Saturday, December 23, 2006

Computer solutions

There are two general approaches taken in the creation of serious Sudoku-solving programs: human solving methods and rapid-style methods. Human-style solvers will typically operate by maintaining a mark-up matrix, and search for contingencies, matched cells, and other elements that a human solver can utilize in order to determine and exclude cell values.
Many rapid-style solvers employ backtracking searches, with various pruning techniques also being used in order to help reduce the size of the search tree.
Rapid solvers are preferred for trial-and-error puzzle-creation algorithms, which allow for testing large numbers of partial problems for validity in a short time; human-style solvers can be employed by hand-crafting puzzlesmiths for their ability to rate the challenge of a created puzzle and show the actual solving process their target audience can be expected to follow.

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