Watch that tango!

Wife: Dancing lynx? That would be really cute. Of course, they’d have to get fitted for special little shoes, if they were going to be, like, tap-dancing or anything. Still…

Me: It’s links. With an “i”.

Wife: Yes, I know that, but it would be much cuter if it was a bobcat.

Me: And less useful.

Yesterday I implemented the Dancing Links algorithm. I first heard about it a few years ago after I wrote a simple Sudoku game. I didn’t write a version back then because I had tired of writing Yet Another Sudoku Game, and my game languished and was forgotten. This time, however, my current project could benefit from it.

It is a surprisingly easy algorithm to write. With the way people talk about it—and with some of the implementations I have seen—I was expecting it to be a long, drawn out battle to get it done. Not so! It was the work of maybe a few hours to read about it and get it completed. Now I just need to see if it will work for my purposes. 😛