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Colour Printing
Hi - hopefully someone still bothers to check this forum!
The GP rules state that solving is to be done on paper. Whilst there is probably a whole other discussion about the extent to which the solving population actually adheres to that rule these days (as opposed to, eg, annotating pdfs on iPads or equivalent), and the extent to which the directors and the WPF cares about that rule.
Anyhow, assuming the existence of dinosaurs like myself who are willing to accept the paper trade-offs (eg losing time to the printer, not having as sophisticated a system to do trial and error) - I’d prefer to stick to the subject of printing.
I notice the puzzle GP round 7 has a puzzle where yellow and green colours are very important for the solving of the puzzle. This isn’t super helpful for those like me who can only print in black and white. Without this ever having been written down, I was vaguely under the impression that the GPs were designed to not have a dependency on colour printing. This no longer seems to be the case.
As some players feedback, I would find it very helpful if the organisers could clearly state as part of the general rules whether the rounds going forward have the expectation that solvers have access to a colour printer- it’ll allow dinosaurs likes me to make the appropriate adjustments and preparations.
Thanks!
Colour
My intention is to never have colo(u)r printing be *necessary* for *solving* the Puzzle GP. Note that for the "Wordle Bank" puzzle in GP round 7 (presumably what you are talking about here), shapes are used as a proxy for color -- all green shapes are circles, and all yellow shapes are octagons. I myself use a black-and-white printer and test all puzzles after a grayscale filter. Occasionally, as is the case in this puzzle, I also will run the colors through several color-blind filters to see how discernable colors are to different forms of color-restricted vision.
However, just because color will never be *necessary* does not mean that solving the puzzles in color will never be *advantageous* -- it is certainly possible that many solvers will find the "Wordle Bank" puzzle easier to solve when in color. As there is a wide range of human perception (for example, look up "grapheme-color synesthesia") and perception skills are often an integral part of puzzle-solving, there will never be any form of presentation that will be completely fair to all solvers. The same puzzle might be easier to solve in grayscale for one solver and easier to solve in color for another.
Because of these nuances, it's hard to state an unequivocal rule as to whether there is an expectation that solvers have access to a color printer. I'll say that there is an expectation that solvers have access to a grayscale printer, but any solvers who feel it is useful to have a color printer, or solve by annotating PDFs on iPads, are free to do so. As editor, I'll try to make sure that there are no significant advantages to anything other than a grayscale printer, but "significant" is a judgment call and players who are expecting a stronger adherence to fairness along these lines may be disappointed.
Thanks for the considered
Thanks for the considered reply, it's good to know the careful thought on printing is still there. I guess there's a familiarity point in play with wordle bank. Solving wordle like things using shapes rather than colours seems a bit like solving sudoku with A-I (or other unfamiliar symbols) rather than 1-9. It's probably technically the same thing, but the solving experience is definitely different.
Although a separate discussion, I guess I can't help but suggest that the point on using ipads needs further careful consideration - I don't think it's a trivial judgement to claim that it's equivalent to paper-solving, as the rules of this website require. I guess you should update the rules to make clear that you are happy for people to solve that way - those reading the rules as they stand might not think they are permitted, and so you might be putting off prospective solvers who dont have a printer.
[And whilst definitely a separate discussion, my view is also strongly that ipad solving is (a) not equivalent to paper-solving, and (b) probably offers a mild advantage for most solvers over paper-solving]
That's a good point about ipad solving
That's a good point about ipad solving and I'll try to discuss it with the WPF board at a time when I'm feeling less overwhelmed.
Undo
If you solve the puzzles on iPad / computer, are you allowed to use the "undo" feature? I think it would make iPad / computer solving definitely not equivalent to paper solving.