THE BRADNESS CROSSWORD DESIGNER & SOLVER
Version 1.10
Shareware.
Oct 91
OVERVIEW:
A 15x15 or 13x13 (or smaller, with a less tidy display) crossword
pattern may be designed or copied from any published crossword, or
loaded in from a previously saved effort. A word dictionary is
loaded into memory for quick access and searches can be set up to
find matches for whatever letters are already present in order to de-
sign from scratch or to solve part completed croswords. Answers
can also be typed in manually at any time if designing or storing
a complete crossword. The program is easy and quick to use -
suitable techniques will be discussed later, as designing top
quality crosswords will need some forethought to enable success.
Searches may also be made without designing a crossword.
Please note that the FULL, very usable, version is supplied apart
from a secondary dictionary and an AUTO mode for auto-loading
dictionaries. These will be forwarded upon registering.
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:
1Meg memory ATARI ST/STE any TOS version, 1Meg D/S Disk Drive,
Medium resolution colour or high resolution mono.
Epson compatible printer in graphics mode for printouts if required.
DISK CONTENTS:
1. Folder, with completed and part
completed example XWD files.
2. BLANK.DIC Empty dictionary for future expansion.
3. XWDMAIN1.RSC Med-res resource. XWDMAIN2.RSC full version.
4. XWDMONO1.RSC Hi-res resource. XWDMONO2.RSC full version.
5. DICT_ORD.DIC The main dictionary of 36000 common
words.
6. DICT_2.DIC Secondary dictionary of 31000+ less common
words that complement DICT_ORD.DIC
7. DICTUSR1.DIC Your own dictionary, can be expanded.
8. XWDGEM_A.PRG Main program. XWDGEM_B.PRG full version with
'AUTO' selectable.
9. READ.ME Instructions (these must be kept on this
disk as it is shareware).
The supplied disk is 80 tracks 10 sectors, and can be run from any
1 drive. There is approx 30kbytes disk-space left on the disk
(on full registered version, 330kbytes otherwise) for storing XWD files
(approx 2k each) or dictionary expansion. Other data disks could be
set up if required and left in the drive, as the program only accesses
XWD files and dictionaries once run.
A backup for your own use is advisable, but will need 10 sectors (on
the full version that includes DICT_2.DIC) or will need 2 normal 9
sector disks: files 3,4,8,9 on one, and 1,2,5,6,7 and the PATTERNS folder
on the other. Note that the supplied dictionaries should be on the
root directory.
A backup for your own use is advisable, but will need 10 sectors (on
the full version that includes DICT_2.DIC) or will need 2 normal 9
sector disks: files 3,7,8 on one, and
2,4,5,6 and the PATTERNS folder on the other. Note that the
supplied dictionaries should be on the root directory.
PROGRAM USE QUICK GUIDE:
(Note that these instructions are for the registered version, so
ignore any reference to DICT_2.DIC or the AUTO mode ).
Double click XWDGEM_A.PRG, a panel will appear with 3 selections.
You can 1. Load in a XWD
2. Choose a memory resident blank XWD
3. As 2.
This panel will not re-appear unless the program is re-run from
the desktop.
For now, choose the middle one, XWD No.1/MAIN MENU. A blank XWD
appears with the main menu. Now select DICT MENU with the mouse
(or return key).
Another panel, the dictionary menu, appears: select LOAD. Choose
DICT_ORD.DIC on the fileselector. This is the most commonly used
and longest dictionary and will take approx 37 secs to load in.
The name \DICT_ORD.DIC appears at the bottom right of the screen
for reference.
Select MAIN MENU with mouse (or return key). We are almost ready
to perform a search.
The top pink box (or light grey in mono) is for selecting the
answer/clue position; we are presently on 1 ACROSS; the length of the
answer is in brackets, 6 in this case. The 2 vertical arrows cycle
through all the across answers/clues; if DOWN is selected, these will
now cycle through the DOWN answers/clues. It is usually best to start
designing a blank XWD by putting in the longest words first, so,for now,
select 12 ACROSS(14).
