getting started

[Sooz]

Hello
I've just downloaded the free version, first to familiarize myself before I subscribe. Reading the wg.doc and starting to feel pretty stupid.

On page 9 it says, "The user should be acquainted with typical values of ...". So how am I supposed to familiarize myself? Is there a formula? I'm not a mathematician. OK - there are 50 pages and I'm only on page 9, so if the information is given later on, I apologize. But this is all so new to me and I'd like to understand as I go along.

So far, I've entered the parameters 20,6,3,5, 100% and made b = 1000. I didn't bother with any filtering yet because the free verson doesn't allow that anyway. I just want to see how it all works.
Roughly how long is it supposed to take? Not complaining, just want to know. I have a 64 bit, dual processor. Or, stupid question, does it just go on forever until I stop it?

Any dumbed-down help on how to get started would be appreciated.

.....Sooz

[lottoarchitect]

Hi Sooz,

your best source for typical values for can be obtained at the various covering repositories. For your convenience here is a list of such repositories.

http://www.ccrwest.org/cover.html (La Jolla Covering Repository - contains the best t=m coverings)
http://www.weefs-lottosysteme.de (WeEf's Lotto Repository - contains mostly t < m coverings)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~rbelic (Rade Belic - contains only figures, no actual downloads and most of these figures have been surpassed but they are good as reference).

The most up to date repositories are the first two and contain the best coverings available.

Computing by yourself a good value for is actually impossible. So, to have an idea of the you need for a particular construction, just refer to the above links. There isn't an equation around that can give a good estimation for for the various parameters. WG offers a theoretical minimum value at the bottom of the program but this is just a theoretical and quite inaccurate for most coverings but it is the absolute minimum indication. Note, this is a theoretical value; it does not mean it is possible to make such a covering 99.9% of the time.

So for the particular covering 20,6,3,5 at WeEf's site you can see that this construction requires 18 blocks (this is your value). Note, this is the current known record for this covering. It may be possible that it can be done even at 17 blocks, unless if the theoretical minimum value displayed in WG says anything bigger than 17.000.

Such small constructions generally require a few seconds, a few minutes to a couple of hours to be generated - exact numbers cannot be given; it solely depends on the covering under construction. Keep in mind, not all constructions are possible to their absolute known record of by WG but generally you'll be quite close to this value, if not excatly to the suggested in the above sites.

Hope this helps.

cheers
lottoarchitect

[Sooz]

Thanks so much LottoArchitect. I've also realized (slapping myself on the forehead!), it was maybe taking so long because I asked for 1000 blocks and the auto-reduce blocks was disabled! )
This seems like such an awesome program, it will definitely be worth the time it's taking me to learn.
.....Sooz

[lottoarchitect]

Well, the auto-reduce blocks feature is mostly offered for those constructions that we do not have any sort of reference somewhere for the . Such constructions are the filtered coverings [FD], dual coverings, multiple L coverings, matrix coverings, open-cover versions of all those coverings etc which can be constructed by WG but we do not have any resource available for a good value. Of course it can be used for static coverings like those at the links but it will generally take more time to develop than directly entering a good initial to begin with. Practically WG covers almost any possible covering construction known and to my best knowledge there isn't any other program around that can develop all that variety of constructions WG is capable of.
Just for fun, I let run WG with the auto-reduce enabled on this covering you attempt with b=1000, it made it in less than 1 minute in 18 blocks.

cheers
lottoarchitect