PIsaacson wrote:But I disagree with Don that there was absolutely no direction for the manual solver. As compared to what? Reading the original Epstein paper "Nonrepetitive Paths and Cycles in Graphs with Application to Sudoku" to understand b/b plots for construction of NLs or AICs? We're talking about fairly advanced techniques here regardless of whether you want to pursue nrczt, nice-loops or AICs.
Paul
Paul, just for the purposes of clarifying what the book is & what it is not, I think the question you raised needs a response. If the book were, say, $15-20, then I might say to the manual solver who wants to try everything, go for it. But the 'compared to what' as far as the manual solver is concerned are the various tutorials at various sites and material on the 2 main forums over that last 3-4 years that show illustrated examples (both text & graphic based) of manually-derived solutions using advanced techniques. I didn't read Epstein's paper to become familiar with NLs & AICs and other advanced methods, I got the information that is freely available from the above sources.
In The Hidden Logic of Sudoku, the reader interested in finding something of use for the manual solver has to take it on trust that the methods are useful for that purpose because there is no evidence that they are insofar that everything is solved with a computer solver. However, if there is something there for the manual solver, he/she will be best served by a mind strong on mathematics in general & logic theory in particular. Just sayin...
