Forums

+1
Also for other puzzle types.

That's an interesting observation. And an elegant way to deal with puzzles with ranges not starting with 1.

Number: Puzzle #2599
Genre: Sum Thing
Author: anurag.sahay
Appeared at: July 3, 2011

Bug: you can fill in 1 even though the range is 2~10.

I once asked this question before. See this thread: http://www.puzzlepicnic.com/community/posts/list/647.page

Am I the only one who keeps getting confused by the fact that the small end of the triangle points to the largest region in Heterocut?
(The opposite of how the < and > signs work in mathematics.)

Bug: Sometimes the forum thinks that you are not logged in, while you are for the puzzle pages.
Using the login box at the top of the forum pages won't work under these circumstances.
Possibly the session is timed out for as far as the forum is concerned, while you still have an active session in the puzzle pages.

Workaround: throw away your cookies and log in again.

Number: Puzzle #2047
Genre: Masyu
Author: anurag.sahay
Appeared at: October 11, 2010

Bug: you cannot put a mark on the line right above the left of the two adjacent white balls.

Number: Puzzle #2248
Genre: Sum Thing
Author: Eranus
Appeared at: January 22, 2011

Bug: The range is listed as 1~9, but you can enter 10 in every circle.

Number: Puzzle #2583
Genre: Sudoku
Author: Bram
Appeared at: May 12, 2011

Bug: you can put a 7 in the bottom left corner.

This was not the only problem with the applet on Opera 10, but I've found a few workarounds and a few clues since I last posted.

1. Problem: An "Applet not found." message where the puzzle Applet is supposed to go.
Details: The problem does not always happen, and if it does, even reloading the page won't help. The following exception is listed in the Java console output:
Code:

 java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: ipp.Main
 	at com.opera.AppletClassLoader.findClass(AppletClassLoader.java:369)
 	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:307)
 	at com.opera.AppletClassLoader.loadClass(AppletClassLoader.java:433)
 	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:252)
 	at com.opera.AppletPanel.runLoaderThread(AppletPanel.java:410)
 	at com.opera.AppletPanel.run(AppletPanel.java:384)
 	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
 Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: <a href="http://www.puzzlepicnic.com/ipp/Main.class" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.puzzlepicnic.com/ipp/Main.class</a>
 	at com.opera.URLConnection.getInputStream(URLConnection.java:137)
 	at com.opera.AppletClassLoader.readClassFile(AppletClassLoader.java:380)
 	at com.opera.AppletClassLoader.access$100(AppletClassLoader.java:34)
 	at com.opera.AppletClassLoader$4.run(AppletClassLoader.java:360)
 	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
 	at com.opera.AppletClassLoader.findClass(AppletClassLoader.java:358)
 	... 6 more

Workaround: close the tab with the puzzle, open the Java console (Tools -> Advanced -> Java console), type 'x' in the Java console (clear classloader cache), and reopen the tab (CTRL-Z in the main browser area).
Suspected cause: The Java runtime tries to start the applet before it is completely loaded, and as the loaded (incomplete) applet is cached, reloading the page doesn't work. Probably a bug in Opera.

2. Problem: Puzzle Applet is extremely slow.
Workaround: Open the 'More information' link in a new tab, and close it again.
I have no idea why this workaround works. It's got something to do with the applet on that page, but if I instead open another Puzzle page, Opera will seem to hang altogether.
The workaround will only improve the situation from 'extremely slow' to 'slow' though, and after the workaround, the following exception is thrown every time something is drawn in the applet:
Code:

 Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-3" java.lang.NullPointerException
 	at ipp.Main.storeCookie(Main.java:723)
 	at ipp.Main.update(Main.java:373)
 	at ipp.Main.paint(Main.java:362)
 	at sun.awt.RepaintArea.paintComponent(RepaintArea.java:248)
 	at sun.awt.X11.XRepaintArea.paintComponent(XRepaintArea.java:56)
 	at sun.awt.RepaintArea.paint(RepaintArea.java:224)
 	at sun.awt.X11.XComponentPeer.handleEvent(XComponentPeer.java:688)
 	at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4706)
 	at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2099)
 	at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4460)
 	at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:599)
 	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:269)
 	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:184)
 	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:174)
 	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:169)
 	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
 	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)

I wouldn't be surprised if this is another bug in Opera.

3. Problem: The Java applet hangs for several minutes after pressing the 'check' button.
Workaround: none so far.

Has anyone else here experienced a huge slowdown with the (Java) puzzles on this site after upgrading Opera to a version 10 beta? It's become unbearably (unplayably) slow for me (though this isn't a very fast computer).

This is the first time that I've had a use for the + marking.

(That was me hinting that this was not obvious and should probably be mentioned on the puzzle page somewhere, in case you were wondering)

Ah!

Sometimes, in a puzzle, you know that if a certain step would yield a solution, then there must be another solution. As each puzzle is supposed to have a single unique solution, you know that that step must be wrong.

I personally tend not to use this information, as it feels like cheating, because I would be using meta-information which I don't consider to be part of the puzzle.

How do others think about this? Is using the fact that each puzzle has a unique solution cheating, or do you consider it to be just another clue?