Click on DO IT. A new SEARCH/TYPE panel appears. If you already
have thought of a suitable word or part-word select TYPE and type a
word of the full length shown and press return - only letters and
spaces (space-bar) are valid. The typed in word is transferred to the
XWD to view and may be accepted or rejected. Any of the typing modes
may be cancelled by pressing the return key on a blank word.
If you need help to complete this XWD answer, then select SEARCH
instead of TYPE. 'Searching match' appears at the top, shortly
followed by numerous dots, each dot representing a word that matches
the letter pattern (in this case all blanks) shown on the 12 ACROSS
line of the XWD.
In the current 22.10.91 Version 1.10, 232 words 14 letters long are
found in approx 6 secs. The maximum number of words that may be
found is 2000, for memory reasons. Now a CHOOSE/TYPE panel
appears; select CHOOSE and a list of words, the top one
highlighted, appears on the left, and a SCAN panel appears on the
right. Use the arrows to move through the list. You can move 1
word at a time, 1 screen at a time, or to each end. Also, there
are 26 letter boxes to enable you to move to the first word in the
list starting with that letter or the nearest if there isn't one.
Choose a word. say 'administration' and click on O.K. or press the
return key. The word 'administration ' appears on the XWD, and a
YES/NO panel appears. If happy with your word, select YES, the
word stays on the XWD, and you are returned to the main menu for
your next effort. If not happy, select NO to return to the
CHOOSE/TYPE menu for another try as before.
Now select on the main menu another answer position, say 3 DOWN,
then DO IT, then SEARCH. The search will now be for a match for a
9 letter word with 'I' as the 5th letter (if 12 ACROSS was
'administration'). Select CHOOSE, scan through and click on O.K.,
then YES if happy with your choice. Etc Etc Etc.
Now, being happy with your choice is down to experience. For
example, I wouldn't be very happy with a word that left a 'Q' at
the end of another incompleted word.
When all the words have been filled in successfully, the fun
begins - dreaming up clues. (If you are designing your own XWD).
There is actually very little difference between designing and
solving XWDs; making up clues is the main one.
Select CLUES on the main menu - an ALERT box appears, select ALL
for now. You can now type in your clues, one after the other,
pressing return in between, up to 65 characters is O.K. On the
first run through this, you are given the chance to put the length
of the answer in brackets at the end of the line for multi-word
answers, e.g. (2,3,5). If this is not done, the total length,
e.g. (10) is added to the clue and shown automatically after
pressing return. To exit this mode early, just hold down the
return key for a second or two. You may also store clues singly
by selecting CURRENT on the ALERT box.
When you SAVE XWD on the main menu, the pattern, answers and clues
are all incorporated in the one file having your choice of name
via the filesector.
To get a printout of a XWD with answers and clues, now select
PRINT and follow the prompts. Draft and NLQ quality is available.
To get a printout of a blank XWD without answers, but with clues,
then (after SAVEing) select CLEAR XWD to remove all letters and
then select PRINT.
MAKING A NEW XWD PATTERN:
If designing your own XWD pattern, or copying a pattern from a
newspaper etc., then after SAVEing, select MAKE XWD on the main
menu. A new screen appears, prompting you to 'Draw a pattern'.
A 15x15 or 13x13, the most common sizes, may be selected. Click
on the squares that you want black, the normal mirror image rules
of XWDs applies automatically, then, when satisfied, click on END.
This auto-calculates all the ACROSS and DOWN numbers and shows
them, then returns to the main menu. SAVE XWD for loading later
if required. Although only 15x15 and 13x13 XWDs are catered for,
smaller ones of any size or shape can actually be formed by blacking
out the borders manually.
PRACTICE MODE:
In the standard SEARCH mode, obviously if there is a 9 letter space
to match words to, with some of the letters already spoken for,
then a match may not always be possible with the supplied dictionaries.
The practice mode gives a lot more flexibility in cases such as
this; a 2 word answer may be the only solution, or using a plural
that isn't in the dictionary possibly.
