On 03/27/2015 09:25 AM, Chris Angelico wrote:
On Sat, Mar 28, 2015 at 12:14 AM, Dave Angel <da...@davea.name> wrote:
But now I have to disagree about "true Sudoku puzzle." As we said earlier,
it might make sense to say that puzzles that cannot be solved that way are
not reasonable ones to put in a human Sudoku book. But why isn't it a "true
Sudoku puzzle"?
Isn't the fact that one resorts to trial and error simply a consequence of
the fact that he/she has run out of ideas for more direct rules and the data
structures to support them?
The simpler rules can be built around a list of possible values for each
cell. More complex rules can have a more complex data structure for each
cell/row/column/box. And when you run out of ideas for all those, you use
guess and backtrack, where the entire board's state is your data structure.
At that point, it may make a fine mathematical curiosity, but it's not
really a fun puzzle any more.
That's why I addressed my comments at Frank. You and I are already in
rough agreement about what makes a human game worthwhile: it has to be
easy enough to be solvable, and hard enough to be challenging. Those
cutoffs differ from one person to another, and from one age group to
another. At one time (50+ years ago) I though Tic-Tac-Toe was tricky
enough to be fun, but now it's always a draw, and only playable against
a kid. On the other hand, I play some "games" which I can only solve
with the aid of a computer. Is that "cheating"? Not for some games. I
have some challenges for which I need/prefer to use a wrench, or a
screwdriver, or a lawnmower. That doesn't make them less fun, just
different fun.
But I took Frank's comments as defining the "fine mathematical
curiosity," and I have more interest in those than I generally do in
"games".
Many games that I hear people talking about, I've never even tried.
I have a "TV set" which has never been hooked up to an antenna or cable.
Only to CD/DVD/BluRay/computer/tablet/cellphone. So I'm a bit
strange. I still enjoy riding a motorcycle, walking on the beach, or
seeing a sunset from the backyard.
--
DaveA
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