It doesn't surprise me. Some academics have their heads in the clouds and
have no experience of the outside world.
On 19 May 2014 16:25, Shlomi Fish shlomif_at_shlomifish.org [fc-solve-discuss]
<fc-solve-discuss_at_yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I discovered the following Scientific paper about writing a solver for
> Freecell
> in a Google search:
>
> *
>
> http://www.genetic-programming.org/hc2011/06-Elyasaf-Hauptmann-Sipper/Elyasaf-Hauptmann-Sipper-Paper.pdf
>
> *
>
> http://www.genetic-programming.org/hc2011/06-Elyasaf-Hauptmann-Sipper/Elyasaf-Hauptmann-Sipper-Slides.pdf
>
> Found in this search and others:
>
> https://www.google.com/search?q=freecell%20solver%20ga
>
> They describe a Genetic Algorithm approach to creating a solver for
> Freecell,
> which in turn can solve 98% of the MS 32,000 games (which is the best
> performing
> solver in the Scientific literature), with other improvements on the
> previous
> most performant solver, such as solution length, time, etc. .
>
> I found the description of the method there somewhat hard to follow due to
> the
> proliferation of jargon, but still read the entire article.
>
> Just for the record:
>
> 1. On my Mageia Linux x86-64 v5 system running on a Intel
> x86-64 Core i3 machine, Freecell Solver can solve all the Microsoft 32,000
> games (except for the unsolvable #11,982 which it reports as such) in
> under 20
> seconds. That's with the default install of the program under the /usr/bin
> directory. After applying all aggressive compiler and system
> optimisations, the
> solver solves them in between 9 seconds and 10 seconds.
>
> 2. In the default configuration, the solutions are neither outputted nor
> verified to be correct. Nevertheless, I've written a program using Freecell
> Solver and using http://fc-solve.shlomifish.org/verify-code/ that did all
> that
> and took about 10 minutes to run.
>
> 3. Other open source solvers such as the Woods-Callan-Ettlinger solver and
> Tom
> Holroyd's Patsolve can also solve all the relevant MS 32,000 deals at a
> relatively short time.
>
> ----------------
>
> So it seems like the solver that is discussed in the paper is
> underperformant.
>
> Regards,
>
> Shlomi Fish
>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/
> List of Text Editors and IDEs - http://shlom.in/IDEs
>
> If the mountain does not come to Muhammad, then Chuck Norris will bring the
> mountain over.
> — http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/facts/Chuck-Norris/
>
> Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply .
>
>
--
Without wishing to offend anyone, check all *Urban Myths* at
http://www.snopes.com/
but please don't send them to me, I do not forward chain letters.
*JG* (this *is* my name)
Received on Mon May 19 2014 - 15:51:23 IDT