Select PRACTICE on the main menu; you can now type at the top of
the screen any length word up to 13 or 15 letters. Use spaces as
'wild card' letters, looking for matching words to parts of the 9
(in this example) letter pattern, e.g (4,5) - type in the first 4
known letters & spaces to search for matches, and then look for
found words that could give a 2 word phrase. If this doesn't
work, try (5,4) or (3,6) etc. Obviously a lot of ingenuity is
called for. More simply, for this 9 letter example where no match
was found, it is worth trying an 8 or 7 letter search and seeing
you are able to add 's' or 'es' to make up a plural that isn't in
the dictionary. Try other common endings(or prefixes e.g. non, re ,anti
etc.). Use your imagination!
This mode is also used if you wish to quickly find out if a word
is in a dictionary - just type the word in and press return.
DICTIONARIES:
Go back to DICT MENU. You have already loaded DICT_ORD.DIC, but
DICT_2.DIC could have been loaded (if registered)- this contains less
common words. You may inspect dictionaries with SCAN from the
'dictionary options' panel. A highlighted word may be deleted
from memory by selecting DELETE on the SCAN panel. You are
prompted for each deletion and when finishing with O.K. you are
given the option to re-save the entire dictionary back to disk,
therefore permanently losing these words. This is not recommended
for the two main dictionaries.
BUILD allows you to add words to the dictionaries; sorting is done
automatically and you are prompted to re-save the dictionary or
not with a YES/NO ALERT box.
N.B. It is not recommended to use DICT_ORD.DIC or DICT_2.DIC for
BUILDing or DELETing, as the sorting and saving is slow with large
files such as these, and anyway there is not much memory left for
handling a much bigger DICT_ORD.DIC with a 1Meg ST. It is recommended
that DICTUSR1.DIC is used for BUILDing and DELETEing; this will be
quick. Several BUILDs or DELETEs could be performed without SAVEing
each time; the amended dictionary is held in memory and a dictionary
save could just be performed on your last BUILD or DELETE if wished.
You can store phrases in DICTUSR1.DIC if wished of course.
The AUTO/MANUAL radio buttons on the DICT MENU can be useful:-MANUAL
is the mode described so far, where the user has control over what
dictionary is loaded into memory.
AUTO will (on registered versions), after any unsuccessful search for
a word match, automatically load in another dictionary and then
another if that one was also unsuccessful. This only works with the
3 names supplied:
DICT_ORD.DIC DICTUSR1.DIC DICT2.DIC
Other dictionaries can be used with this program, but only in the
manual mode and they should not be longer than about 360kbytes
each. Various dictionaries on different subjects could be built up
from within this program, apart from actually creating the file in
the first place. This did not seem to be a feature that should be
too 'available'. One alternative method is to write a non WP
(i.e ASCII) file in 1st Word Plus etc, 1 word on each line, lower case.
Otherwise, if you do not have a wordprocessor to start off a file, then
copy BLANK.DIC to another disk, rename it on the desktop 'Show info' to
say BIRD.DIC, load it into XWDGEM_A.PRG as a dictionary, and then BUILD
into it all your 'birds'.
EXITING XWDGEM_A.PRG:
Press Control/L.Shift/Alternate together then press Return to
get back to the desktop with the palette restored.
COPYRIGHT:
This program is SHAREWARE and is the FULL version apart from AUTO-
loading and the inclusion of the complementary dictionary DICT_2.DIC.
Registration costs œ5.00 (or the equivalent of œ10 for non U.K.) and
should be sent to :-
S L Bradshaw
24 The Halt
Whitstable
Kent CT5 3EQ (0227-265420 for support after 6p.m)
quoting your name and address of course.
If you use this program you should register. Shareware is the
future of good cheap software, as it encourages the efforts of
all programmers, which in turn makes your computing more rewarding
for yourself in the long-term. Feel free to distribute this
(unregistered) disk.
A lot of time and programming effort has been expended on this
program, and it has been used seriously by keen crossword fans.
Your registration will be acknowledged with the complete version that
includes AUTO and DICT_2.DIC.
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This program was written in GFA 3.5. A listing will cost you œ5! (œ10
non-U.K.).