Congratulations on being close to solving your first game/deal. I
remember the "rush" I had when my solver kicked out its first solution.
Your understanding of standard notation seems right to me. I've seem
where it was suggested that multi-card moves be followed by a counter
enclosed in parentheses, but I've only seen one instance of it being
used. { e.g., 52(3) } I think the norm is to assume multi-card moves.
I wrote my atomic move solver so that it doesn't generate any
column-to-column moves that can be interpreted as multi-card moves. I
consider it a small price to pay for conformity.
If there's a standard notation beyond the 8x4 layout, I don't remember
encountering it. Maybe someone else in the group knows of (or has) an
extended notation scheme. If not, then maybe we (the group) could
propose one that might be universally accepted. However, it may be a
mute point because I don't know of many people sharing solutions nowadays.
Using 'f' to represent an arbitrary free cell seems like a disaster!!!
It may be easy enough to move a card to the next available free cell,
but what would you do about the following scenarios?
1) the 8H in free cell 'a',
2) the 8D in free cell 'b',
3) the 9C in column '6', and
4a) a move of "f6" or
4b) a move of "fh".
In (4a), it's possible that having the 8D move to column '6' would be
the only way a later move of "6h" would make sense.
In (4b), it's possible that several free cells might contain a card that
could move home. Which one should be moved?
I think it's necessary to specify which free cell during a move!!! It
also removes the additional execution time needed to search through the
free cells during a move.
Good Luck!
HELSER ERIC JOSEPH wrote:
> Since I'm almost able to solve a game now, I need some advice for
> notation output. If memory serves me right, the rules are:
>
> Columns are numbered 1-8
> FC's are a, b, c, d
> Home is 'h', no matter what suit.
>
> Since my program will be able to adapt to any dimensions of games, as
> featured on NetCell, what is the notation used for columns above 9?
> Can you say "Aa" to mean Column #10 move to cell #a? My program does
> not distinguish between freecells, just as standard notation does not
> distinguish between home cells. If I were to do my own thing, "7f"
> would mean "Move col. #7's top card to any open freecell". And could
> be translated into "standard" as either 7a, 7b, 7c, or 7d, depending
> on the circumstances. Unforunately, "f7" would mean "find a card in
> the free cells to legally move to column #7".
>
> Would it be necessary to translate 'f' into a FC number (a-d), or
> would 'f' and a disclaimer work fine?
>
> I think that's all for now...
Received on Tue Nov 18 2003 - 13:32:52 IST