Xref: utzoo sci.math:6646 comp.lang.prolog:1724 comp.ai:4079
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!xanth!mcnc!uvaarpa!uvacs!olduvacs!dsr
From: dsr@olduvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU (Dana S. Richards)
Newsgroups: sci.math,comp.lang.prolog,comp.ai
Subject: Re: solving soma puzzles
Keywords: soma, pentominoes, combinatorial explosion
Message-ID: <3124@olduvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 8 May 89 12:09:54 GMT
References: <336@edai.ed.ac.uk>
Reply-To: dsr@olduvacs.cs.virginia.edu.UUCP (Dana S. Richards)
Organization: U.Va. CS dept.  Charlottesville, VA
Lines: 29

In article <336@edai.ed.ac.uk> cam@edai.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) writes:
>I need fast methods of solving this kind of problem in a computer - I
>have a PROLOG program which does it, too slowly. [It is methods I'm
>interested in, not the relative virtues of programming languages].
>
  I am therefore interested in GENERAL
>methods of cutting down the size of this search space, which can be
>applied to ANY shape made from ANY set of these kinds of parts.
>
>Pentominoes are a 2D subset of the soma5 problem.
>

Some references from my files (mostly for pentomines):

Comm ACM 18(1975)651-656.

Math Spectrum 8(1976)39-50.

Comm ACM 8(1965)621-623.

Byte (nov 1979)26-52.

and an interesting item of little value today,

Dana Scott, "Programming a combinatorial puzzle", tech rept princeton 1958.

I did some unpublished work many years ago but have forgotten how it went.

dana richards