Educational Software Cooperative 4/Educational Software Cooperative 4.iso/hinthunt/hinthunt.doc

Text File | 1994-03-22 | 18KB | 325 lines

                                HINT-HUNT (TM)
                                Copyright 1994
                        Castle Oaks Computer Services
                            Post Office Box 36082
                         Indianapolis, IN 46236-0082
                                [phone]

HINT-HUNT (TM) is a word search puzzle generator.  It is a special type of
puzzle generator which has been designed for use by teachers. Its purpose is
to provide a tool for making homework assignments that students will enjoy
doing.

Although it can create ordinary word search puzzles, its main purpose is to
produce a puzzle where the word list contains a set of hints that correspond
(in a one-to-one fashion) to a different set of words that are inserted into
the puzzle. This program was developed so that puzzles can be made where the
puzzle words are in one language and the corresponding hints in the word list
(hints) are in a different language. However, the program is not limited to
just the above use. Since you have the capability of putting one set of words
in the puzzle and a different set of words in the word list, the word list can
have hints that relate to the words in the puzzle. Therefore, the program can
be used in many disciplines other than language. (Any characters including
spaces may be placed in the list of hints; see the note at the end of this
document concerning accented characters)

HINT-HUNT (TM) is a commercial program. (A shareware version has been released
for trial use. It may be used for up to 30 days.)  After the trial period, if
you wish to continue use of the program, you must purchase the commercial
version for $15.00. (Send your payment to the above address.) Upon receipt of
your payment, you will be sent the latest version of the program and you will
be notified of any upgrades and other products available from Castle Oaks.
Since this program was developed for educational use, a school or a school
system may buy a site license. Contact Castle Oaks for site license pricing.

You may create puzzles which you produce for publication.  If you publish a
puzzle, registration is required and a royalty is payable in some cases.

The following rules must be followed in such cases:

     1.  Puzzles must be in good taste as judged by the mores of the
         general population.

     2.  The puzzle must display the trademark and its owner, Castle Oaks
         Computer Services.

     3.  In some cases, a royalty payment is required for published
         puzzles. If you have purchased the program for say a church or
         a school, then you may publish puzzles in your newsletter or
         for use in class without royalty. If you submit a puzzle for
         more general distribution, then a royalty must be paid for each
         puzzle published. The fee is $5.00 or 15% of the amount received
         for the puzzle, whichever is greater.

     4.  A copy of the puzzle being published must be sent to Castle Oaks
         along with the royalty payment. Also include the name and date
         of the publication in which it will appear.

Failure to abide by the above rules will lead to legal action.


                                    USAGE

HINT-HUNT (TM) is easy and fun to use. It is great for creating puzzles for
educational use.  Or you might want to use it for entertainment at a party.
You can make up puzzles containing the names, interests, etc. of persons
attending the party. The only installation required is to copy the executable
file (HINTHUNT.EXE) to a directory or disk of your choice. The command line to
execute the program has the general form:

HINTHUNT [P|S] [M]

The command line options in brackets are optional (do not include the brack-
ets.) They may be upper or lower case and the order may be the reverse of that
shown. P|S means that you may enter either P or S. P means you want to create
a primary level puzzle, and S means you want to create a secondary level
puzzle (these are explained in the description of the menu). If you do not
enter either, a puzzle will be created at the highest level. You may omit both
of these parameters on the command line and still select primary or secondary
from the menu. The M option tells HINTHUNT to run in monochrome mode. If you
only have a monochrome display (such as an LCD screen) you will need to use
the M option.

You can run the program from a floppy disk by including the drive letter on
the command line. There are certain requirements and restrictions.

     a.  You must have a printer and it must be turned on, on-line and the
         paper should be positioned at top-of-form. Your printer must be
         capable of backspacing. If it does not have that capability, some
         lines in the solution printout may not be correct. The solution
         will probably look best when printed in draft mode. You should
         experiment with number of characters per inch and number of lines
         per inch on your printer to achieve the most pleasing printout.
         In order to show the connections between words, it was necessary
         to add extra lines in the solution. This was done so that the
         solution could be displayed on most printers; therefore the aspect
         ratio of the solution will be different from that of the puzzle.

         (Actually the program may be run without the printer. When asked
         for number of copies to be printed you may respond with zero.
         However, the program is not very useful without hard copy output
         unless you have saved the puzzle and/or solution to file for later
         printing.)

     b.  Your puzzle can have dimensions of up to 40 by 40. In most cases,
         much smaller puzzles, 20 by 20 or smaller, are quite satisfactory.
         (Note: Dimensions are to be given in columns and lines.) Your
         puzzle can have as many as 100 words. Usually 25 words is adequate.



