You're right Jeff, but the amount of improvement is quite small, imo. A lookahead function seems needed in certain situations to decrease the number of the guesses that may have to be made, even though the probability of choosing a mined square on the next choice, is somewhat higher.
I just finished my Sudoku puzzle program, so I'm "puzzled out" right now. There are programs (some with source code), that take some of these refinements into consideration. Google "Minesweeper probability" for more info and links to some programs. I can't find any info on how much improvement this actually makes over a straight "always take the square with the lowest probability of being a mine", program. I suspect over a large (say 20,000 games) set, it would amount to less than 1%. Good luck with your contest. I hope you get a lot of interest, and maybe you can round up some of the programs from the net and compare them, as well. That would be interesting. Adak --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Algorithm Geeks" group. To post to this group, send email to algogeeks@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/algogeeks -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
