Crossword Puzzles

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PuzzLex (copyright 1993/94) STATEMENT OF WARRANTY This software is provided to you as is. The author makes no warranty that PuzzLex is suitable for any purpose. Under no circumstances will the author be held responsible for any loss or damage suffered by any user arising out of the supply, use or operation of this software, whether or not such loss or damage be direct, consequential or otherwise. PuzzLex aids in solving crosswords and other types of word puzzles. It is easy to use but also flexible and powerful in its ability to search through the supplied dictionary to suggest solutions. BRIEF SUMMARY OF FEATURES: 185,000 word list. Compressed to save your disc space. (Evaluation version 39,000c). Ability to search for words of between 1 to 15 characters. Permits searches for Anagrams and Word Patterns. Flexible searching, supporting 2 types of wildcards: ? represents a single unknown character * represents zero or more unknown characters A complex search option which allows you detailed control over your search criteria. The ability to save words to a supplementary dictionary for future searches. The ability to solve multiple word anagrams. Context sensitive help. To run the program type PuzzLex at the DOS prompt. Users of Mono monitors may find the screen colours clearer if they use the mono switch invoked by running the program with the command: puzzlex /m Users using a Mono VGA screen should use the following command to select colours most suitable for this type of screen: puzzlex /g In most cases these switches will not be necessary as PuzzLex will attempt to determine the type of monitor on which it is running automatically. IMPORTANT If you wish to use the multiple word search options described below you must have the files command in your config.sys file set to 20 files=20 If you are running windows then I recommend that this be set to 40 files=40 RUNNING PUZZLEX FROM WINDOWS Although PuzzLex is a DOS program it is quite happy being run from MS WINDOWS. To install PuzzLex on your desktop: Run the File Manager program from WINDOWS and select the directory where you have just installed PuzzLex. Position the File Manager window such that you can see the files in the PuzzLex directory and also see the group icon where you wish PuzzLex to be held. Click on the file PuzzLex.exe and drag it to the appropriate group icon. Release the file and PuzzLex will now be runnable as a DOS program from that group. To assign the PuzzLex item an icon, click on the PuzzLex item once, such that it is highlighted, NOT RUN. Click on the File option of Program Manager and then select properties. Select Change Icon and then the Browse option. Move to the PuzzLex directory and you will see an icon displayed called PuzzLex.ico. Select OK. When you exit the file menu PuzzLex will now have its new icon. KEYS: When entering word patterns or text into PuzzLex the following editing keys are available: Left Cursor One character left Right Cursor One character right Home Beginning of input field End End of input field Insert Toggle between insert and overstrike Delete Delete character under cursor Backspace Delete character to left of cursor Return Accept input and continue. Cntrl End Delete input field Up Cursor Previous input field (When applicable) Down Cursor Next input field (When applicable) Cntl Down Cursor Recall last word pattern You can jump to the various search pages directly without returning to the main menu by selecting one of the following key combinations: Alt-a Goto Anagram Search Screen Alt-p Goto Word Pattern Search Screen Alt-c Goto Complex Pattern Search Screen Alt-n Add a word to the user dictionary Alt-f Send the words found by PuzzLex to a file for later examination ! This character has a special significance and can only be entered into the Pattern field on the Complex Search Screen. When used it tells PuzzLex to break the letters entered in the Source field into every possible combination of words that it can find. eg Pattern: ! Source: margaretthatcher Would list all the possible combinations of words that can be made from margaretthatcher. BE WARNED this option will typically result in thousands of solutions. When completing a PATTERN field you can enter a number to represent a number of consecutive ?s eg a4t Would be treated as a????t 5y2 Would be treated as ?????y?? THE MAIN MENU When PuzzLex is started you will initially be presented with a simple menu that gives access to the various types of searches available within PuzzLex and the option to add your own words to the user dictionary. To select a screen simply press the numeric key associated with your choice or press the highlighted letter key, the menu will then be replaced by the relevant search screen where you can specify your search criteria. Each of these screens is described in the following sections. ANAGRAMS: At the Pattern prompt type in the anagram and press enter, all matching words will be displayed on the screen. The search can be abandoned by pressing the escape key. Example 1 Entering the letters ragden would list the following matches: gander garden ranged danger Searches can be given additional flexibility by using wildcards. PuzzLex supports two wild card characters: ? and *. The ? represents any single character and * represents zero or more characters. Example 2 ?rgden would list the following matches: gander garden ranged danger gerund ringed gender Example 3 *rgden would list all words of 5 or more letters that contain the letters rgden Example 4 *???? would list all words of 4 or more letters. The four question marks tell PuzzLex that the words found must contain