Carl wrote:
>    About 10 years ago I wrote a poloyomino solver in Quick Basic 4.5.  It used
> simple backtracking and simple graphical output and looked like a very watered
> down version of this:
> 
> http://math.hws.edu/xJava/Pentominos_old/
> 
>    I no longer have my original QB45 code and I find myself needing to create
> that program again.  

About 20+ years ago I wrote one in C, which I periodically rewrote every 
5 years or so as my programming skills improved.  Eventually I did it in 
C++ as well.  (Although these were specifically pentomino programs, not 
generic polyomino solvers.)  HOWEVER, these were all DOS-based programs 
using the text-mode screen, but with colored block characters.  I never 
did succeed in doing a real graphical version.  In addition, they used 
some direct-to-text-screen-writing routines that I also wrote myself. 
Besides displaying the results, it saved the solutions in text files as 
well.

I probably still have these sources floating around here someplace, but 
I don't know if I could find them -- I'm VERY disorganized here.    :-(

>                    However the only real programing I've done in the last 10
> years as been with POV-Ray.  

Personally, I would hesitate to call this a programming language.  It's 
programming-like, but too special purpose to think of it as a "real" PL. 
  My opinion only, of course.  But yes, it does look rather like C.

>                              Vista won't even let QB45 go to full screen mode
> so using it I now can only get text output and if I go to the work to recreate
> my program I would like for it to atleast look pretty.  

If you want to learn a "real" programming language, one that is often 
recommended as a first language is Python.  It's a beginner's language 
in that it's quite easy to learn, but it's a VERY effective and useful 
language (with graphics libraries as well).  It's much more versatile 
than any version of BASIC.  You might find this link an interesting 
read:  http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3882
And Python is open-source and available free for Windows, Linux and the 
Mac.  Of course, this has nothing to do with your polyomino question...

> Thanks,
> Carl

      -=- Larry -=-

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