- What is SweeperBot?
SweeperBot is an application written by Paul Fenwick that plays Windows minesweeper for you automatically. It's based upon code orignally written by Matt Sparks.
- Why is it so big?
The actual code to implement SweeperBot is quite small, only a couple of kilobytes in size. However it uses both Perl and ImageMagick for image processing. Rather than force you to install these extra libraries before being able to run SweeperBot, they come bundled with the application.
If you want to see all the goodies that SweeperBot uses, just open the SweeperBot.exe file as a zip file.
- The video is great. Do you have any more?
Not about SweeperBot. However I do have a video about fixing the web with greasemonkey that was rather popular.
- Why did you write SweeperBot?
I really like minesweeper as a game. It has action, excitement, suspense, intrigue... All the things that may a game exciting and interesting, as well as having great replay value. Unfortunately the time I was spending playing minesweeper was taking away from me doing other things, like spending time with my family, or playing Solitaire. So I wrote a bot that could play it for me.
- Why does it always win?
When guessing, SweeperBot uses virtual quantum strangelets generated by your computer's PC speaker to generate entangled tachyons which it sends back in time to communicate with an earlier version of itself. By examining the tachyon stream it can determine if a move would have resulted in hitting a mine.
The same technology developed by SweeperBot is also used in "smart toasters" to ensure that your toast is always cooked to perfection by proactively destroying alternate realities where your toast is burnt.
- Why does it sometimes lose on my fast computer?
Newer multi-core machines can generate a quantum flux supression field due to the interaction between Hawking radiation and the Casimir effect. This can interfere with tachyon stream that SweeperBot uses for mine detection.
- Why does it take so long to start the first time?
SweeperBot is actually a self-exetracting .zip archive. The first time it runs, it extracts itself into a temporary directory and checks to ensure that everything has arrived safely, and that can take a little time.
- Help! SweeperBot doesn't want to give back my mouse!
Once SweeperBot starts playing, it really wants to win, so interrupting it half-way through can be tricky. The easiest way is to hit alt-F4 to close the MineSweeper window. There's also a five second delay between games where you can close SweeperBot, or adjust your minesweeper settings.
- What's SweeperBot written in?
SweeperBot is written in Perl, sometimes called the swiss-army chainsaw of programming languages. As it happens, I also teach Perl as a job.
- Can I get the source code?
Absolutely! SweeperBot is free and open source, and can be distributed and modified under the same terms as Perl itself. See the support page for more information, or just open SweeperBot.exe as a zip file.
- Do you have a bot that plays solitaire?
Not yet, but I'm certain if one were written it would be very popular.