four letters and the * add zero or more letters to valid solutions. WORD PATTERNS: This option allows you to find solutions to incomplete words and is extremely useful in solving those last few crossword clues. To use this option simply type in the incomplete word representing any unknown letters with a ? the program will quickly list all matching words. Example 1 c?o??w?r? would list the following matches: clockwork crossword Once again the search can be given additional flexibility by using the * wildcard. searches: Example 2 c?o??w?r* would list: clockwork crossword clockworks crosswords Example 3 *a*e*i*o*u* would list all words that contain the vowels in alphabetic order. Example 4 *u*o*i*e*a* Would list all words that contain the vowels in reverse alphabetic order. Example 5 * Would list all words in the dictionaries. Example 6 ????? Would list all 5 letter words. Example 7 ?a????r Would list all 7 letter words where the 2nd letter is 'a' and the 7th is 'r'. Example 8 ?????* Would list all words of 5 letters or more COMPLEX SEARCHES The complex search option has been designed to allow you more control over your search criteria. When selecting this option you are presented with a dialogue box in which you can specify how you wish your search to be carried out. Below is a description of the various types of search criteria that can be used. Pattern:This field must be completed. It provides the target pattern that all matched words must conform to. If this field is the only one completed then PuzzLex will be performing a Pattern search in exactly the same way as done if using the Word Pattern search screen. Once again wildcards may be used to increase flexibility, see the Word Pattern description above for further details. The other options all allow you to exercise greater control on what words will be deemed to have matched the pattern. Source: The source field allows you to specify up to 40 letters of which matched words must be comprised. If this field is used PuzzLex will first find a match to your pattern, once it has found a matching word it will then examine your Source field to check that the found word can be made from the supplied source, before the word is displayed as a valid solution. The case of the letters in the source is also significant. If a letter is entered in lower case then it can be used only once, you can enter the letter twice to allow for words that contain two occurrences of that letter. If the letter is entered in upper case then PuzzLex will be free to re-use that letter as many times as it needs to find a valid solution. The following examples should make this clearer. Example 1 Pattern: ????* Source: nouctwodn Will list all words of 4 or more letters that can be found in the given source. This option can be used to play Channel 4's Countdown quiz. It can also be helpful in solving some crossword clues where you suspect that the answer is hidden in the clue. Just enter the required pattern and type the clue or phrase into the source, the program will list all the words that match the pattern and that can be made from the letters supplied in the source Example 2 Consider the puzzle 'What is the largest word you can make using only the top row of the keyboard, i.e. the letters qwertyuiop'? If you were to enter '*' in the pattern field signifying that you require all words and qwertyuiop in the source field the largest word returned would be wipeout. As PuzzLex is only using each letter once it fails to solve the problem satisfactorily. However if you entered QWERTYUIOP in the source field PuzzLex is free to reuse the letters as necessary and finds more solutions which include amongst others the well known solution, typewriter. Include:Allows you to specify letters that must be included in the matched words. Some puzzles require you to supply a list of words that can be made from a given source but which must contain a specific letter. Pattern: ????* Source: fgoiblenu Include: b Will list all words of 4 or more letters containing a 'b' that can be made using the letters provided in source. Exclude: Is the converse of Include and permits you to exclude all words containing the specified letter or letters. Example 3 How many words can you think of that do not include any of the vowels: aeiou? To solve this problem enter the following search criteria Pattern: '*' indicating that you want all words Exclude: aeiou After you press the F10 key PuzzLex will return all the matching words that do NOT contain any of the letters 'aeiou'. MULTIPLE WORD SEARCHES So far we have described the Complex Search page in relation to single word solutions to a given set of search criteria. A new feature of PuzzLex v2.0 is the ability to solve multiple word anagram problems. Suppose you had the following crossword clue: erect smartish breaks festive shrub 9,4 The solution is an anagram of 'erect smartish' as indicated by the word 'breaks'. Looking at your crossword grid suppose you have the following entry for this clue: ?h??s??????e? To solve the problem using PuzzLex first enter the required pattern into the pattern field on the examples Search page. Separate each pattern by a space. Using the above example your pattern would be: '?h??s???? ??e?'