vivayossarian Daily subscriber Rated puzzle: Hard Completion time: 56:21 Used 'show wrong moves'
I do not deserve 'best time' -- I clicked "Show wrong moves" for the first time 8:40 before I was done, and apparently that resets the clock. I wasn't using any cheats before that.
Posted 22nd Jun 2008 at 21:50
gareth Administrator Daily subscriber Has started but not yet finished this puzzle
Hello vivayossarian, I'm very sorry about that! I will investigate later tonight, once I've finished Sudoku Pro magazine that is due tomorrow. :) This is probably the same issue another user reported before that I haven't yet got round to looking at (oops). That was Hanjie too, but that's probably a coincidence. If you let me know how long you think it did take you I can amend the database if you would like.
Gareth, puzzlemix
Posted 22nd Jun 2008 at 21:55 Last edited by gareth 22nd Jun 2008 at 21:56
gareth Administrator Daily subscriber Has started but not yet finished this puzzle
I don't think show wrong moves was necessarily the cause because I can't reproduce that. The clock is set when the puzzle is served by the website - in other words, when you open it. It can only restart the clock if the puzzle is re-opened, or in other words the website verifies that it's you and you have access to the puzzle and then serves it from its database. That's what's supposed to happen anyway - the webpage doesn't have a timer itself. So I will need to follow through all the places the database can get accessed and see where the timer reset is occurring. The thing that confuses me is that if you reload the page you will reset the puzzle (except in some Firefox versions where it tries to be clever - very weird!), and if you don't then it shouldn't reset. But you're not the first person this has happened to so I must have made a mistake somewhere. :)
Posted 23rd Jun 2008 at 19:55
vivayossarian Daily subscriber Rated puzzle: Hard Completion time: 56:21 Used 'show wrong moves'
Hi Gareth,
Well, it happened to me again today on the next puzzle--the artist's pallette one. I was nearly done with the puzzle (using no hints the whole time), and realized I must have made a small mistake... so I clicked the 'Show wrong moves'. After fixing the two wrong squares, I went on to finish the puzzle pretty quickly. It told me my final time was 1:20 !!!
I don't know what my final scores on these two puzzles really were--but I would guess somewhat longer than the overall average. I do not ever solve a puzzle faster than the overall average (probably because I use no hints, and the overall average includes the people who use hints).
Anyway, this is really a great website, keep up the good work!
Posted 23rd Jun 2008 at 20:00
gareth Administrator Daily subscriber Has started but not yet finished this puzzle
Hi, Thanks again - that's incredibly useful to let me know about that because it gives me more information to work on. I'm sorry again for the problem! I'll look at it shortly. Could you let me know which web browser you are using, if you know? Thank you!
Gareth
Posted 23rd Jun 2008 at 23:18 Last edited by gareth 23rd Jun 2008 at 23:23
gareth Administrator Daily subscriber Has started but not yet finished this puzzle
Okay, I dug into the website logs and saw you are using Firefox 1.5.0.8, and worked out how your timer got reset. I could see that the player page itself had sent a request to re-open the page (which resets the timer), so testing with Firefox 1.5.0.8 I have reproduced the problem which is great because now I can tell when hopefully I fix it shortly! Incidentally I can also retrieve your actual completion times if you would like. :)
It appears that Firefox sends an unwanted "form request" for the page when you touch the show wrong moves checkbox. It thinks you are submitting a form because a checkbox is a form element, so it sends a dummy request to open the puzzle again - which the site thinks you are really doing and so resets the timer. (Arguably that shouldn't happen anyway, but that's a different story!). Whether this only happens with Hanjie or not I'm not sure, but it should be possible to fix this now I know it happens. I should probably embed a backup timer in the player itself so it can take a "longest wins" approach to how long you really took. :)
I thought this was a bug in Firefox 1 but I have just tested Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 and it happens in those too, so it seems I am not trapping an event somewhere which doesn't fire in Internet Explorer and other browsers!
Posted 24th Jun 2008 at 00:17
gareth Administrator Daily subscriber Has started but not yet finished this puzzle
Ah, well I was wrong but I have now fixed it! (I am still testing so the fix will go 'live' shortly).
