Method 1 : Enter the distances between two stars in each row (For the example answer is 331171515)

Method 2 : Describe the two main diagonals using 1 for star, and 0 for no star. (For the example answers are 000001000,001001000)
[ This is bit error prone to type, and may not be applicable to all puzzles ]

Any other suggestions?

From the puzzle hybrids:
Method 3 - Column position of left most star in each row (Answer key for example - CAGCADBDB or with numbers: 317314242 )

Edited by Valezius 2011-07-03 5:53 PM

I thought Bram used method 1 in Puzzle Hybrids, but I was wrong. (I found that I saw method 1 first time in TVC5.)

Yes, I like this method 3. This method can also be applied to many puzzles types (e.g. Akari)