wonder if this idea is worth the time to implement, if you should decide to create a new version - AND whether or not this idea is even worth considering in the first place.

The show candidates option is indeed useful, but it seems to me that there should be a time penalty for using it in complete puzzles (17 given numbers or more). What I mean is, that if we were doing the candidate list (manually) for each blank cell it would take some number of minutes. It also stands to reason that the more numbers that we can solve on our own before starting a candidate list for the remaining blank cells, the less time that this chore would take. In other words, the time required is proportional to the number of remaining blank cells.

For example. I am kind of slow when I work puzzles manually. But let's say it takes me 18 to 21 minutes to fill in the candidate list for a typical moderate or hard puzzle with 25 to 28 given numbers. If I wait until I solved 8 to 10 numbers before I start the candidate list for blank cells, it might take me a few minutes less to fill in the blank cells with candidates.

So, what I am asking..........it possible to modify the timer function for complete puzzles so that a time penalty is added to reflect at least a portion of the time that filling in the candidate list would have taken?

Again, I am asking for this for complete puzzles only (17 candidates or more). When using Simple Sudoku as an aid for solving Killer Sudoku puzzles, there is so little (initial) benefit for that variant of sudoku because there are generally so few given numbers to start with that the candidate list for most cells is quite large and the user needs to exclude them manually anyway.

Steve

angusj · Site Admin

BerndMZ · Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 12:54 pm Post subject: Wrong message "Invalid move!".

Hi Angus.

Simple Sudoku 4.1z would say "Invalid move!" when I think the move actually is not invalid.

I had a solved sudoku on paper like this:

rkral

angusj · Site Admin

frobozzz

I have recently started using this program and really enjoy using it, I'm still learning its features and uses, so this may be my fault and not the programs'.

I've noticed while playing a number of puzzles an odd behavior. After I select a number of cells and right click to eliminate pencil marks, it doesn't give me the option to "Exclude several..." when that is exactly what I want to do. I work around this by doing multiple individual number excludes, but wonder why I can't do them all at once? (Most times it allows multiple excludes, but not always.)

I haven't updated to your version 4.1z since I like the highlighted unique candidate feature. Perhaps this is already fixed. (Is there a list of changes between versions?) It's no big deal to flip the digit filtering on and off to spot a single candidate so I don't see the bolding as a big give-away. Maybe it couold be a selectable feature?

Hope to clear this up, and thanks for a really nice implementation of Sudoku assistance.

Larry

angusj · Site Admin

BrucklynBoy · Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 12:49 pm Post subject: new 4.1z - missing sth.

Hi!

Thanks for creating SimpleSudoku! Very Happy

But in the latest version 4.1z I'm missing the bold singles feature. Will that return in a future version?

Thanks!

angusj · Site Admin

rkral · Last edited by rkral on Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:45 pm; edited 1 time in total

[edit: As I wasn't even aware of an "Exclude several ..." selection, my post was off the mark.]

frobozzz