dailysudoku.com Forum Index dailysudoku.com
Discussion of Daily Sudoku puzzles
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Sudoku Formatter New Version and Puzzles "Special Editi

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    dailysudoku.com Forum Index -> Other puzzles
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
nataraj



Joined: 03 Aug 2007
Posts: 1048
Location: near Vienna, Austria

PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 2:38 pm    Post subject: Sudoku Formatter New Version and Puzzles "Special Editi Reply with quote

Five years ago, in 2010, I started the Sudok-o-Rama project.

October 2010, the puzzles were generated for a daily serving of one "easy", "mild", "hard" and either "Very Hard" or "Advanced".
The next year, 2011, I added the special types "Squiggly", "X-Sudoku" and "Compass" (a variant of Color Sudoku, which I created to avoid the Color Sudoku's drain on ink ...)

Since thenI have had a lot of visitors on my page, many of them from dailysudoku.com, and sometimes one of my puzzles was discussed here.

As a small "Thank You" for your interest and continuing support for these five years, I've created a "Special Edition" of puzzles,
all previously unpublished and not part of the Sudok-o-Rama but of the same types.

All the special types are there, but of the Classic Sudoku flavors, only "Very Hard" and "Advanced" are included in the Special Edition. But there's always more at the Sudok-o-Rama, of course Smile

Here's the link to the Special Edition


I've upgraded the Sudok-o-Rama a little bit: it is now possible to create .pdf documents directly - without going through Draw/Play. If you'd like to solve my puzzles with Draw/Play instead of pen&paper, that possibility still exists:

In the -o-Rama, click on the "First Aid" icon in the top right corner. That should take you to Helmut's Sudoku Helper, and there you have a new option: FORMAT, which in turn will take you to Helmut's Sudoku Formatter.

I guess most of you will know the Formatter (a.k.a. "Nataraj Formatter"), used mainly to convert puzzles from all over the web into a format useful for posting on the forum.

The Formatter is now able to print directly (i.e. create a .pdf) and the user interface has changed to more closely match HSH's look and feel,
but the main functions are still there: import, print, create phpbb code, activate Helmut's Sudoku Helper, activate Draw/Play.

Here is the link: Sudoku Formatter

Oh, BTW, Firefox seems to have a nasty bug: documents printed directly from the Firefox plug-in sometimes come out way too small.
One work-around for this problem is to download the .pdf and print it using the Acrobat Reader (not the plug-in), or use a different browser.

If there are any problems with the new version, please post your comments here in this thread. I've not been active on this forum for quite a while, but shall monitor this thread for the next couple of days. You can always e-mail me, of course, find the address in my profile Smile

Hope you enjoy the new Formatter and the o-Rama puzzles !

Take care,
Helmut
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
nataraj



Joined: 03 Aug 2007
Posts: 1048
Location: near Vienna, Austria

PostPosted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 4:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good to see everything works smoothly.

Discontinuing the close monitoring. If there are any problems, email me.

Take care
Helmut
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Marty R.



Joined: 12 Feb 2006
Posts: 5770
Location: Rochester, NY, USA

PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2015 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am unable to get a puzzle (with givens only) from this site into the formatter. Whatever I tried the formatter reported that it had 160+ cells.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
nataraj



Joined: 03 Aug 2007
Posts: 1048
Location: near Vienna, Austria

PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 9:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Marty,

assuming that by "this site" you mean the dailySudoku, I tried it 2 minutes ago with today's "easy", worked just fine (Draw/Play, ASCII, copy/paste).
Perhaps you accidentally included the last line ([url ....) from the ASCII box.

The whole puzzle is repeated there, that would explain the message , "...that it had 160+ cells."

If that does not solve the problem, please post more details

best wishes
Helmut
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Marty R.



Joined: 12 Feb 2006
Posts: 5770
Location: Rochester, NY, USA

PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 4:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Details:

I just now clicked "archive" on the main page, then clicked the Very Hard of November 27. When that appeared I clicked Ascii and then clicked in the middle of the grid in the new window that popped up. Then clicked the Copy icon on my Firefox toolba. Upon pasting it into the formatter the message "165" cells found" appeared.

When I was trying the other day, I also tried putting it in the forum, clicking "Preview" to get an aligned grid and copied that and got the same message after pasting it into the formatter. I just tried Nov27 from the archive again and nothing happens when I click the Ascii button. Now I grabbed Nov. 23 from the archive and again the Ascii didn't work, but that's not your problem.

The other day when I first started it was too early for me to get a grid so I typed the givens into a blank Draw/Play grid and the same happened as above in my first sentence.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
keith



Joined: 19 Sep 2005
Posts: 3355
Location: near Detroit, Michigan, USA

PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 8:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Marty,

When you click in the Acsii pop-up window it selects all the text. When you copy you get this:
Code:
[code]
+-------+-------+-------+
| . . 4 | . . 6 | . 8 9 |
| . . . | . . . | 1 6 . |
| 6 . . | 4 2 . | . . . |
+-------+-------+-------+
| . . 9 | 2 8 . | . 7 . |
| . . 3 | . . . | 5 . . |
| . 6 . | . 9 5 | 8 . . |
+-------+-------+-------+
| . . . | . 5 2 | . . 8 |
| . 5 7 | . . . | . . . |
| 9 3 . | 6 . . | 4 . . |
+-------+-------+-------+
[/code]
[url=http://www.dailysudoku.com/sudoku/play.shtml?p=0:0:4:0:0:6:0:8:9:0:0:0:0:0:0:1:6:0:6:0:0:4:2:0:0:0:0:0:0:9:2:8:0:0:7:0:0:0:3:0:0:0:5:0:0:0:6:0:0:9:5:8:0:0:0:0:0:0:5:2:0:0:8:0:5:7:0:0:0:0:0:0:9:3:0:6:0:0:4:0:0:]Play this puzzle online[/url] at the Daily Sudoku site

So, you can see the puzzle is there twice, first as a grid that is displayed in your post, second as a string that is pasted into Draw/Play.

