dailysudoku.com

nataraj · Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 3:41 pm Post subject: Helmut's Sudok-o-Rama

Dear friends,

lately, I've not been able to come to this forum very often. That was due mostly to a lot of work at the office, but also because I was setting up a Sudoku site of my own here in Austria.

It all started with a "Beginner's Tutorial" I wrote for a friend of mine, then I thought "wouldn't it be nice if one could go through all puzzles step by step and have something like a tutor available, who'd give hints and tips what to do next, just like in that tutorial."

I realized that the most exciting part of the whole project was to design a good user interface. Define "good". Good, for me, is when the user feels good. I tried to use as little verbal explanation as possible. Graphic elements, yes. Highlighted cells in the grid. Visual clues.

Feedback from friends and family was encouraging, but there was one thing missing: people kept asking for new puzzles.

So I started to grow my own puzzles. Collected them into categories, like "mild", "hard", "very hard" etc. And put them on the web. Four puzzles a day.

Take a look if you like, get your VH fix every day Smile

- the VH grade Monday-Wednesday is pretty much the same as here, on Thursday through Sunday, there is a VH+ category with skyscrapers, kites, and the odd w-wing, m-wing or unique rectangle thrown in.

No extreme puzzles. No marathon puzzles, either. And no "play on-line" (pen & paper only)

Clean, good fun - I hope.

The name of the site is: Helmut's Sudok-o-Rama

Enjoy!

Nataraj

Marty R. · Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 5:01 pm Post subject:

Nice. I'm looking forward to trying the puzzles.

Couple of comments, questions, etc.

1) Is there a way of printing directly or do we need to import it here using your format tool?

2) When using the arrows to the right or left of the puzzle, the puzzle changes and the difficulty rating changes too, but the date stays fixed.

keith · Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 5:29 pm Post subject:

Nataraj,

Interesting! I have two questions:

1. Is there a way to print?
2. Is there an archive of old puzzles?

Best wishes,

Keith

Marty R. · Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 5:40 pm Post subject:

Keith, the archive is the calendar icon at the lower right.

Marty R. · Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 7:12 pm Post subject:

OK, I bring up the puzzle for 11-28, a Sunday. Above the puzzle is the word "Mild", but I thought that Thursday through Sunday was VH+. Question

daj95376 · Joined: 23 Aug 2008 Posts: 3854

In the upper-right corner is a "First Aid Kit" that can be right-clicked. "Select All" opens the Helper program ... and the "Log" at the bottom right contains the puzzle in text format.

nataraj · Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 8:03 pm Post subject:

Thanks for your replies !!

printing: yes, the page is supposed to be printed. Clicking the grid (a printer icon should appear as soon as you hover over the grid), should take you directly to the print dialogue.

helper: as Danny said: the first-aid-kit takes you to the helper. just (left) click should do it. In the helper, it is possible to copy the lower right "log" area. I might add a direct link to dailysudoku's draw/play if there is sufficient demand...

yes, the calendar brings up the archived puzzles.

for each day, there are four puzzles, cycle through the puzzels using the left and right arrows.

the info icon in the upper left corner brings up some text and a link to this forum. Hope you guys don't mind Smile

lower left: choose your language. It is supposed to select the appropriate language (German/English) automatically depending on your PC's settings, I hope you got English right away (I found no way to test that feature here)

Best wishes
Nataraj

keith · Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 8:30 pm Post subject:

Nataraj,

I have a request. Can you move the printed puzzle about 3 cm up on the page? That way we can print two puzzles on one sheet of paper.

I usually print for puzzles per sheet: Top, bottom, front and back. Print, flip or rotate the sheet and feed it again.

If your print layout is about the same as that provided by this site, that would be perfect! When I print four puzzles, I am usually selecting from this site, Brain Bashers (small grid) and Menneske.

Is there an ascii option to export?

Thank you,

Keith

Marty R. · Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 10:22 pm Post subject:

keith · Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 4:17 am Post subject:

I fond a way to export ascii by copying the log.

Keith

nataraj · Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:03 am Post subject:

Following Keith's suggestion I added a separate print page (not having read Marty's resolution method post)

I had sort of the same problem with the layout of the printed page (well, basically "print" just calls the browser's print function and thus inherits the whole page layout - minus some other stuff like background images, pushbuttons and advertisements)

I like to fold the paper in half and do the puzzle on the upper half. That leaves the lower half for Nataraj Diagrams in the harder puzzles. So now I hope the new print layout will be convenient for all of us Smile

I also included a button to call draw/play directly: no more need to copy the HSH log.