Crossword Search is a simple console application that will load in an uncompressed, text only dictionary containing one human readable word per line and then allow the user to perform crossword and wild-card type searches on the words contained within it. I expect Crossword Search will not work with the compressed dictionaries that are provided with commerical word processing packages.
The application first asks you for the name of the dictionary you wish to load in. Just hit the return key and the application will load in the default dictionary called English Dictionary. The dictionary must be immediately in the same folder as the application Crossword Search 1.0.
After specifying the name of the dictionary, the application will ask you whether it should strip all the punctuation marks from the dictionary words as they are being read into memory. Enter either y or n. This option is not terribly important and is simply so that a search string such as r?g?ts will pick up Rogets if the user selected punctuation marks to be removed. If punctuation marks were not removed the word would be stored as Roget's and the search string would fail to detect it.
Any capital letters in the dictionary are converted to lower case letters as they are being read into memory. Similarly the user specified search string is converted to lower case so that all searches are case independent.
Use ? in the search string to represent one unknown letter. Use * as a wild-card i.e. to represent any number of contiguous unknown letters.
For example some search strings and the words they find in the dictionary are shown below.
1) Enter search string? ?now???ge
knowledge
2) Enter search string? ?hy*i*og?
physiology
physiopathology
phytosociology
3) Enter search string? *z*z*z*
pizazz
pizzazz
razzmatazz
4) Enter search string? r*y*y*
rhinolaryngology
rhythmically
rhythmicity
royally
royalty
royalty's
Dictionary Genesis 1.0a
I originally wrote Dictionary Genesis, because someone asked me how to go about writing a program that would “fish” for new words in text files and then create a dictionary from the words. The file English Dictionary provided with these applications was produced as output from Dictionary Genesis.
There are a lot of dictionaries already available via the internet and so I am very curious if anyone finds this program of any real use! So drop me an e-mail or postcard if you use it. Remember personal use is OK.
You can use Dictionary Genesis for any of the below:
a) To make a list of alphabetically sorted words not containing any duplicates from a number of text only files such as letters, dissertations, reports etc. Remember the files must be text only and so use those translators available on your word processor!
b) To add words to a previously constructed dictionary. The source of new words could be another dictionary, letter or report.
c) To find out what words are contained in one text file or dictionary, but not another.
Remember that any file you expect Dictionary Genesis to read in must be directly in the same folder as the application.
Dictionary Genesis will ask you to enter the names of two files to read in. If you only want Dictionary Genesis to read in words from one file, just hit return in response to one of the prompts. You have to specify whether these files contain one word per line, as in a dictionary or word list, or words in the form of sentences. Depending on which it is enter 1 or 2.
Dictionary Genesis will then ask you for the name of the file it will produce as output. The output file name can be the same as one of the two source files. Beware this will cause the old version to be discarded and there is no undo available.
If you have only specified one input file, Dictionary Genesis will produce as its output a list of all the words, sorted alphabetically, that are contained in that file.
If you specify two input files, say file_x and file_y, Dictionary Genesis will give you a choice of three things.
1) Output a dictionary made up from the words in file_x and file_y.
2) Output the words in file_x, but not in file_y.
3) Output the words in file_y, but not in file_x.
Enter 1, 2 or 3 depending on your choice.
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These small console applications only took a couple of weekends to bash up and are not meant to be representative of my programming skills. I have written an occam translator on Unix and a couple of conversion utilities on MS-DOS (yuk!) and I think these are more representative of what I can do. I am currently living in London and would be interested to learn of any nice programming jobs that are available. I use PCs at work and just hack about on my Mac at home.
These applications are postcardware, which means that if you keep them for over 14 days you have to send me a postcard. If you do find the applications useful for non-commerical purposes, you can also send me a few pounds or the equivalent in your currency, but that is left to your discretion.
Any dictionaries, word lists or files produced by Dictionary Genesis may be used for your own personal use. However any commercial distribution or use of said files must be by prior arrangement. I imagine I would expect a small fee for commerial use of any output files from Dictioanry Genesis.
Likewise Crossword Search may only be used for personal use. Any commerical use of Crossword Search, for example as an aid for the construction of crosswords, is prohibted unless 10 UK pounds or its near equivalent in your currency is sent to my address given at the end of this document.
These applications may be distributed on CDs, floppy disks, ftp sites and any other medium without charge or prior permission.
However all the files contained within the DictionarySearch1.0 folder must be distributed together and without alteration.
Standard Disclaimer:
These applications come with absolutely no warranty and I am not responsible for any damage they may cause.
E-mail address: 101641.317@compuserve.com
E-mail alias: marathon@compuserve.com
Postal address: 27 Priory Avenue
Chiswick
London W4 1TZ
England
U.K.
Martin Mamo
9th January 1997
Version History:
7th December 1996:
Package = DictionarySearch1.0
Crossword Search 1.0
Dictionary Genesis 1.0
9th January 1997:
Package = DictionarySearch1.1
Crossword Search 1.0
Dictionary Genesis 1.0a
Florin Neumann (e-mail address: ax058@freenet.toronto.on.ca) reported a bug that caused Dictionary Genesis 1.0 to crash whenever it read in a file containing characters with ASCII codes above 127, which are typically accent characters. This made Dictionary Genesis unsuitable for the construction of non-English dictionaries. This bug has now been fixed in version 1.0a. Florin Neumann is constructing a Romanian dictionary.
