There are several sub-topics under discussion. I'm going to address them
in multiple messages. First is Worrying Back ... and upgrades planned
for my ephemeral solver.
*) The definition of Worrying Back is more general than the constrained
implementation described by Tom Holroyd in message #242 -- where a card
from the foundation can be moved to an occupied column. This represents
a restricted move environment that introduces a modest increase in the
number of layouts that might need to be examined. An unrestrained
implementation of Worrying Back allows a card to be moved from the
foundation to an empty column as well. This represents a multi-fold
increase in the number of layouts that might need to be examined. It
also represents a more complicated pruning algorithm and increased
tracking of card movements.
*) Michael Keller was interested in having a Worrying Back solution to
(at least) one of the puzzles mentioned by Tom Holroyd. I wrote a
quick-n-dirty patch to my standard solver that was designed explicitly
to emulate Tom Holroyd's constraint on (only) the unsolved 8x4
deals/games in the first 100,000,000 deals/games. The patch was never
meant to be a functioning part of my standard solver!!! In particular,
it was never meant to be part of the ephemeral solver because moves
there are stored differently than in my standard solver.
Bottom Line: It is not my intention to add Worring Back to any of my
solvers as a permanent feature.
Speaking of features, I hope to update my ephemeral solver to include
command-line switches for: -KingOnly, -NoHome, -FourCell, and -Relaxed.
These switches can be appended in any combination to the standard
ephemeral command-line. However, this upgrade will be delayed until
after I complete modifications that are under way to my standard
solvers. I'm replacing multiple pruning features with a single pruning
feature. I'm also upgrading the prioritization logic to assign a higher
priority to standard moves equivalent to WKR automoves.
Regards, Danny A. Jones
Received on Mon Dec 31 2012 - 13:04:15 IST