Glyn wrote:If anyone can generate Clueless variants perhaps they can post them for everyone in the meantime. A poser for those with automated solvers perhaps, and dissecting previous puzzles for their underlying construction might keep everyone amused in the meantime.
I do have a fast brute force Sudoku solver, but a brute force solver is merely useful for standard 9x9 Sudokus. Solving a Ruud Clueless Sudoku using a brute force solver takes not only one but many, many lifetimes http://cid-c136798e52d0119c.skydrive.li ... dea%20.doc and gives you no indication of the difficulty of the puzzle.mhparker wrote:Unfortunately, I can't create Clueless puzzles (Explosion or otherwise), but maybe someone else around here could (hope you're still listening, J-C! )?
Generating Ruud Clueless Sudokus is not an easy task and requires a very fast solver with several solving techniques implemented and some good ideas as how to generate a good start grid, otherwise it will take too long to generate Clueless puzzles. Ruud’s software for generating and solving Sudokus is very likely the very best. He is capable of generating virtually any kind of Sudoku and has to my knowledge more solving techniques implemented than anybody else.
I have the absolute highest respect for Ruud’s Sudoku software.
Since I like to solve Sudokus, especially larger ones with many interconnected 9x9 Sudokus without having to use paper and pencil, I have for many months now been programming a "universal" Sudoku helper called "The Universal Sudoku Player" (TUSP). (So far I have spent approx 1.500 hours coding some 35.000 lines of code including blank lines and too few comments.) I hope to have the first release finished in a couple of months and I will give it away for free.
You can find more information about the "The Universal Sudoku Player" here: http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4639#4639