Programming Assignment 4: Slider Puzzle


/* *****************************************************************************
 *  Explain briefly how you represented the Board data type.
 **************************************************************************** */




/* *****************************************************************************
 *  Explain briefly how you represented a search node
 *  (board + number of moves + previous search node).
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/* *****************************************************************************
 *  Explain briefly how you detected unsolvable puzzles.
 *
 *  What is the order of growth of the running time of your isSolvable()
 *  method in the worst case as function of the board size n? Use big Theta
 *  notation to simplify your answer, e.g., Theta(n log n) or Theta(n^3).
 **************************************************************************** */

Description:



Order of growth of running time: Theta(   )



/* *****************************************************************************
 *  For each of the following instances, give the minimum number of moves to
 *  solve the instance (as reported by your program). Also, give the amount
 *  of time your program takes with both the Hamming and Manhattan priority
 *  functions. If your program can't solve the instance in a reasonable
 *  amount of time (say, 5 minutes) or memory, indicate that instead. Note
 *  that your program may be able to solve puzzle[xx].txt even if it can't
 *  solve puzzle[yy].txt and xx > yy.
 **************************************************************************** */


                 min number          seconds
     instance     of moves     Hamming     Manhattan
   ------------  ----------   ----------   ----------
   puzzle28.txt 
   puzzle30.txt 
   puzzle32.txt 
   puzzle34.txt 
   puzzle36.txt 
   puzzle38.txt 
   puzzle40.txt 
   puzzle42.txt 



/* *****************************************************************************
 *  If you wanted to solve random 4-by-4 or 5-by-5 puzzles, which
 *  would you prefer: a faster computer (say, 2x as fast), more memory
 *  (say 2x as much), a better priority queue (say, 2x as fast),
 *  or a better priority function (say, one on the order of improvement
 *  from Hamming to Manhattan)? Why?
 **************************************************************************** */






/* *****************************************************************************
 *  Known bugs / limitations.
 **************************************************************************** */




/* *****************************************************************************
 *  Describe any serious problems you encountered.                    
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/* *****************************************************************************
 *  List any other comments here. Feel free to provide any feedback   
 *  on how much you learned from doing the assignment, and whether    
 *  you enjoyed doing it.                                             
 **************************************************************************** */