The program starts by asking you to press 'M' (or 'm') to see the option menu
or any other key to go directly to building the puzzle. During this time, the
program is developing a seed (starting value) for the random number generator.
If you press an 'M', the program displays a menu of nine options. They are:


          1 Primary puzzle
          2 Secondary puzzle
          3 Ordinary word search puzzle (one word list)
          4 Ordinary puzzle and encrypt the word list
          5 43 line mode
          6 Provide seed for random number generator
          7 Hints to be printed one per line
          8 Provide delay time for puzzle display (Default = 500 milliseconds)
          9 Exit menu

If you choose option 1 (or if you have entered a 'P' on the command line), the
program will make a puzzle that inserts the words only in the left-to-right
and downwards directions (this is called a primary puzzle). When you select
option 1, the menu entry turns to red (bright white in monochrome mode) which
means that the option has been selected. It also de-letes option 2 from the
menu so it cannot be selected.

If you choose option 2 (or if you have entered a 'S' on the command line), the
program will make a puzzle that inserts the words in the two directions of
option 1 but also in the two left-to-right diagonal directions (this is called
a secondary puzzle). The menu line turns to red and option 1 is deleted from
the menu.

If you do not choose either option 1 or 2, the program will make a puzzle
inserting words in eight different directions.

If you choose option 3, the program will use the same list of words for the
puzzle and the word list (hints). This provides you with the capability to
make ordinary word search puzzles. (You can also make an ordinary puzzle by
placing the same word for a hint as you enter for the puzzle.) Ordinary puz-
zles are suitable for making a puzzle of spelling words. When you choose
option 3, the menu line is displayed in red to show that you have selected it.
(Remember, if you are entering the words from a file, there must be only one
word on each line of the file. (If you do not select option 3 or 4, and you
input from a file, each line of the file must contain a word, followed by a
hint to be entered in the word list.)

If you choose option 4, it also automatically selects option 3 also. Both menu
lines 3 and 4 will be displayed in red. Option 4 also tells the program to
encrypt the word list. (Option 3 is selected because if the puzzle were not
the ordinary type, the word list might contain characters other than upper
case alphabetic and it would be difficult to select a suitable encryption
technique for them.)

Option 5 allows you to put your display in 43 line mode if you have an EGA or
better display. Normally you will not need to do this unless you are creating
a puzzle that is longer than 20 lines. If selected, line 5 of the menu will be
displayed in red.


Option 6 provides a means to defeat the automatic creation of the seed for the
random number generator. At the beginning of the program, a seed was deter-
mined by the amount of time it took you to press any key. If you select option
6, the number that was previously determined will be discarded and a number
that you enter will be used. The number must be in the range 1 through 32767.
Selecting your own seed provides you with a method of duplicating a previously
made puzzle. Starting with version 3.1, HINTHUNT now displays the seed used to
create a puzzle, even if you do not supply it. This makes it more convenient
to build another puzzle using that seed. If both puzzles use the same seed and
the same word list and same dimensions, the puzzles will be the same.

Option 7 Provides the user with the capability to change the way that the
hints are printed with the puzzle. If you choose this option, the hints are
printed one per line with adequate space at the left for a student to enter
the answer. A teacher requested this capability so that when a puzzle is used
for homework, it will be easy to grade the answers.

Option 8 provides you the capability to slow down the display of the puzzle as
it is built. The default value is 500 milliseconds (one-half second.) You are
to enter the desired delay time in an integral number of milliseconds.

Option 9 Exits the menu and starts the puzzle building process.
(Actually,pressing any key other than 1 through 8 will cause the program to
exit the menu and start building the puzzle.)

On-screen prompts are provided to guide you through the process. You are first
asked for the width (in columns) and the length (in lines). Then you are asked
for a title for the puzzle. This title may not exceed 77 characters. You may
want to include in the title some directions. For example:

          FIND THE ENGLISH WORDS FOR THE FRENCH WORDS IN THE LIST

(If you need more than 77 characters, you can save the puzzle to a file after
it has been made and then using an editor, you can add as much text as you
wish.)

You are then asked if you want to input the words from a file or from the
keyboard. If you input from a file, the file should either be one that was
saved earlier from within the program or it may be one you have created sepa-
rately using an editor. In the latter case, the file must be constructed in
the correct format. If the file is to be input for an ordinary word search
puzzle, each line must contain a single word followed by a carriage return and
a line feed. If the file is to contain two word lists, each line of the file
must contain a single word for the puzzle followed by a space and then an
entry for the word list (hints) followed by a carriage return and a line feed.
The entry for the puzzle must contain only alphabetic characters and no
spaces. (See the note at the end of this document for exceptions.) The entry
for the word list may contain any characters including spaces.

