The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[LeiSuLin]

I paid for one program that does provide a fair amount of help on solving, but its repertoire seems somewhat limited. Also, it seems to have a hierarchy of techniques to try and tries them in order, so, if the puzzle contained multiple techniques at a given point that would work to make progress toward solving the puzzle, it would offer only one. What I need to help me is a solver with a very wide repertoire of techniques that it searches for in a position (esp., if possible, all the multifarious varieties of fish), that can recommend a technique at a given point without showing me where the pattern is found in the puzzle, so I can try to find it on my own to help train myself, or, if I fail to find it, can then go ahead and tell me where the darned thing is...is there a solver out there like what I've describe that anyone can recommend?

[Luke]

Not everyone's cup of tea, but Sudoku Solver by Andrew Stuart has several of the features you're looking for. You can toggle different techniques on or off and force the solver to search for the one you're interested in. You can also back it up after it has shown the next step so you can try to find it yourself.

[Glyn]

LeiSuLin JSudoku and Sudocue have a hint facility. Although both operate with a hierarchy of solving techniques the order can be changed by the user at any time. So if you fancy looking for a more complex technique, promoting that temporarily in the list will force that to be looked for. The amount of information revealed can be terse or detailed. Both programs handle variants as well. Sudocue is Windows only, JSudoku will run on anything with a Java environment.

To see 'almost' everthing available Sudoku Explainer (also for the Java Environment) is a good bet, but it gives clues rather than hints. It is used as a benchmark for assessing the difficulty of grid as well.

The clincher is that they are available at no charge.

[LeiSuLin]

Thanks a lot. One or more of those mentioned should do the trick.

[sarker306]

I went to a sudocafe. Waiter said which u want to order? I ordered finned xwing, als xy wing, multicoloring, sue de coq.
Then waiter gave me a randomly generated puzzle which must use the techniques in solving path.
Any freeware with such feature? It would help the beginners.

[StrmCkr]

there is several types of solvers out there. depends on what you want it to do...

compare solutions paths (get many)
they all different by what order they are programed in.. and what is programed in them..


simple sudoku. http://angusj.com/sudoku/

Sudocue : http://www.sudocue.net/

sudoku explainer:
(mentioned above) getting old works well though missing some newer stuff.

hudoku: http://hodoku.sourceforge.net/

this will generate puzzle with specific moves in it. i would contact hobiwan how to due it...

{latest and being updated alot
keep up the good work hobiwan!! }

( im liking hobiwans newest one very user friendly you can change the order of techniques or find alternative paths!)

[hobiwan]

sarker306, the problem with creating puzzles that contain specific steps is that the result depends greatly on the ordering of the techniques in the solver. That said: HoDoKu can search for puzzles with specific steps in batch mode, although every generated puzzle will contain only one of the steps.

If you want to search for the techniques you mentioned above, use the jar version of the solver (arguments are case sensitive!):

Code: Select all

java -Xmx512m -jar hodoku-1.1.jar /s /sc fbf2:1,xy:1,mc:1,sdc:1 /o result.txt

If you replace :1 with :2 the advanced technique will reduce the puzzle to singles, if you use :3 it will be the first technique after singles.

If you want to use the GUI version start HoDoKu, set the level of the steps you want to Medium and give them an unrealistically large score (say 2000). Set the score for easy level to 2000 and for medium level to 10000. If you create a medium puzzle it will be guaranteed to contain at least one of your steps (use View|Summary to see immediately if the new puzzle suits you).

The second way will work with SudoCue too (I shamelessly copied much of its GUI features since they are really well done).

edit: With both methods you should move Multi Colors and Sue de Coq further up the solver hierarchy to get more hits.