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Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by merelysounds on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @03:20AM (#46792496)
I built this, the list started as a tutorial and then grew out of control. Especially when I started experimenting with mixing text and interactive elements. I think nonograms are underrated and relatively unknown, I hope this text changes it a little.

I link to my app[1] frequently, it's free right now, I hope this is fine. There's no Android version yet; for anyone who wants to try nonograms on an Android smartphone I recommend Simon Tatham's Puzzles[2] - like my app it is also free, has no ads, etc; nonograms there are called "pattern".

Feedback very welcome; thanks! If you use other nonogram solving techniques and want me to add them to the list please share too.

[1]: https://lab174.com/nonoverse/

[2]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details

Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by netghost on Sunday February 01, 2026 @12:54AM (#46843985)
Wonderfully done, thanks for sharing!
Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by evgpbfhnr on Sunday February 01, 2026 @02:22AM (#46844237)
Great js implementation! I don't have any iThing but I'd happily play your js version in a browser for a while.

Since you mentioned Simon Tatham puzzles there's a js version here[1], but it really just isn't quite as good

[1] https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/patt...

(if I were to nitpick, for large grids one might want to make the separating line a bit thicker every 5 blocks for faster counting, and repeat numbers at the bottom/right -- but at the size the examples are in neither are needed)

(BTW you didn't mention for overlapping but there's a nice trick: just try from either end, count how many cells are leftover, and take that off the starting side of each block)

Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by polymax on Sunday February 01, 2026 @02:45AM (#46844328)
Great work but… In app purchase pop up quotes 0.0 for extra puzzles. My card got charged ~25 USD. I feel I was scammed.
Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by swiftcoder on Sunday February 01, 2026 @03:05AM (#46844426)
How? If you look at the purchase history in your apple account it should show the actual price, and in mine it shows as free
Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by xmichelo on Sunday February 01, 2026 @03:26AM (#46844514)
Same. 'Unlock Image Puzzles' shows an amount of 0.
Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by merelysounds on Sunday February 01, 2026 @06:55AM (#46845555)
This is a free app. Always look at the native iOS in app popup and here it says the same thing. Double check your charge, it must be something unrelated. Don’t accuse people of scams without doing this check first.
Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by 1123581321 on Sunday February 01, 2026 @08:21AM (#46846038)
Can you post screenshots of your purchase history in 2026? It’s in the upper right profile icon in the main view of the App Store app.
Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by polymax on Sunday February 01, 2026 @12:33PM (#46847756)
Apologies. You are right. I got an unrelated charge on my card from apple 1 sec after their in-app upgrade.
Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by esperent on Sunday February 01, 2026 @04:41AM (#46844856)
The Google play link is broken for me:

> We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server.

Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by merelysounds on Sunday February 01, 2026 @05:04AM (#46844989)
Fixed link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chr...

Sorry, cannot edit the grandparent post. I copied that invalid link from safari's url bar, perhaps Google Play store did something unexpected with URLs.

Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by carefulfungi on Sunday February 01, 2026 @09:29AM (#46846452)
I am unfamiliar with nonograms. I don't understand from the explanation how the grouping hints work.

"When there are two or more numbers, this means there will be two or more groups of filled cells."

Is the "group number" the size of the first group? That seems to fit the tutorial example where (1, 2) = (., x, ., .) and (2, 1) = (., ., x, .).

Thanks for making this - I've stumbled across these puzzles but never took the time to try one.

Re:Nonograms: a practical guide with interactive examples by merelysounds on Sunday February 01, 2026 @09:47AM (#46846555)
Yes, that’s exactly how it works.

Each number specifies the size of the corresponding group. E.g. numbers “5 4 7” would mean: “three groups of filled cells, first group will consist of 5 cells, second will consist of 4 cells, third group will consist of 7 cells”.

Have fun and I’m happy to hear that this is useful!