If you choose to enter words from the keyboard, you will be prompted appro-
priately to obtain your list(s). When you are prompted for a word to be en-
tered in the puzzle, the display will show a box whose length is the lesser of
the width and length of the puzzle. If you try to enter more characters than
the space provided, the program will not accept any extra characters. Like-
wise, when you are prompted for a hint, a box will be displayed that goes all


the way to the right margin of the screen. This indicates the amount of space
allowed for a hint. If you try to enter more characters than allowed, they
will not be accepted. When finished with entering words, just press ENTER
(when prompted for a new word) to terminate the process.

After entering your words, either from a file or the keyboard, the words will
be displayed and you will be given the option of changing any one of the
entries. If the number you enter is negative, and if its absolute value is in
the range 1 through the highest entry number, the corresponding entry will be
deleted and the range will be reduced by one. If you enter a number whose
absolute value is not in the range 1 through the highest entry number, you
will be prompted that the number is out of range; and given the option of
adding an entry or not. If you answer "yes", you will be prompted for a new
entry and it will be added as the next one, no matter what value you entered.

If you respond "no" and the number you entered was positive you are asked to
input the number of the entry you want to change. If you respond "no", and the
number you entered was negative, you will be asked if you want to change an
entry. After making changes, if any, the program will build the puzzle.

If you have entered the words from the keyboard, or if you have entered them
from a file and changed one or more words, the program will ask if you want to
save the words to a file. If you save the words, the file will be in suitable
form to be read by the program at some other time.

As the puzzle is built, the program will display each word as it attempts to
insert it. If the program cannot insert a word, you will be alerted (in the
bottom border) and given the option of starting over (in the hope that a new
try will allow the word to be inserted) or discarding the word. If you elect
to start over, you will also be given the option of increasing both the width
and length of the puzzle by one unit. People have the tendency to try to make
puzzles as small as possible. This not only makes it difficult to place all of
the words, it also leads to puzzles where many words are placed side by side
in very few different directions. Larger puzzle sizes result in puzzles with a
better distribution of directions of insertion.

It may be difficult to evaluate the esthetics of the puzzle from the screen
display. Therefore, you are given the option of printing the puzzle solution
which shows how the words have been laid into the puzzle. You may then contin-
ue, have the program re-position the words or abort the program.

When you continue, you will be given the opportunity of saving the puzzle and
solution to file and you can specify the number of copies that you want to
have printed. (CAUTION! When asked to respond with a Y or N, do not follow
that response with pressing ENTER. It is not necessary and will be interpreted
as a null response to the next prompt.) In general, you only terminate a
response with an ENTER when you input a string of characters or a number.

Two special features are included for avoiding situations that might be unde-
sirable. For example, you may want to enter the two words, "BACKROOM" and
"ROOMMATE". If you do, there is the possibility that they will share all the
letters of "ROOM". You may like that or you may not, if not, just prefix
"ROOMMATE" with an 'X'. The 'X' will not be printed in the puzzle or the word
list. This means that no words can begin with a single letter 'X'. If you want
a word to begin with an 'X', just prefix it with another 'X' which will be


purged from the word list. Another example where you would be more likely to
use this feature is when one word would be contained entirely in another word.
"VIRGINIA" and WESTVIRGINIA" or "THE" and "EITHER". In such cases, just prefix
the shorter word with an 'X'. Also, note that a word might be contained en-
tirely in another one but in reverse order; example: "TEN" and "NINETEEN". You
may want to allow that; but if you don't, prefix the "TEN" with an 'X'.

The above doesn't take care of the cases where the shorter word is entirely
contained at the beginning of the longer word. Example: "ROOM" and "ROOM-
MATE". If you do not want these words to share the letters "ROOM", add a 'Q'
to the end of the shorter word. In the rare instance where a word naturally
ends in 'Q', add a second 'Q' and it will be discarded instead of the real
'Q'. Note that this artifice could be used in all of the above examples except
where the shorter word is at the end of the longer word as in "VIRGINIA" and
"WESTVIRGINIA".

NOTE - Using accented characters

Normally, when you enter a word that is to be placed in the puzzle, any lower
case letters are converted to upper case and any other characters are not
accepted. To provide some foreign language capability, all of the accented
characters listed below are allowed also.

The hints may contain any characters, including accented characters. You may
enter an accented character by holding down the "Alt" key while entering the
character's decimal code on the numeric keypad. When you release "Alt", the
character will appear in the word. The codes for the accented characters are:

     Ä 142; Å 143; â 131; ä 132; à 133; å 134; á 160;

     Æ 146; æ 145;

     Ç 128; ç 135;

     É 144; ê 136; ë 137; è 138; é 130;

     î 140; ï 139; ì 141; í 161;

     Ñ 165; ñ 164;

     Ö 153; ô 147; ö 148; ò 149; ó 162;

     û 150; ù 151; Ü 154; ú 163; ÿ 152