Version 1.1 (released 2001-05-04)
Copyright © 1998, 2001 X-Watch Software, Sven Künzler. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Alternately, this acknowledgment may appear in the software itself, if and wherever such third-party acknowledgments normally appear.This product includes software developed by X-Watch Software (http://www.xwatch.de/).
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL X-WATCH SOFTWARE OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Note: The conditions of this license correspond to those of the Apache Software License, Version 1.1.
This program was inspired by publications of the following people
Slider implements the famous 3x3-puzzle.
The goal is to order the numbers from 1 to 8 by moving the pieces.
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Just unpack the archive and start Slider.exe.
After starting Slider, you get a playfield which is mixed up. You may move the pieces which are next to the gap. The status line shows how many moves you made so far.
There are also few menu options:
File|New Game mixes the pieces again
File|Next Move shows the next move
for an optimal solution (minimum of moves necessary). When you select this
option the computer has to look up the best solution which can take a little
time.
File|Solve computes this best solution
and shows it as an animation. Stop the demo with the <Escape> key.
File|Quit This option is experimental.
It exits Slider. Most probably you won't want to use it.
View|Progress show the progress
during computation. Slows down the algorithm, so you may want to uncheck
this.
Help|Info Author information and copyright.
Slider was written by Sven Künzler
If you understand german language you might want to visit my homepage at http://www.xwatch.de/. There is also a small english section available.
The goal of this program is not to provide the ultimate game design but to explore ways to solve the problem automatically. Though the task is quite simple for a human being the computerized solving is a somewhat more diffcult.
Currently, the algorithm thinks up all possible moves and their predecessors. Given a starting position, there is a maximum of 4 possible moves. But each of them has 2 or 3 predecessors and so on, thus, there is a lot of data to be maintained.
In the current release, there is much room for improvements:
If you find bugs in the program or make improvements to it, please send me an email.