Currently, this project supports black-and-white nonograms following the .non nonogram file format; more information can be found at mikix's puzzle database repository at https://github.com/mikix/nonogram-db. This project doesn't yet support bundles (.nonpack files) or colored nonograms.

To download the files in my repository, type

git clone https://github.com/ArtofBugs/Nonograms

in your command line (or copy the line above by triple-clicking it, and then paste it into your command line using Ctrl-Shift-V) and hit the enter/return key. You may need to install git first; you can use

sudo apt install git

Then navigate to the new Nonograms folder using

cd ./Nonograms

Then type

make

You may have to install make; use

sudo apt install make

You may also need to install jre; use

sudo apt install default-jre

Depending on your computer, you might need to run

sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk

(as of August 2021) to install openjdk.

Now you can pick a puzzle. As an example, if I wanted to solve the included heart.non puzzle using all three solvers, I'd type

sh runner.sh -a nons/heart.non

It may take some time for the solver to finish, but it should eventually print, to standard output (your command line) the amount of time it took to solve the puzzle (this does not include parsing time) as well as the first solution to the puzzle that it finds (if any). In the solution, asterisks (*) represent filled squares; periods (.) represent unfilled squares. If no solution exists, the solver will print "NO SOLUTION" as well as the time it took to reach that conclusion.

If you wanted to test other puzzles in my repository, use the same sh command listed above, but replace "heart.non" with the path of the puzzle file. If you don't want the brute force solver to attempt to solve, remove the -a option. Currently, the available solvers are brute force, backtracking, and row-column switching backtracking (called "RCBacktracking").

Another included tool is the goal parser (used in the case you want to cheat and just get the solution off of the goal listed in a .non puzzle, or you legitimately want to make sure a solver is solving correctly). To run that, type

javac GoalParser.java

and then

java GoalParser puzzle

replacing "puzzle" with the name of the puzzle. (If the puzzle's not from my repository, replace "puzzle" with the path of the puzzle file.) It will print a representation of the puzzle's solution to standard error, following the same format that the solvers follow (asterisks for filled squares, periods for unfilled squares).

If you wanted, you could also solve .non puzzles from mikix's repository by running

cd ..

git clone https://github.com/mikix/nonogram-db

cd ./Nonograms

Then run

sh runner.sh [option] ../nonogram-db/db/folder/name

replacing "name" with the name of the puzzle and "folder" with the name of the folder the puzzle is in (currently, this will be gnonograms, qnonograms, or webpbn). mikix also has puzzle generators that you can use.

If you'd like to make your own puzzle, create a text file with the .non file ending and follow the format provided in the FORMAT.md file in mikix's nonogram-db repository.

My repository also has a generator for all-black squares; run

sh genblack.sh n > nons/newfile

replacing n with the side length and newfile with what you want to call your new file. The file will be created as a .non file in the nons folder.