Word Search Solver

[glonch]

Got a good one for everyone - And I know most will ask 'why?'  In this case, it was just a logic problem for me to figure out.

Back in High School (in the 80's) I learned ApplesoftBASIC on my trusty Apple //c.

I made a BASIC program to solve Word Search puzzles.  It would read in a text file of the grid of letters and then read in another file of the words to find.

The logic used was to find the first letter of the word.  Once found, it would compare 360 degrees around it to find the second.  If the second was found, then proceed in that direction until end of the word.

The results were printed as beginning and ending coordinates (I didn't attempt to do anything graphically.)

So, I would like to attempt to convert my BASIC program (of which I still have the code) to something else so that I can use this app in Windows (or Linux, Mac, etc)...

Any ideas?

Rich

[mouser]

hi glonch, welcome to the site.
i think given the nature of this site, there is almost no idea for a program that won't be interesting to at least some people. and there's nothing wrong with working on programs just for the fun of it.

keep in mind there are some powerful programs to do this already (and some papers on good algorithms for it), though i don't know any off hand.  maybe others can post some links.

so is your question about cross-platform programming tools? (you mentioned you wanted it to run on windows/linux/mac.

there are cross platform Basic interepreters (Mark0 might have some hints there).  Then there are all the scripting languages which might be a good match for this.  depends if you want graphics or not.

[glonch]

Mouser,

Thanks - as for cross platform - I'd just like to convert the BASIC program (or the logic behind it) so that I can run it on any system that I might be using (java?).

If that makes it more difficult, then I'd default to WinXP for now.

I figured that there were apps out there that make Word Searches, but I didn't realize that they would also have solvers too.

I have very little time to devote to learning programming again (it's been awhile) and I figure that someone would probably be able to 'whip' this out without breaking a sweat.

Thanks again

Rich

[Rover]

What type of app is it?  That might help determine the best language/approach...

[glonch]

It's written in ApplesoftBASIC (Apple II)

I doubt that there is a direct converter from this to say, VB, Java, etc...

[Rover]

D'oh!  Sorry.  I read your first post but somehow failed to read the very nice description of the app.  Brain damage I guess.

So this is pretty easy from a cross platform point of view.  Just about any language (except C or C++) has decent enough string processing to do what you want.  For the Ultimate in cross platform look at something like REXX or Perl.  If you want to compile it you could use Free Pascal.  If you want to learn a trendy Web oriented language you could use Python or Ruby.

The biggest problem you'll face with something like Java, is wading your way through the various versions of Java and the many possible JVM's.  Jave is not my favorite 

Pascal was supposed to be the next logical step for BASIC programmers.  Of course that was in the 80's

Have fun.  No matter what you choose, it should be fun.

[justabeginner]

Is this what you are after?



or

[glonch]

Wow - that is exactly what I was looking for...

[PhilB66]

Wow - that is exactly what I was looking for...

-glonch (June 25, 2008, 03:13 AM)

You're one patient dude... 

[Curt]

- am I the only one who fails to see any links for these two programs? 

It is easy for Google to direct me to online versions,
but I have not been able to find the pictured versions for download.


Regards,
/just another patient

[justabeginner]

Sorry people, I lost track of this thread.

I will upload the programs for you all hopefully tomorrow.

Here they are:

[glonch]

justabeginner,

Thanks!!!! 

This is awesome (and yes, I'm a patient dude...)