From: James Edward Gray II <james@...>
Date: 2006-08-16T06:51:11+09:00
Subject: Re: [QUIZ] Newbie doubts about the quiz

On Aug 15, 2006, at 4:34 PM, Morton Goldberg wrote:

> Well, you might look at the solution I posted earlier today for  
> hints. It's not all that good, but I happened to take an approach  
> very similar to what you outline here. It works, but just barely.  
> My experience with it is that a simple depth-first search is too  
> slow for grids bigger than 6 x 6 (which is pathetic considering  
> some of huge grids solved by posted solutions).

I'm uncomfortable with the word "pathetic" here.

Remember that we have all level of people who like to play with the  
quizzes.  If someone only manages to get a slow solution together,  
that's still a solution!  Even better, they gained enough  
understanding of the problem, that they can then look to the summary  
and other solutions for tricks they might try next time.

If you have fun, challenge yourself a little, and even learn  
something, the quiz is a big win I say.

I wouldn't think, "Wow, my solution sucks."  Instead, I would think,  
"OK, that's tougher than it looks.  Let me go see how these guys made  
it go so fast..."  ;)

James Edward Gray II