Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

[GerReader]

Originally Posted by Skeeve

Hi Steffen.

About Usabilty for "Solo": When I have highlighted a cell and then switch from "Fill" to "Notes" or back, the cell's status doesn't change. I have to select the cell again to make it switch.

Also, in order to make it more visible, which status is selected, maybe it would help to have the number row use a smaller font when notation is active?

Hm, I don't yet understand exactly what the issue is.

Can you describe your concerns a little bit more detailed, like in a bug report? Something like "I have a cell with pencil marks 145. I short-click the cell. It gets fully selected. I then do this ... XYZ then happens, but it would be better if ABC happened ..."

[Skeeve]

* Start Solo
* Tap on any empty cell to select it
- The cell is select for entering a number
* Tap on the "Pencil Mark" icon
- The icon is highlighted
- I expected the cell to change from completely highlighted to just the top left corner to be highlighted
* Tap on a number
- The number is entered
* I expected a pencil mark to be entered

Regarding the other proposal: When you are in "enter mode" the numbers on the bottom, the ones you tap when entering them should be bigger. When entering pencil marks, not only the icon should be highlighted but the number on the bottom a bit smaller as well.

I think this would improve the UI a bit. But I'm not sure.

I have yet to find out how I could change the code to try it on my own.

[GerReader]

Originally Posted by Skeeve

* Start Solo
* Tap on any empty cell to select it
- The cell is select for entering a number
* Tap on the "Pencil Mark" icon
- The icon is highlighted
- I expected the cell to change from completely highlighted to just the top left corner to be highlighted
* Tap on a number
- The number is entered
* I expected a pencil mark to be entered

Ahh, I see. I think I understand why I was confused. With "Pencil Mark" icon you mean the "-/--" button just to the left of the undo/redo buttons, right?

Strictly speaking, this button is not a "pencil mark" button. Its function is rather to switch the GUI processing of a short press into that of a long press, and vice versa. So when this button is activated, a short press on the screen is then transformed internally into a long press.

In Solo, a short press into a cell marks it in full, a long press marks it with the pencil mark triangle.

Anyway, I'm indeed considering your proposal, have to think a little bit about it. What would speak against it is that this then deviates in handling from the Android app; from where I adapted this button.

Originally Posted by Skeeve

Regarding the other proposal: When you are in "enter mode" the numbers on the bottom, the ones you tap when entering them should be bigger. When entering pencil marks, not only the icon should be highlighted but the number on the bottom a bit smaller as well.

I think this would improve the UI a bit. But I'm not sure.

I think this would only be a minor improvement; and furthermore it would need to trigger an additional redraw every time you switch the mode. Redraw efficiency is an important aspect with developing eInk apps. On the other hand, as it is only a small area, the redraw might be ok. Needs to be tested.

Originally Posted by Skeeve

I have yet to find out how I could change the code to try it on my own.

For the automatic switch of highlighted cells with the 'short/long swap' button, I can give you some hints, I will write something in the Developers Corner thread.

[Skeeve]

Originally Posted by GerReader

[…]the "-/--" button just to the left of the undo/redo buttons, right?

That explains it… I was already wondering what this icon is supposed to mean

Originally Posted by GerReader

Anyway, I'm indeed considering your proposal, have to think a little bit about it. What would speak against it is that this then deviates in handling from the Android app; from where I adapted this button.?

Why not simply keep it as is and add a pencil button as well? So one can choose between the current method and the new one.

Originally Posted by GerReader

I think this would only be a minor improvement;?

Being used to other Sudoku apps, to me it was intuitive, that there would be a "pencil" and "ink" mode. As the swap button (to) me, acted this way (never ever considering there a long press could be an option), it was the "pencil-button" for me

Originally Posted by GerReader

For the automatic switch of highlighted cells with the 'short/long swap' button, I can give you some hints, I will write something in the Developers Corner thread.

Thanks for that. I already had a look and at first glance it seems quite complicated. I'm not (yet) a C-Programmer Most times my "programs" are written in Perl, Javascript, Shellscripts or, only recently started, Go.

[Skeeve]

Hi Steffen.

I think I read somewere that the Solo puzzles were too hard for some. For me the hardest 9×9 are too easy

I think it'll break the API but I would be glad would there be a way to load my "own" sudokus. I once created a wrapper for PocketBook's Sudoku which allowed me to do that. The downside is: Every Sudoku counts as a "book" and thus floods the books database.

I'm thinking about writing a wrapper for SGTPuzzles which would pre-fill the state-file with a Sudoku and then start SGTPuzzles.

[GerReader]

Originally Posted by Skeeve

Hi Steffen.

I think I read somewere that the Solo puzzles were too hard for some. For me the hardest 9×9 are too easy

I think it'll break the API but I would be glad would there be a way to load my "own" sudokus. I once created a wrapper for PocketBook's Sudoku which allowed me to do that. The downside is: Every Sudoku counts as a "book" and thus floods the books database.

