Nomenclature, notation, etc.

The hardest part of trying to explain something visual with words is developing a nomenclature, a vocabulary to describe what is in the game, and a notation or shorthand.   The nomenclature and notations for chess have become pretty standard, but there are all sorts of variations for sudoku.

Naturally, I have my own favored nomenclature, words I've usually chosen to support mnemonics.  And more importantly, I have my own notation, which I'll use throughout the blog. The chart below shows you my identifiers for the zones, rows, columns, squares and spaces.  Yes, it looks more complicated, but it lets me say things like "in Tt, the 7 can only fall into Cl or Cr, which means that it cannot appear in TCbc,"

Remember, notation is not about how you think about solving a sudoku puzzle, it's about how you describe what you're doing or seeing as you solve a sudoku puzzle.

There are six  Zones.  Three are horizontal: Top, Middle, Bottom.  Three are vertical: Left, Center, Right.  Zones are always identified by a capital letter.  Small letters have the same sequence but fall within a zone.

There are nine Rows, which are always identified by two 'horizontal' letters, first the Capital, then the small.
There are nine Columns, always identified by two 'vertical' letters, first the Capital, then the small.
There are nine Squares, always identified the two Capital letters, one horizontal and then one vertical.
Within the squares the pattern repeats in small letters, identifying the eighty-one spaces of the puzzle.

This system also lets me identify Segments, which I'll define as the intersection of one of the long sets (row or column) with a square.  TLt, for examples, indicates the three spaces at the top of the Top Left hand square.
This can be useful when we're applying logic later.

When we add the symbols, or digits, to the space identifiers, we have the first step of notation.

MCmc7, for example, would put a 7 right in the middle of the grid.

So far, so good?

x	LEFT			CENTER			RIGHT			x
TOP	TLtl	TLtc	TLtr	TCtl	TCtc	TCtr	TRtl	TRtc	TRtr	Tt
	TLml	TL TLmc	TLmr	TCml	TC TCmc	TCmr	TRml	TR TRmc	TRmr	Tm
	TLbl	TLbc	TLbr	TCbl	TCbc	TCbr	TRbl	TRbc	TRbr	Tb
MIDDLE	MLtl	MLtc	MLtr	MCtl	MCtc	MCtr	MRtl	MRtc	MRtr	Mt
	MLml	ML MLmc	MLmr	MCml	MC MCmc	MCmr	MRml	MR MRmc	MRmr	Mm
	MLbl	MLbc	MLbr	MCbl	MCbc	MCbr	MRbl	MRbc	MRbr	Mb
BOTTOM	BLtl	BLtc	BLtr	BCtl	BCtc	BCtr	BRtl	BRtc	BRtr	Bt
	BLml	BL BLmc	BLmr	BCml	BC BCmc	BCmr	BRml	BR BRmc	BRmr	Bm
	BLbl	BLbc	BLbr	BCbl	BCbc	BCbr	BRbl	BRbc	BRbr	Bb
x	Ll	Lc	Lr	Cl	Cc	Cr	Rl	Rc	Rr	x