. Now enter in the Source Field the letters you believe make up the anagram: 'erectsmartish'. Press the F10 key and a small window will pop-up asking you to wait while PuzzLex analyses its dictionary. When this is completed the possible solutions to the problem will be displayed. christmas reet christmas tree The answer is of course christmas tree. When you entered your pattern in the above example and pressed return you would have seen the fields change from those normally displayed. The Exclude and Include fields were removed and a new field 'Use All Source' was displayed. USE ALL SOURCE This setting can be either ON or OFF. When on, the input field is marked with an X. Pressing the space bar will change the state of the field. The setting of this field will change the way PuzzLex determines whether it has a valid solution. If not set then PuzzLex will check any potential solutions to your pattern against the source. If they can be found in the source then the solution is deemed good and the solution displayed. If the field has been marked then any found solution must use all of the source in order to be deemed as valid solution. This can be more clearly explained by way of an example. Consider the following: Pattern: * * Source: onetwo Use All Source: If you leave the 'Use All Source' field clear and press F10 then amongst many solution you will see is 'no to'. This satisfies the pattern which specifies two words of zero or more letters and 'no to' can be found in the Source. However if you now mark the 'Use All Source' field and repeat the search 'no to' is not returned as a solution because it did not use all the Source, instead all the solutions contain a total of 6 letters as specified in the Source. NO PERMUTATIONS When you entered the above Pattern: '* *' and pressed [RETURN] not only was the field 'Use All source' displayed but a new field 'No Permutations' was also shown. This field works in the same way as the 'Use All Source' field and can be either marked on or off. If this field has been marked then permutations of the same solutions will be suppressed by PuzzLex. If you consider the above example then both 'one two' and 'two one' would be valid solutions. If the 'No Permutation' field was marked then only 'one two' would be displayed. Selecting this option will speed up the search and reduce the amount of output displayed. NB The 'No Permutations' field is only available for multiple word patterns that are totally wild, i.e. consist solely of the '*' wildcard. In addition to solving crossword anagram problems the multiple, anagram feature of PuzzLex can be put to amusing use by applying it to a relative's or a friend's name. I have added a special pattern character to make this easier. If the '!' mark is placed in the pattern field then PuzzLex will break the supplied Source field into every combination of words that it can find. The burden placed on the computer when performing a search like this is immense. I would recommend using the 'No Permutations' option when performing these types of searches and sending the output to a file for future examination. Alternatively you could request a specific number of words from the supplied name as shown below. To find all the three word combinations that can be made from my own name I would enter the following search criteria: Pattern: * * * Source: nevillebentley Use All Source: X No Permutations: X SEND OUTPUT TO FILE New to version 2.0 is the facility to send PuzzLex's output to a specified file as plain ASCII text that can be read by most editors or word processors. This option is selected by pressing the keys ALT and f simultaneously at any of the search screens (the option is not available from the main menu). When you select this option a window will pop-up in which you can specify the filename you wish the output to be sent. Simply enter the filename with a path if required and press [RETURN]. When you start the search the solutions will be written to the file and echoed to the screen. If output is being sent to a file then PuzzLex will NOT pause at each full screen of solutions. If you select a file that already exists then you will be warned and given the choice of overwriting the existing file or choosing another filename. The output to file option only lasts for a single search, it must be re-selected for subsequent searches. ADD NEW WORD PuzzLex allows you to add additional words to its dictionary by selecting the 'Add New Word' option from the Main Menu or by pressing ALT-N while in any of the search screens. When this option has been selected you are presented with a pop-up window that allows you to enter the word to be added. Simply type in the new word and press [RETURN], the word will now be used by PuzzLex in all future searches. If the word already exists in PuzzLex's main dictionary you will be warned of the fact and the word will not be added. Any words added using this option are actually added to a supplementary file called puzzlex.usr in your PuzzLex directory. This file is a simple ASCII format and can be viewed and edited with most editors or word processors. I do not recommend that you alter the order in which words are stored in this file but you may remove any words that have been added incorrectly. HELP PUZZLEX TO DEVELOP If you have any ideas as to how PuzzLex can be improved or feel there are any particular areas of weakness please let me know and I will try to incorporate your ideas in any future releases. HELP TO IMPROVE THE PUZZLEX DICTIONARY. Although I have tried to provide PuzzLex with as comprehensive dictionary as possible I'm sure you will, from time to time, find words that are not included, afterall that is why I have included the 'Add New Word' option. If you build up a user dictionary of such words why not copy it to a floppy disc and send it to me. I can then incorporate these additional words into the main dictionary and return your disc with the new dictionary including your words and any others supplied by other users. Please include 2 first class stamps with your disc to cover my costs. Thank you for registering PuzzLex, your support is greatly appreciated. Neville Bentley