I'm thinking about writing a wrapper for SGTPuzzles which would pre-fill the state-file with a Sudoku and then start SGTPuzzles.

There is already something in the app that might be helpful. In the current nightly release, I have integrated a 'manual' entry mode. It starts with an empty sudoku grid, where one can enter numbers as usual. Tapping outside the grid then will fix these numbers, then normal gameplay starts.

Of course, this does not allow to save certain games into game files or build a library of individual sudoku games. But it should be sufficient to transcribe a challenging sudoku from an external source for playing on the eReader.

There are interfaces in the original code to serialize / deserialize games, and this is used to save the current game state into system/state/sgtpuzzles.cfg. Unfortunately, the puzzle collection uses a very compact format to encode games, which need a little bit of effort to understand. An example of a solo game description would be this:

"3x3:7a6c5a4_5_9_1_7a3h2c4_5b3b1d4a7d3b1b5_8c1h9a4 _1_8_3_1a4c9a5"

This format is necessary, as not only regular sudokus need to be encoded, but also 'jigsaw' or 'killer' mode sudokus.

Furthermore, the configuration file sgtpuzzles.cfg not only saves the game description, but the whole game state as a hex-encoded binary, which is then even more complicated to generate.

So writing a wrapper would be theoretically possible, but I would not recommend it, as it might get quite complicated.

[Skeeve]

Hi Steffen.

I already had a look at the format and the game description is quite easy to understand:

• a-z -> Number of empty cells (a=1)
• _ -> 0 empty cells
• 1-9 -> The digit to set

The AUXINFO, when decoded, also seems quite simple as it is just the list of digits for the solved game, separated by commas.

So the thing to copy would be the obfuscation, or to put in an easier obfuscation as an alternative.

For a wrapper I wouldn't need to encode any notes. Just the pure, empty game and, maybe, its solution.

But before attacking that, I'm currently trying to figure out how to write a CMakeList.txt for STPuzzles and have a proper build environment as dockerfile.

Since I never ever wrote Makefiles let alone CMakeLists, it's a bit of learning for me.

[GerReader]

https://github.com/SteffenBauer/Pock...master/release

Its been some months since I released 0.7.8. A lot of small changes accumulated, each of them not quite enough to make a new release. As I will start a new job next week, I now make release 0.7.9, as I probably won't work on the app for the next months.

Most important changes:

• New puzzle Bricks from puzzles-unreleased by Lennard Sprong
• Manual mode in Solo, for manually entering sudoku puzzles from newspapers or other sources.
• I completely rewrote the puzzle Walls from scratch. Better generator & completely overhauled UI

Complete ChangeLog:

https://github.com/SteffenBauer/Pock...r/ChangeLog.md

[Skeeve]

Originally Posted by GerReader

https://github.com/SteffenBauer/Pock...master/release
As I will start a new job next week

All the best for your new job.

Maybe you will find the time to look into my Pull Request when everything is settled.

[GerReader]

https://github.com/SteffenBauer/Pock...master/release

Been nearly half a year since I released the last version, a new release was overdue. Notable changes in this release:

* Heavily optimized screen refresh.
* New puzzle: CrossNum, an implementation of Kakuro, implemented by Anders Holst.
* In the walls puzzle, paths and walls can now be placed by dragging along cells / cell borders.

[wold]

This won't really help, but at one point I experienced two crashes in a row opening the "How to play" option with the Pearl puzzle. After that, trying again +-6 times, it didn't happen again.

Before the crash the help screen was drawn, with text IIRC, but it happened rather quickly. Sorry I can't be of more help.

PS It had been a while since running the app. It was upgraded in the interim, so perhaps that played a role.

[GerReader]

Originally Posted by wold

This won't really help, but at one point I experienced two crashes in a row opening the "How to play" option with the Pearl puzzle. After that, trying again +-6 times, it didn't happen again.

Before the crash the help screen was drawn, with text IIRC, but it happened rather quickly. Sorry I can't be of more help.

PS It had been a while since running the app. It was upgraded in the interim, so perhaps that played a role.

That does indeed not help very much; impossible to say what happened.

I also tried to show the How to Play screen from Pearl several times, no crashes.

I also doubt very much that it is a bug in the app as the code for displaying the How to Play screen is basically just one line where a Dialog box is opened, so handling of this box is done more or less completely by the PocketBook OS.

It would be interesting to know what version of the app this crash happened (from the 'About' box from the menu on the game chooser screen)

[wold]

It would be interesting to know what version of the app this crash happened (from the 'About' box from the menu on the game chooser screen)

0.7.10, packaged from github (skipped a local compile this time).

I also doubt very much that it is a bug in the app as the code for displaying the How to Play screen is basically just one line where a Dialog box is opened, so handling of this box is done more or less completely by the PocketBook OS.

Well, that provides at least some direction as to the possible source.
And, in a way, also a good one, as it's not in the app