To go into the Formatter, you should have only one of them. So, click once in Ascii, it selects all the text. Click twice, it deselects all the text. Then select and copy either:

Code:

+-------+-------+-------+
| . . 4 | . . 6 | . 8 9 |
| . . . | . . . | 1 6 . |
| 6 . . | 4 2 . | . . . |
+-------+-------+-------+
| . . 9 | 2 8 . | . 7 . |
| . . 3 | . . . | 5 . . |
| . 6 . | . 9 5 | 8 . . |
+-------+-------+-------+
| . . . | . 5 2 | . . 8 |
| . 5 7 | . . . | . . . |
| 9 3 . | 6 . . | 4 . . |
+-------+-------+-------+

or
Code:
0:0:4:0:0:6:0:8:9:0:0:0:0:0:0:1:6:0:6:0:0:4:2:0:0:0:0:0:0:9:2:8:0:0:7:0:0:0:3:0:0:0:5:0:0:0:6:0:0:9:5:8:0:0:0:0:0:0:5:2:0:0:8:0:5:7:0:0:0:0:0:0:9:3:0:6:0:0:4:0:0:

into the Formatter.

By the way, in the Helper you can Automate Basics. After you do that (and watch the light show), you can choose "Advanced Methods", which is where it gets very cool! Note how Helmut picks out the W- and the M-wings for you.

Technical disclaimer:

In both the Formatter and the Helper, Helmut will give you a "Do it !" link to put the puzzle into Draw/Play. That works fine.

Helmut will also give you bbcode text to copy into a message board like Jason Lion's "New Players Forum". Like this:

Code:
[url=http://sudoku.saueregger.at/HSH/HSF.htm?p=*EN*HSF2:49:54 PM*6*11/28/2015*0:0:4:0:0:6:0:8:9:0:0:0:0:0:0:1:6:0:6:0:0:4:2:0:0:0:0:0:0:9:2:8:0:0:7:0:0:0:3:0:0:0:5:0:0:0:6:0:0:9:5:8:0:0:0:0:0:0:5:2:0:0:8:0:5:7:0:0:0:0:0:0:9:3:0:6:0:0:4:0:0:*]Print (PDF) using Helmut's Sudoku Formatter[/url]


so you can share the puzzle. However, this bbcode (Bulletin Board Code) does not give the correct result in a Daily Sudoku Forum message. This is because the Forum code is obsolete and not properly installed. Pat, Helmut, and I figured out the bug, but it would take a lot of work for Helmut to work around that, and I told him not to bother. It's not his problem to figure out workarounds for bugs that SamGJ is too uninterested to address.

So, if you have a puzzzle at Helmut's site that you want to share on the DS Forum, click through to Draw/Solve and get the Ascii bbcode from there.

I hope this helps.

Keith
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Marty R.



Joined: 12 Feb 2006
Posts: 5770
Location: Rochester, NY, USA

PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 10:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK, Keith, thank you very much. I can see what's happening (or not happening). I would like to think I'm at least semi-sane, but perhaps that's debatable. I've used the Ascii function and the formatter countless times with success. Something has changed since I've suddenly gone from able to unable to use the formatter in some cases. I have just been monkeying around, using the Ascii function a number of times and then suddenly I click Ascii and the window doesn't appear. It's as if it stops working after being used a certain number of times within a certain amount of time.

Like I said, I've successfully used the formatter countless times with many of those times using the Ascii as opposed to hand-selecting a puzzle from elsewhere. I've always clicked inside the grid in the pop-up window followed by Ctrl + C. What I am now seeing is that after I click the grid is gone and all I see is the selected stuff that was under the now-gone grid. That must be related to now sending 165 cells to the formatter. But it's good to know that I now can find a way to send only 81 cells. It's a big mystery why I sent too many cells from copying the grid from a Preview window.

Than ks again, that's really helpful.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
keith



Joined: 19 Sep 2005
Posts: 3355
Location: near Detroit, Michigan, USA

PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 11:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Marty,

On further thought, I think you can copy and paste the whole thing then just edit out the extra content before you "Do it !" in the Formatter.

Keith
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
keith



Joined: 19 Sep 2005
Posts: 3355
Location: near Detroit, Michigan, USA

PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 11:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Marty,

The Ascii window is a popup. If you do not shut it down but then do a new "Ascii", you will not see a new window. The old one is lurking there in the background, somewhere.

Keith
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Marty R.



Joined: 12 Feb 2006
Posts: 5770
Location: Rochester, NY, USA

PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 11:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
On further thought, I think you can copy and paste the whole thing then just edit out the extra content before you "Do it !" in the Formatter.


Yes, that does it. Based on my post, do you have any idea of what might have changed in my experiences?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
keith



Joined: 19 Sep 2005
Posts: 3355
Location: near Detroit, Michigan, USA

PostPosted: Sun Nov 29, 2015 9:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Marty R. wrote:
Quote:
On further thought, I think you can copy and paste the whole thing then just edit out the extra content before you "Do it !" in the Formatter.


Yes, that does it. Based on my post, do you have any idea of what might have changed in my experiences?

Marty,

I will guess that you were not using "Ascii" but were copying and pasting unformatted puzzles from the discussion forum or other places when you went to the Formatter.

"Ascii" works fine to put a puzzle in the DS discussion list. It does not immediately work to put a puzzle in Helmut's Formatter or Helper.

Keith
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    dailysudoku.com Forum Index -> Other puzzles All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group