On Sat, 03 Mar 2012 03:04:30 +0000
Ben Hutchings <b...@decadent.org.uk> wrote:
> > Some kind of progress meter would be helpful, to tell the user the
> > program hasn't hung, perhaps with a time prediction, if feasible.
>
> The generators produce candidate configurations at random and then
> check that they are solvable and have the correct difficulty
> (difficulty affects which deduction rules have to be used). In some
> cases, they will refine unsolvable candidates in order to make them
> solvable; in other cases they will generate new configurations.
>
> It's just not possible to tell how far this has progressed or how long
> it will take.
Based on that description, it sounds like it might be feasible to show
how it's getting along. It wouldn't be prediction, but it would allow users
to see what they're waiting on. A window would pop up, and display:
Generating random candidate of X*Y squares at normal difficulty. 1st
try...
Done. Now:
Is it solvable at normal difficulty? Testing...
...suppose it fails:
Too difficult. Try again.
...then:
Generating random candidate of X*Y squares at normal difficulty. 2nd
try...
...suppose that fails:
Unsolvable. Try again.
Etc. Other messages might go by, "Unsovable, trying to refine it to
solvable...", et al.
At the end, it might beep and show:
Done. After N minutes and 3 tries, a X*Y square normal difficulty
puzzle found.
Press OK, or wait 30 seconds.
It would help to log this to some hidden local file. Later the log
might be optionally uploaded and averaged with other user logs.
After a certain length of time, or number of tries, the prompt might
offer to give up.
Once there's data on how long things take, a "give up" prompt could be
offered immediately:
Are you sure you want to generate a 300x300 grid game? Doing so can
take several weeks.
HTH...
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