pboneputt wrote:
Why would anyone want or need a solver for any puzzles on this site? Maybe to learn how to have more success at solving (and then not need them anymore). What is the challenge in that???
There are many sorts of challenges creating a working model solving puzzles fully automatically with the least amount of programming code. To experience this, the only way is to try it yourself!
I love to see the wide open eyes of graduated persons when I explain the inner working of my model. "I didn't know this was possible in Excel!" "Why don't we learn this at school!!"
You can have Excel drawing arrows to source cells or to target cells. So you can clearly see how information flows though the model. Blocks of cells containing equivalent formulae process a certain analysis of the puzzle, like revealing hidden pairs.
Our human brain processes information much the same way. People like to see this and show themselves astonished. It also shows the power of the human brain: all brain cells work parallel, and if some thousands of braincells were connected the same way as in my model, our brain would solve the puzzle in a millisecond.
Yet my model is very inferior to expert puzzlers like clm. It lacks his creativity. The ultimate challenge!