The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Yogi]

How would I be able to access Sudoku Explainer so that I may get a more mainstream rating for puzzles I am looking at?
My non-geek attempts to download from Sourceforge got me something I don't think I want from NCH.

[1to9only]

The fastest program to an SE (SudokuExplainer) rating for a puzzle is: https://github.com/1to9only/PGExplainer. I use this in the Patterns Game.

For a GUI SudokuExplainer, there's this: https://github.com/1to9only/SukakuExplainer. It has my modifications to the original SE.

For another SE, there is: https://github.com/SudokuMonster/SukakuExplainer. This has a few solving techniques added.

The SourceForce you download is maybe this: https://sourceforge.net/projects/sudoku-explainer/. This has more solving techniques added.

The original SudokuExplainer.jar can be downloaded here: http://gsf.cococlyde.org/download/sudoku/. This runs slower than all the above!

[Yogi]

Thanx!
If I take the first option you mentioned, is it something I just download, or buy or use on the website?
I presume that to use it on the website I would have to register as a user and log in.

[Pupp]

In my experience, most sudoku programs for Windows and various collections, you just download. No registering or logging needed.

[Yogi]

Well I've succeeded in downloading and unzipping a folder called DiufSudoku_v6_30.207.2022-01-19

which contains lots of subfolders and files but I'm unable to make it work as a program in my windows 10 computer - no exe file that I can find.

[1to9only]

All the SE programs are written in Java language, to run the program jar file requires download and installation of the JRE (Java Runtime Environment).
I use Java8, download from https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/#java8. The latest release is jre-8u321.

For the GitHub SEs, there is usage info on the main project page, the jar file can be downloaded from the Releases section.
To run the GUI, e.g.

Code: Select all

java.exe -jar SukakuExplainer.jar


For the SourceForge SE, the jar file is in the dist folder. The documentation is buried somewhere! Edit: There is also a file named gui.bat in the extracted folder!
To run the GUI:

Code: Select all

java.exe -jar dist\DiufSudoku.jar SudokuExplainer.log


[Yogi]

Some progress, thanks. JRE8 has certainly allowed me to open & operate the program, which I think is the one from SourceForge. It will actually only open with a Command Prompt to the GUI, but I've simplified the process by creating a shortcut which triggers it directly through that. Funnily enough, I can't seem to place a start button for it in the taskbar. But never mind. I've got something that works.

Now the focus shifts to how useful the rating function is. Two questions come up.
Firstly, do the different versions of SE generally give a similar rating for a given human-solvable puzzle?
Secondly, are the offered ratings consistent? For example, my new SourceForge SE rates this puzzle as 10.3
when it came from a collection where the ratings are generally in the range 3.6 - 6.3. Seems a bit odd.
005000097800700000347005010060020000190000042000040050030100475000007001780000900

[m_b_metcalf]

Secondly, are the offered ratings consistent? For example, my new SourceForge SE rates this puzzle as 10.3
when it came from a collection where the ratings are generally in the range 3.6 - 6.3. Seems a bit odd.
005000097800700000347005010060020000190000042000040050030100475000007001780000900

With PGExplainer:

Code: Select all

005000097800700000347005010060020000190000042000040050030100475000007001780000900   ED=7.8/1.2/1.2

[1to9only]

SourceForge SE rates this puzzle as 10.3

The SourceForge SE is not much used here. The latest released version V6.30.207 has 34 techniques disabled, it rates the puzzle 10.3.

Code: Select all

Difficulty 10.30
 8 x NakedSingle 1.10
17 x HiddenSingle 1.30
 2 x Locking 2.40
 2 x TwoStringKite 3.50
 2 x W_Wing 3.60
 2 x EmptyRectangle 3.90
 1 x Coloring 4.50
 1 x XColoring 4.60
 2 x GEM 4.80
       1 x GEM Type 3 4.80
       1 x GEM Type 2 4.80
 1 x UniqueRectangle 4.90
 1 x DeathBlossom 6.30
 2 x UnaryChain 9.40
 1 x NishioChain 10.30


It rates the Nishio chain 10.3, when the other SEs rate Nishios in the range 7.5-8.2.
The ratings are consistent! Just the numbers used are different!!

[1to9only]

FWIW. Rather than reposting, see http://forum.enjoysudoku.com/post318934.html#p318934 for an explanation of the GitHub SEs ratings for Chains.

The equivalent ratings for the SourceForge SE are:

Code: Select all

UnaryChain       9.0
NishioChain     10.0
MultipleChain   11.0

DynamicChain    12.0
DynamicPlus     15.0
NestedUnary     20.0
NestedMultiple  25.0
NestedDynamic   30.0
NestedPlus      35.0


In the source code, it also notes:
// note that difficulty isn't proportional, just increasing.
// Generating a puzzle that contains a NestedPlus hint is impossible.
// It is NOT 35 times harder than a NakedSingle, it is impossible.

[Yogi]

Have now downloaded SukakuExplainer-1.18.1 but again I can’t make it work as a program.

Any ideas on where to find the starting exe file or how to activate it?

GitHub tells me I need to use the Command Line

java -cp SukakuExplainer.jar diuf.sudoku.test.serate –man

but it doesn’t work for me. Maybe I’m missing part of the instruction.

[eleven]

No answer by the experts ?
Did you get an error message ? [Edit: it was nonsense with DiufSolver.jar]
I am on linux, where it just works, so i don't know, if there are windows specifics.

[1to9only]

@Yogi had it working, then not working. Hopefully notes were taken to allow going back to a working state. Else restart.

[eleven]

That's interesting, because it was opposite for me. I installed it, called the -man option, and - nothing. I had another try with a copy in another directory - and it worked. That's why i assumed, it might have to do with the DiufSolver. I tried again in the other directory, and it worked. So my reasoning was, that i probably did something wrong the first time.
I have no idea, how those java libraries work, that that can happen.

[Hajime]

In this topic http://forum.enjoysudoku.com/alphabet-xoup-k-t40988.html
I get an error from SukakuExplainer :

java.exe -Xrs -Xmx500m -cp SukakuExplainer.jar diuf.sudoku.test.serate --input=IN.txt --output=OUT.txt -X1

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
at diuf.sudoku.solver.rules.unique.BivalueUniversalGrave.addBug3Hint(Unknown Source)
at diuf.sudoku.solver.rules.unique.BivalueUniversalGrave.getHints(Unknown Source)
at diuf.sudoku.solver.Solver.getDifficulty(Unknown Source)
at diuf.sudoku.test.serate.main(Unknown Source)

What to do?