The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[missamo80]

Hi guys,

My wife and I played tons of Sudoku on the plane on our recent vacation, and came up with two features we'd love to see in a future release. Here goes:

1) A "highlight current number" feature. When this is activated by some key sequence (ALT+Number?), all instances of that number are turned some noticable color on the board. That way when I'm working on 4s I can quickly see all the filled in fours visually on the board.

2) Auto-removal of pencil marks. When I place a 4 on the grid and it is known to be good (you have to be playing with "show errors" on for this to work), remove all pencil marks for 4 that are no longer valid. For example, if I fill in 4, all the pencil marks for 4 in that row, column, and block of 9 should automatically be removed. This would be a huge timesaver!

Thanks for listening, we really enjoyed playing both electronic and printed puzzles on our trip

Neil

[Pappocom]

I'm listening. Thanks for the suggestions.

- Wayne

[jimci]

It seems to me that having the option to highlight all instances of the currently selected number / letter / whatever, would be nice, particularly in larger puzzles, such as 16x16's.

Another possiblity would be to allow both colors AND numbers to be displayed simultaneously.

Further, for those of us who are keyboard-centric: When working in "mouse" mode, typing a number or letter should automatically select that number or letter as the current one for filling-in answers.

Otherwise, great program, and I enjoy it.

[FAST Enterprise [Crawler]]

Personally, I'm against making puzzles easier - it begins to defeat the object of grading and it tilts the playing field vis a vis players using pen and paper. If a puzzle is "Very Hard", then let it be just that. If the "hardness" is partly the labour or concentration involved, then so be it. If you can't take the heat stay out of the kitchen.

I've said elsewhere in the forums that eg Pappocom Very Hards do involve a significant element of time-consuming non-logic in their solving, the perspiration proportionately increasing with a consequent proportional decrease in the inspiration, and that this can be a less agreeable component than the logic. The answer, in my case, has been to devote a lot of thought to ways of a) making marking-up a simple, foolproof, "one-stop" exercise and b) taking the "head-banging" out of the search through the haystack which follows.

I've been successful on both counts, which is why, whilst still playing Tabletop Sudoku when I'm so minded, I'm back into cracking the Pappocom Very Hards as well - beat three good ones in a row last night and very satisfying it was!!

At the very least, if you are going to "soften" the program Wayne, disqualify the puzzles from the Hall of Fame, as with "Hints".

[emm]

I've said elsewhere in the forums that eg Pappocom Very Hards do involve a significant element of time-consuming non-logic in their solving

This sounds like heresy, 9x9! What's not logical?

[9X9]

em - "Tabletop Sudoku" page 1, which you know about because you've contributed to the thread. If it isn't clear after that, I can't help you.

[emm]

I think it's clear enough - I'm just arguing with you calling pencil marking illogical.

[lunababy_moonchild]

Oh good, an argument.

Haven't seen one of those in a while and I've been struggling womanfully with myself to avoid getting into one, on this very Forum, today - I succeeded incidentally (in the struggle not to get into an argument, that is).

Sarcasm is such a low form of wit, don'tcha think?

Anyway, do carry on.

Luna

[emm]

I succeeded

I noticed - you showed more restraint than I did.

But I’ve got the day off and I'm in the mood for a spat. Any topic will do!

Also it’s not sarcasm – it’s irony. Much more elegant, n'est-ce pas?

[lunababy_moonchild]

Also it’s not sarcasm – it’s irony. Much more elegant, n'est-ce pas?

Yes, it is. Much.

Actually I was referring to my, as yet (still) womanfully resisted, unposted posts which would have been extremely sarcastic. Immediately obvious to the casual observer from what I did post *sigh*

Luna

[PeacePipe]

I agree with the two suggestions offered by missamo80 - objections by 9x9 notwithstanding. One always has the option to keep things pure when working towards a Hall of Fame entry. On the other hand, there's a lot to be said for a good quickie whenever the opportunity presents itself. These suggestions would maximize the fun of the logic while minimizing the negative impact (time-wise) of a mis-click.

[Hungry]

I was going to suggest a "highlight current number" feature, too, so I'm in agreement with the OP on that one.

Auto-removal of pencil marks isn't something I want, but as long as it's optional I don't care one way or the other.

A few other things I'd like:

1) A toggle to hide the pencil marks without erasing them. I just started playing a few days ago, and I've found myself looking almost exclusively at the pencil marks, rarely at the big numbers. But once in a while I want to look at the big numbers without the clutter of the pencil marks.

2) An option to override the verification of dubbed puzzles. I tried to dub a puzzle out of a book since it's a lot faster than actually doing it with pencil & pen, but it wouldn't verify. I'd still like to take a crack at the puzzle even if the program finds something wrong with it.

3) One or more higher difficulty levels. The hardest is too easy IMO.

I think it's a great program, so I can't wait to see how the upgrade turns out.