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1991-01-12
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READER V 1.0
=============
A program which will list any words that can be made from the letters
entered. The user can select a specific word length and can enter
'unknown' letters. Great for word games and crosswords.
This is my first attempt at 'C' programming so please be patient!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
USAGE: Reader [-m] [-#] [-z] letters
where -m is an instruction to match a letter pattern. (MATCH)
where -# is the letter length. -4 to -9 for words of 4 to 9 letters.
-l for words of 10 or more letters.
where -z is an instruction to clear the contents of VALID. (ZAP)
where letters is the string of letters to select words from.
The [] switches are optional and can be in any order but the letters
string MUST come last.
The letters string should contain only alphabetic characters except
for a special facility called SPARES. Spares represent ANY letter
and should be entered as fullstops (periods).
So, entering ' erta. ' would find words like GREAT, HEAT and STAR
as the . character will count as a G or H or S (or anything).
The program outputs words found to the screen and also writes to
the file VLD:VALID. This file has the same information as the screen
output but has extended statistical information listing totals by
word length and initial letter and percentages of those against the
total words found. This file can be printed or stored or erased as
desired. The results of a scan will be added to the file VALID unless
the -z (zap) switch is used. This file requires an assign. Ram is the
easiest place but users with 512k might prefer to write to disk.
The program can only be run from the CLI.
Setup
=====
The program MUST have a data file to scan and it will look for
RAM:WORDALL.DAT or WORDLIST:WORDALL.DAT If neither file can be
found, the program will complain and exit.
A file, ASSIGNS, is included. Simply execute it to set WORDLIST: to
this directory and VLD: to RAM: This is the preferred option. If you
have 1 meg+, copy WORDALL.DAT to RAM: as this will greatly speed
the program and vastly reduce disk access. This should be run before
using the program. For normal use, make the assigns part of your
startup-sequence.
Limitations
===========
The letters list must not exceed 20 characters. Entering less than
4 letters will yield no words. (all words are 4+ letters) Entering
a lot of spares will yield MANY words. Beware of creating a large
VALID list; memory you know!
Matching
========
If you specify -m on the command line, you can match a string of
letters against the word list. Entering '-m ING ' will list ALL
then words containing the letters ING (there will be lots!) or you
could limit that by '-m -7 ING ' listing only 7 letter words
containing ING. You can specify something like ' I.G ' where any word
having an I then any letter then a G would be listed. When matching,
a fullstop (period) represents ANY character (but just one per .).
Examples
========
Reader hearsfec Will find all words using HEARSFEC
Reader -4 hearsfec Report only 4 letter words
Reader trag.. Words made from TRAG plus any two other
letters (like RAGE, BEAR, SPAT...)
Reader -m ing Words containing ING
Reader -6 -m ing Only 6 letter words containing ING
Reader -m -7 ed. 7 letter words containing ED with at least
one letter after the ED
Reader -m -8 .r.v.o.. Ideal search for a crossword answer. Look
for an 8 letter word with . representing
missing letters.
Reader -l -m ness Find all long words (10+ letters)
containing NESS
Reader -7 -m acc.... 7 letter words starting with ACC
Word List
=========
The word lists are ENGLISH word spellings excluding proper names
(ie real names) but including some place names. American users will
have to put up with COLOUR instead of COLOR unless they edit the
word lists themselves. In order to reduce words, all plurals
made by simply adding S are excluded. Plurals like Cacti should be
available. The word list is simply a LARGE file containing the words
in ascii format, one word per line. It can be edited with any normal
editor. There are currently around 24,200 words in the list!
The end user can of course supply their own word lists!
WARNING! There may well be misspelt words in the data list, Sorry!
If you feel inclined, please send me a list of misspelt or missing
words, on paper please, don't send disks!
Aborting
========
A scan may be aborted by 'CONTROL C' which will put up a little
requester (Continue/Abort). Aborting the scan will mess up the
output of the VALID file but should cause no other problems.
Source
======
Source is supplied so you can play with it as you wish. This code is
copyrighted. It may not be used in any product sold for profit unless
you obtain my permission. Please do not sell it or claim it as your
own. It is freely distributable provided all the files are kept
together. The source was compiled under Lattice V4.0. As this is my
first attempt at 'C' the code is probably pretty primitive, but it
works...and that's what counts!
Fred Fish is hereby granted the right to distribute these files.
No commercial organisation other than Fred Fish may distribute any
of these files for profit without the written permission of myself.
The files may be distributed by anyone provided no profit is made.
Thanks to Fred Fish for the service he and countless others have
provided to make available the masses of excellent AMIGA software.
This program is just a small repayment for all that work.
Finally..
=========
Please report any bugs, ideas, word omissions, comments to me.
Author..
Gary Brittain
45, Waddington Avenue
Great Barr
Birmingham
B43 5JF
England
Email to "Brittaing@uk.ac.aston.vax.kirk" (Bitnet?)
© 3iff 6/91 All rights reserved.