h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...would you program be available for download? And what language is it written in?

Well, my particular version is written in C... in fact, you can see the source code: it's on a page called 'Source Code for a Minesweeper AI', in the Guide.

Unfortunately, it ain't available for download anywhere, largely because it isn't a particularly finished sort of version. I can send it you via ICQ if you want, though...

26199

I'm talking about that game with the pegs in the shape of a + and the central peg hole being empty (although the card game can be equally annoying).

I tried to write something to solve it as it's bothered me for ages. My mistake was writing it on my company's inhouse software and system, and opting for a random path generator i.e. it starts, gets as far as it gets, and then starts again, but without remembering whether it's tried one way before.

So I wrote it, set it running, and sat back to do some other work. After a while I noticed that several people in the office we're complaining of the networked system being slow. Slight panic set in when we started getting calls from our satellite offices about the slow network too.

In growing fear, I ran a system processor checking command and waited for the answer...

...next to my logon name and the solitaire program name was a percentage number of the amount of system processing resources it was using up, namely 90%.

Did you know it's possible to break the laws of physics in terms of typing speed beyond the speed of light? Especially when you're trying to cover your tracks?

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I stopped the program and removed all existance of it. I told one of the guys next to me, who, being far smarter, wrote another version in several different languages, using a non-random method which kept track of it's previous moves, and then presented me with the list of moves necessary to complete Solitaire.

However, I still take pride in the knowledge that it was my idea to try it in the first place....

WeirdHope

I shall have to give that one a try... I've never been able to do it myself

Never think when you could get your computer to do the thinking for you, that's my motto. Well, it's something I say fairly often, at least

26199

WeirdHope; about pegged (as it was called on Win Entertainment Pack)

You might try to compile and run the http://194.219.64.193/tzot/temp/pegger.c source code; I can bet you won't even notice its running time...

P.S. Coincidence: the source was last modified *exactly* 5 years ago...
-rw-rw-rw- 1 tzot adm 3870 Jun 26 1995 pegger.c