Getting assistance

The program contains a number of settings and options to help the search for a solution, and if required, to avoid mistakes.

Checking inconsistencies

The Edit menu contains an option "Check consistency" which performs a check on the current state of the puzzle. If any inconsistencies are found the offending cell(s) will be given a red background. Inconsistencies are of two types: 1. set cells which break Rule 1, i.e. its set symbol occurs in more than one of its 9mers; 2. cells in which all the candidates have been deleted but the cell symbol is not set.

Highlight inconsistencies

The Highlight inconsistencies option in the File menu sets the program in a mode in which it will constantly monitor the state of the grid to check for inconsistencies.

If any inconsistencies are found the offending cells will be given a red background. As stated above, inconsistencies are of two types: 1. set cells which break Rule 1, i.e. its set symbol occurs in more than one of its 9mers; 2. cells in which all the candidates have been deleted but the cell symbol is not set.

If the grid is found to be inconsistent the "<<" button in the Toolbar will step backwards through each preceeding grid state until the inconsistency is not present.

Highlight wrong answers

The Highlight wrong answers option in the File menu sets the program in a mode in which it will constantly monitor the state of the grid to check for cells set to the wrong symbol. If any are found the offending cell will be given a red background as shown in Figure 1.

Information content

When a puzzle is complete it has zero information content. On the scale used by SourGumdrop, a completely empty grid has information content of 81 x 9 = 729, 9 being the information content for a completely unfiltered cell. Each time a candidate is removed from consideration the information content reduces by 1.

The total information for a cell is shown at the bottom of the program display with the heading "Info". It can be used to gauge the number of steps still required to finish the puzzle.

Cell colour codes

As a guide to the user, the information for each cell is shown by the colour of the large button at its centre: the colour gets lighter as the number of candidates is reduced. The current range of shades is shown in Figure 2.

Showing the solution

SourGumdrop can reveal the solution for individual cells or for the whole grid. To see the solution for an individual cell use the option "Show solution" in the cell's menu (left click on the big button). This increments the program's history by 1 and can be unset using the "Undo" command/button. To see the solution for the whole puzzle use the option "Show solution" in the File menu. This increments the program's history by 1 and can be unset using the Undo command/button.