The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[enxio27]

gsf (or anyone else who knows): I'm looking now at the gsf sudoku solver/generator with a view to trying my hand at generating some puzzles. I may or may not give the Patterns Game a try, as well, but my primary interest is in attempting to generate puzzles to cobble together into other variants (samurai and other gattai, clueless specials/explosions, etc.).

I'm reviewing the sudoku.html file that describes the command line options for the program, but I'm having trouble making sense of them (possibly because of some terminology I'm not familiar with). I've been playing with it, but not getting the desired result.

I tried one of the commands verbatim from the sudoku.html file:

sudoku -gb299 -f '%#ec' -o 299.sudz

But got the following error:

sudoku: sudz SUDZ_WRITE open failure

I also tried to form my own command, as follows, but instead of getting 100 puzzles of the same pattern as the puzzle in the template file, I got only the pattern form in As (representing givens) and 0s (representing unsolved cells). Here is the command line I used (I also tried varying the order of options, input file, and export file, to no avail):

sudoku <template.txt -gm -n100 -u -o output.txt

What am I doing wrong? Is there additional documentation for the program that is located somewhere other than gsf's Google drive?

[Pat]

try this

sudoku -gt -n100 -qNF <template.txt >output.txt

(if problem persists, please show us your template.txt)

[enxio27]

Thanks, Pat! That worked.

I'm still not very clear on the list of solution techniques. I understand F, N, B, T, H, W, X, Y, and G, but not K, O, Z, P, or Q. I'm trying to relate those to what I see in the list of techniques in Sudopedia, but not getting very far.

Also, why would I not want to use -u in the command line? And how do I enforce minimalism and non-isomorphism? Or are those built in?

[tarek]

The K and O are part of the solving techniques and are at the end of what gsf's sudoku offers before Guessing. They are complex and therefore wouldn't stand out as a tool for the manual solver. Closest thing to compare with is POM. Gsf's sudoku doesn't employ uniqueness based solving techniques.

I'm not sure what the rest of the symbols mean in the context of solving techniques.

Tarek

[Pat]

i only know a few of his options


don't recall what -u does,
so evidently i don't use it
{EDIT:}
now i see

-u
Verify that there is exactly one puzzle solution.
By default searching stops at the first solution.
yet i never use it---
{/EDIT}


minimal --
add this filter

-e1==minimal

actually i use


-e(23==clues)*(1==minimal)
to enforce 23 givens AND minimal
(you do know the number of givens in your template)


isomorphs --
may be some option which i don't know --
i end up with a separate pass to canonicalize --


sudoku -qNF -f_%%#0c,%%v <puzzles.TXT >canonicalized.CSV

[enxio27]

The K and O are part of the solving techniques and are at the end of what gsf's sudoku offers before Guessing.

Right. Are Z, P, and Q considered guessing, also?

They are complex and therefore wouldn't stand out as a tool for the manual solver.

What about for purposes of the Patterns Game?

I'm not sure what the rest of the symbols mean in the context of solving techniques.

There's a description of each in the sudoku.html man document, but I don't understand all of the terminology, and Google is not my friend in that regard.

Z seems to be ronk's creation, but it appears he hasn't been here in almost two years.

[enxio27]

minimal --
add this filter

-e1==minimal

Thanks!

actually i use

-e(23==clues)*(1==minimal)

to enforce 23 givens AND minimal
(you do know the number of givens in your template)

Would not specifying a template also enforce the number of givens?

isomorphs --
may be some option which i don't know --
i end up with a separate pass to canonicalize --

sudoku -qNF -f_%%#0c,%%v <puzzles.TXT >canonicalized.CSV

[/list]

Thanks! I'll have to play with this, unless someone knows of another option to do it in the first pass.

[StrmCkr]

http://gsf.cococlyde.org/download/sudoku

Specifically this file has all the tacimony for gsf solver
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwwKLhARRO-BLV9RR3hGSTJWV2s/view

Hope it helps.

[Pat]

actually i use

-e(23==clues)*(1==minimal)

to enforce 23 givens AND minimal

Would not specifying a template
also enforce the number of givens?

some of the generated puzzles
do NOT quite fill the specified template

[Pat]

Z seems to be ronk's creation

-qZ is the fish finder,
added by ronk

finds complex fish
(types not found by -qBW)

[Pat]

isomorphs --
i end up with a separate pass to canonicalize

that's silly,
of course the canonical form is available in the same pass

putting it all together --

sudoku -gt -qNF -e(23==clues)*(1==minimal) -n100 -f%%v,_%%#0c <template.TXT >output.CSV

[enxio27]

http://gsf.cococlyde.org/download/sudoku

Specifically this file has all the tacimony for gsf solver
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwwKLhARRO-BLV9RR3hGSTJWV2s/view

Hope it helps.

Thanks! As I mentioned in the top post in this thread, I have that file, but I'm having a little trouble making sense of it. I was hoping for more documentation somewhere.

[tarek]

The Sudoku Man file can be generated from the main file as well. It may be collated and formatted in a better way than the HTML file provided in the link. This can change depending on which version of the software is being used (gsf has been kind enough to update it frequently based on requests/advances in techniques at the time)

There are a few examples at the bottom of the help file to assist in understanding how the program works

Tarek

[enxio27]

The Sudoku Man file can be generated from the main file as well. It may be collated and formatted in a better way than the HTML file provided in the link.

Saw that also--formatting of the man file isn't the issue.

There are a few examples at the bottom of the help file to assist in understanding how the program works

I saw those, but they aren't helping much.

I have the program generating puzzles according to a template (input file). I'm having trouble with getting it to canonicalize (but keep the same pattern) and sort accordingly. I'm also having trouble with understanding all of the options for formatting the output (-f). And I still don't see a way to enforce non-isomorphism.

[StrmCkr]

I have an email some where from gsf on how to use the commands with good explanations it take some digging to find it from 6 years back... Haven't used his program in a long time.. But If I find it I'll post what I do find.