*** SuDoKu Magic ***

Yes I know the web site is poor, but I thought it would be better to put up a simple place holder to explain a bit about the project. I'll tart it up in due course (honest guv...).

So what's a sudoku?

See www.sudoku.com/

Simple really, although do not be fooled, some of these puzzles can be very tricky to solve.

What does SuDoku Magic do?

Not much at the moment, I wrote an early prototype in Delphi that is able to set and solve typical SuDoku puzzles. When I say typical, what I mean is the average puzzle you are likely to see in the uk press at the moment. I am now rewriting the software in Free Pascal and aim to have something working by the time the cows come home.

Why Free Pascal?

Well I have never used it before and want to learn more about it. Delphi is good and all that but it really is not that portable and they do not appear to offer a free IDE (at the time of writing) for people to download my code and start messing with, so after all these years of reading about Free Pascal I have decided to give it a twirl. Free Pascal is pretty good on paper, and kinda handy on my pc as well. I'm using lazarus as an IDE as it runs on windows, linux and mac so the source code should be fairly portable. So far it is a job lot easier (and more enjoyable) than messing with gcc and gtk/wx/etc and hopefully will not give me too many headaches getting the app to cross compile.

So what operating systems will this run on?

At the moment I will only be uploading binaries for Windows and Debian as they are the only two systems that I have running, however I am tempted to get hold of a Mac to play around with, but do not hold your breath, I guess it really depends on the next time I have too many shandies and start browsing ebay...

14 September 2005 - A long wait

OK, I admit it... the last release was buggy and a bit crappy and I have sat on my bum doing nothing with the project for some time, apart from playing World of Warcraft (forza motorsport is now gathering dust). I have fixed the bugs posted (at least I think I have) and improved the solve logic. It solved a medium sudoku in the nearest old copy of the guardian I have laying around.

Oh yeah, it runs on my Debian Sarge Box as well!!! will post a picture to prove it. Anyway I am uncertain on how to distribute the binary for linux boxes, if anyone reading this knows then I would be interested in hearing from you either my email address.

Peace.

22 June 2005 - the size of a cow

Progress, progress progress, well kinda... SudokuMagic now solves very easy sudoku puzzles, this includes the easy mode sudoku that can be created by the application as well as the noddy ones that appear in the Independent (uk newspaper) and the Times book (mild only so far).

I have not had much time this week so have only managed the following:

- refactored the code

- created the solver engine and a simple solver class

- added three difficulties, no guarantee that the medium and hard can be solved by logic alone...

- started designing a new web site, although only approximately 30% complete.

The solver code only uses three basic rules at the moment, I will get jiggy with some documentation about it all once the project starts to become useful.

Linux update...

I Should really get my ass in gear what with Debian being recently updated and all that, but it looks like I will only really put the linux version as a priority if someone expresses an interest.

No point uploading another picture yet as the GUI has not really changed.

Version 0.2 Source and binary uploaded to the usual place.

TTFN

Matt

11 june 2005 - Whats been happening

- Uploaded Preview 0.1 for Windows (binary and source)

I am aiming to at the very least update something every week, so I have uploaded a preview. It is not much but it generates very easy SuDoKu puzzles that can be solved very quickly. The binary is for Windows and the source code will compile under the latest copy of Lazarus.

Debian version just as soon as I can bare to transfer the network cable from my XBox (damn you Forza Motorsport!)

The next few bits of development on the horizon are

- a simple solver class based on a couple of simple rules (slice and dice)

- Improve the Sudoku generation, and implement difficulties

- Get the linux version up and running

Until next time.

2 June 2005 - Stuff that was done.

- Uploaded a screen shot.

- Wrote this page.

Oh yeah, here is a quick screeny of what's working so far:

Fairly unimpressive eh?

It runs and can generate random sudoku puzzles on my Windows XP box, generation is a fraction of a second and my first impressions of the Free Pascal binaries are that it is big! Even without the debug info the exe is 1.6MB and the screen is a little flickery when the mouse clicks in the grid. Hey ho, early days and all that. I will see what its like on Linux next time I have the time and inclination to carry on developing.

TTFN.