If anyone is interested in the technical info:
When I was setting the background image for the 'wrong cells' to the red hatching I set the square background to "url('hatching.gif')" which told the web browser to load the image. When I cleared it I set it to "url('')", which in Firefox had the effect of reloading the current page and ignoring the result (so a bug in Firefox in actual fact, I think). Anyway, setting it to "none" instead fixes the issue.
So this only affected "Show incorrect" in Hanjie because this is the only player that does this. It also only happened the first time you un-checked it because after that Firefox cached the result.
Took two hours to work that out! :)
Posted 24th Jun 2008 at 00:38
gareth Administrator Daily subscriber Has started but not yet finished this puzzle
I've recovered your actual time from the site logs. :)
Posted 27th Jun 2008 at 21:22
vivayossarian Daily subscriber Rated puzzle: Hard Completion time: 56:21 Used 'show wrong moves'
Wow. Good work. I am glad I could be of help. I also didn't want to take away the 'best time' award from someone who actually EARNED it.
Posted 12th Oct 2012 at 19:55
kkristen Rated puzzle: Easy Best completion time: 29:38 Time on first attempt: 1:03:03 Used 'show wrong moves'
it takes long time to finish but its easy
Posted 22nd Jun 2013 at 00:37 Last edited by Ritulia 22nd Jun 2013 at 00:38
Ritulia Rated puzzle: Moderate Best completion time: 35:17 Time on first attempt: 41:54 Used 'show wrong moves'
*lol* What a gorgeous little thing! And I had no idea what it would be, from the title. :)
I'm very sorry about that! I will investigate later tonight, once I've finished Sudoku Pro magazine that is due tomorrow. :) This is probably the same issue another user reported before that I haven't yet got round to looking at (oops). That was Hanjie too, but that's probably a coincidence.
If you let me know how long you think it did take you I can amend the database if you would like.
Gareth, puzzlemix
Last edited by gareth 22nd Jun 2008 at 21:56
The thing that confuses me is that if you reload the page you will reset the puzzle (except in some Firefox versions where it tries to be clever - very weird!), and if you don't then it shouldn't reset. But you're not the first person this has happened to so I must have made a mistake somewhere. :)
Well, it happened to me again today on the next puzzle--the artist's pallette one. I was nearly done with the puzzle (using no hints the whole time), and realized I must have made a small mistake... so I clicked the 'Show wrong moves'. After fixing the two wrong squares, I went on to finish the puzzle pretty quickly. It told me my final time was 1:20 !!!
I don't know what my final scores on these two puzzles really were--but I would guess somewhat longer than the overall average. I do not ever solve a puzzle faster than the overall average (probably because I use no hints, and the overall average includes the people who use hints).
Anyway, this is really a great website, keep up the good work!
Thanks again - that's incredibly useful to let me know about that because it gives me more information to work on. I'm sorry again for the problem!
I'll look at it shortly. Could you let me know which web browser you are using, if you know?
Thank you!
Gareth
Last edited by gareth 23rd Jun 2008 at 23:23
It appears that Firefox sends an unwanted "form request" for the page when you touch the show wrong moves checkbox. It thinks you are submitting a form because a checkbox is a form element, so it sends a dummy request to open the puzzle again - which the site thinks you are really doing and so resets the timer. (Arguably that shouldn't happen anyway, but that's a different story!). Whether this only happens with Hanjie or not I'm not sure, but it should be possible to fix this now I know it happens. I should probably embed a backup timer in the player itself so it can take a "longest wins" approach to how long you really took. :)
I thought this was a bug in Firefox 1 but I have just tested Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 and it happens in those too, so it seems I am not trapping an event somewhere which doesn't fire in Internet Explorer and other browsers!
If anyone is interested in the technical info:
When I was setting the background image for the 'wrong cells' to the red hatching I set the square background to "url('hatching.gif')" which told the web browser to load the image. When I cleared it I set it to "url('')", which in Firefox had the effect of reloading the current page and ignoring the result (so a bug in Firefox in actual fact, I think). Anyway, setting it to "none" instead fixes the issue.
So this only affected "Show incorrect" in Hanjie because this is the only player that does this. It also only happened the first time you un-checked it because after that Firefox cached the result.
Took two hours to work that out! :)
Last edited by Ritulia 22nd Jun 2013 at 00:38
You can however view other players' statistics and their comments in the tables above.