7780 sudoku game feedback

[AndrewOpala]

I'm completing the first version of a sudoku game that helps you solve sudoku problems.

Here is a descriptive link:

http://www.andrewopala.ca/sudokukraker.htm

Let me know if you would like to give me feedback on it.

Thanks

andrewo2006 {at} andrewopala.ca.

[markhutchison]

Wirelessly posted (7250/4.1.0.268, Bell Mobility: BlackBerry7250/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/109)

Just to clarify: do you begin with a blank grid, input a series of starting values, and then get probabilities for the remaining squares?

Or, does the software contain a set of puzzles and give you hints to help you solve them?

[markhutchison]

Wirelessly posted (7250/4.1.0.268, Bell Mobility: BlackBerry7250/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/109)

-deleted duplicate post-

[AndrewOpala]

Yes the grid is open and you begin by entering a new Sudoku puzzle from some other source.

My first feedback! Thanks.

[markhutchison]

Yes the grid is open and you begin by entering a new Sudoku puzzle from some other source.
So it's a true sudoku cheat ... fun, I know some people I can drive nuts with this :) I'll try it out on some tough puzzles and let you know what I think :)

Is there an OTA install available?

[AndrewOpala]

No OTA other than the link to the cod and the alx. Duplicated here:

http://www.andrewopala.ca/bin/Sudoku.alx
http://www.andrewopala.ca/bin/Sudoku.cod

I will make the alx more OTA friendly shortly :smile:

[AndrewOpala]

Added for OTA

http://www.andrewopala.ca/bin/Sudoku.jad
http://www.andrewopala.ca/bin/Sudoku.jar

not tested yet though ...

[markhutchison]

Wirelessly posted (7250/4.1.0.268, Bell Mobility: BlackBerry7250/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/109)

OTA is not working. The files open as plaintext:

"Manifest-Version: 1.0
RIM-COD-Module-Name: Sudoku
RIM-COD-Module-Dependencies: net_rim_cldc
MIDlet-Jar-Size: 8025
MIDlet-1: Sudoku Assistant,appicon.png,Sudoku.SudokuMidlet
RIM-COD-Creation-Time: 1139716100
MIDlet-Jar-URL: Sudoku.jar
RIM-COD-URL: Sudoku.cod
RIM-COD-SHA1: 83 31 e3 62 6a b1 39 9a 98 1f b6 36 8f 2e 02 83 fa 1a d5 4a
RIM-COD-Size: 7956
MicroEdition-Configuration: CLDC-1.1
MIDlet-Version: 0.9
MIDlet-Name: Sudoku
MIDlet-Vendor: Andrew Opala
MicroEdition-Profile: MIDP-2.0
RIM-MIDlet-Flags-1: 0"

[AndrewOpala]

Thanks ...

I see ... they are not fully qualified resource locations, just relative paths ... I'll fix this shortly.

[SimonMac]

Slightly OT but is there any FREE Soduku programs out there?

[AndrewOpala]

>Re: OTA is not working. The files open as plaintext:

It appears that my hosting service marks .jad mime types as "text/plain" rather than "text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor". I've brought it to their attention. I'll see if I can host these files on another server or will try to create a small PHP script that will return the proper mime type and download the jad properly until they change things from their end.

Sorry for the inconvenience. I will get this going as soon as I can.

[markhutchison]

Wirelessly posted (7250/4.1.0.268, Bell Mobility: BlackBerry7250/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/109)

No worries ... Who knows, by that time I may have stopped being lazy and installed it using the Desktop Client

[AndrewOpala]

:smile:

[AndrewOpala]

Wirelessly posted (7250/4.1.0.268, Bell Mobility: BlackBerry7250/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/109)

No worries ... Who knows, by that time I may have stopped being lazy and installed it using the Desktop Client

I have tried on an emulator with MDS running ... this works. Could you please try on the device going through the browser. Thanks.

http://www.andrewopala.ca/ota/

[markhutchison]

The software installed and runs fine. It's nice and simple to work with.

Found one bug; if I input a value, then press 0 to erase the value I receive "Uncaught exception: java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException"

One question as well: what does the "Solve" menu item do? It doesn't appear to have any effect.

[markhutchison]

Initial feedback:

For easy-medium games it works very well and provides additional clues as each square is filled in.

For the more difficult puzzles I have gotten it to the point once or twice where no clues are available ... still, this is more an indication of the difficulty of the puzzle than the quality of the software.

Question: Can the software be adjusted so that clues are automatically applied once they are generated? This way, once a number of starting values have been input, the whole puzzle will solve itself.

[AndrewOpala]

I have added all to the list of ToDos. The "Solve" was meant to launch a cascade of hints turned to values turned to hints. This is not funcitoning yet.

Great! I will post more in this thread once more gets updated.

[markhutchison]

The "Solve" was meant to launch a cascade of hints turned to values turned to hints. ... I will post more in this thread once more gets updated.
Excellent! I'm looking forward to further updates.

[AndrewOpala]

Suoku 0.9.1

Zero error is fixed and added a neat suggestion about inputing values and then moving to the next cell.

More stuff to do:

Instructions - http://www.andrewopala.ca/sudokukraker.shtml

OTA download - http://www.andrewopala.ca/ota/index.shtml

feedback andrewo2006 {at} andrewopala.ca or through this forum

[klwebb]

Could you make a download for the 7250?

[markhutchison]

Wirelessly posted (7250/4.1.0.268, Bell Mobility: BlackBerry7250/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/109)

Having the cursor jump to the next cell after input is a nice touch (speeds up the initial setup).

Found a bug: I accidentally hit space rather than 0 and the program locked up for several minutes then returned "Uncaught Exception, process Sudoku(254) killed due to message thread overflow"

Also, as a general comment, I'm eager for you to finish the "solve" routine that will cascade through and complete all the hints.

And last, I've noticed that on some of the tougher puzzles it's easy to get to a point where there are no new hints ... That may be a tricker one to address but if you could make the hint finding more thorough it would be a fabulous upgrade!

[AndrewOpala]

Excellent! more bugs!

I will add the space issue (and probably every other non-numeric key) to the Todos.

Secondly, I will test on more devices.

Finally the solving difficult puzzles will be added. I have some prototype code, written from the academic point of view - runs slowly when there are too few cells solved - I will optimize for speed.

Thanks Mark!

[markhutchison]

Wirelessly posted (7250/4.1.0.268, Bell Mobility: BlackBerry7250/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/109)

Excellent! more bugs!

I will add the space issue (and probably every other non-numeric key) to the Todos.

Secondly, I will test on more devices.

Finally the solving difficult puzzles will be added. I have some prototype code, written from the academic point of view - runs slowly when there are too few cells solved - I will optimize for speed.

Thanks Mark!

Speaking of speed ... I'm not sure if I've brought this up or not ...

I'm running a 7250 and the movent of the cursor from cell to cell has a noticeable lag (less than .5 sec ... certainly not an app killer but still distinct).

My impression, not having seen the code, is that it may be related to the <=729 green circles that are displayed on the grid. Now that being said ... I recognize the purpose of the pips and I like being able to see how many options exist for each cell. I wonder if there's a computationally cheaper way to accomplish the same thing (dots instead of circles, perhaps)? Or, would it be simple to add a Settings menu that allows you to toggle whether or not the pips are displayed?

This is, by no means, critical ... Just thinking out loud.

If I haven't said it yet, great job on the app so far! I've enjoyed playing with it in my spare time.