Sudoku - a simple yet challenging puzzle
There were several excellent entries in this contest
— well, four to be exact, but each showed great
ingenuity in using TeX to solve these challenging puzzles.
You are invited to review their solutions and the LaTeX and
TeX macros they used.
Sudoku rules: Complete the grid so that every row, column, and 3-by-3 box
contains every digit, 1 to 9.
The contest: Typeset this grid
using TeX macros. You may use LaTeX, ConTeXt, plain TeX,
AMSTeX, or your favorite set of macros.
Beginners category. Typeset the grid as shown above.
This category is open to those who have been using TeX for less than one year.
There were no entries in this category.
Regular category. Create a new macro,
\sudoku{file}, which
reads a sudoku puzzle file and then typesets the grid. A
sudoku puzzle file is a simple text file with nine lines, and
each line has nine characters: the digits 1-9 or (.) for a
blank square.
There were two winners in
this category: Dave Morris (University of Lethbridge,
Canada), and Peter Wilson (Herries Press, WA).
Dave Morris's macros, an example using his macros, and a
pdf showing his result.
Peter Wilson's macros and pdf.
For Wizards only. Create a new macro,
\sudokusolve{file},
which which reads an easy sudoku puzzle file, solves it, and then typesets
the solved grid.
There were two winners in
this category: Zachary Catlin (Purdue University), and Peter Wilson (Herries Press, WA).
Zachary's solver.
Peter's solver, and a pdf.
The Distractions editor suggested comparing the two
solvers, and both Zachary and Peter agreed to run their solvers
through a series of puzzles of varying difficulty. Both were
amazingly good at solving a variety of puzzles, including a high
percentage of difficult ones. Their results are
summarized in these files:
Peter Wilson's test files
Zachary Catlin's test
results
Peter Wilson notes that he has continued work on his Sudoku macros,
and plans to contribute a "sudokubundle" to CTAN soon which includes a
Sudoku typesetter, solver, and puzzle generator. Also on CTAN is Paul
Abraham's Sudoku package for typesetting puzzles.
