3x3 Panel Puzzle Solver

This Python program solves a 3x3 panel puzzle by finding valid combinations of commands that transform the initial panel state into a target state (all cells set to 1). This usefully solves the puzzle in Resident Eval (1996). The description of the problem. Each command toggles specific cells using XOR, and the solution brute-forces all possible command combinations up to a specified maximum length.

Features

• Interactive Input: Enter the initial 3x3 panel configuration directly
• Customizable Combination Length: Set the maximum length of command sequences to explore (default: 3)
• Predefined Commands: 9 unique commands that toggle specific cell patterns
• Brute-Force Algorithm: Exhaustively checks all valid command combinations to find solutions
• Parallelism: Proper use of big number of courses in parallel

Installation

1. Ensure Python 3.x is installed
2. Download or copy the script panel_solver.py

Usage

1. Run the script:

   python panel_solver.py

2. Enter the initial panel row by row (3 rows of 0/1 separated by spaces)

3. Specify the maximum combination length (press Enter to use default value 3). Do not use more then 4 on slow machines. Because complexity is $O(n!)$

Example input:

Enter initial panel (3 rows of 3 digits 0/1 separated by spaces):
Row 1: 1 1 0
Row 2: 1 0 0
Row 3: 0 0 0
Maximum combination length [3]: 2