From: jlundon@xstacy.enet.dec.com (James A. Lundon)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: Crossword software and FAQ
Date: 25 Jan 93 13:30:37 GMT
Reply-To: jlundon@xstacy.enet.dec.com (James A. Lundon)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


I thinks its time that someone made an attempt to compile a FAQ for this
newsgroup. I am willing to take over the job of compiling and updating the 
FAQ. What to put in, though, is the problem?

Well some ideas for the FAQ, I have, include :

1. Crossword books available - explanatory or otherwise.
2. Explanation of the various type of crosswords published.
3. Software available to either develop crossword definitions, aid in 
solving, or let the user complete already developed crosswords.
4. FTP locations containing crossword related material. Anyone willing to allow
their site be used as a FTP site for such a reason?
5. Short explanation of the conference and its activities.

What I am looking for are suggestions for other topics and people willing to
write up a little description on any/all of the above suggestions. I am at the
moment scouring the networks of the world finding all the software developed
to aid the crossword setter or solver. I need your help! Anyone with any
software which they use or have developed please reply telling me about it. I
have found some already detailed below.  I have searched SIMTEL-20 and found
some more! I will post a summary of all replies.

                            James.

++

I have been in contact with a guy called Brad Kaenel who has in collerabation
with a few others has developed some software which some of you out there may
be intetested in. 

Crossword Creator (CWC) - a crossword editor/generator written by myself,
targetted primarily at teachers and instructional people.  Very good editing
and printing features that (semi-)professional (read: "by-hand") compilers
like.  Automation features will build a grid from a list of words in a few
seconds (which teachers love), but it will have an asymetrical shape (which
pros hate). 
 
CrisCros - a true crossword generator written by a very reclusive gentleman in
Northern California, that can produce symetrical grids, given a blackout
pattern and a few theme words.  A very powerful engine with a very ugly
interface.  Does not support printing or editing of clues at all, but will
export data in Crossword Creator-compatible format so that clues may be added,
and printed output produced. 
 
CWEXPAND and ADDCLUES - Prototype (and largely undocumented) utilites written
by myself to speed up the process of hooking up clues to the words in the
grids produced by CrisCros.  Bob Gregory is a clue collector and has files of
literally thousands of crossword clues, just waiting to be compiled into
grids.  Using CrisCros, CWExpand, and AddClues, one can literally automate the
process of compiling crosswords.  The necessary ingredients, however, are a
large database of available clues, and the patience to wait several hours for
results. 
 
CrisCros may only be obtainable from someone else who has a copy, myself or
Bob Gregory, for example, as it is not widely available.  It is poorly
documented, and not actively supported by its author, who has been known to
take 8 months to answer a letter (if you're lucky).  Bob uses CrisCros and
knows its ins and outs; I do not use it all and would not count myself as a
knowledgeable resource. 

CWExpand and AddClues are free for the asking, but they are prototype
utilities, only marginally documented, and certainly not fit for public
consumption.  I offer them "as is" with no promise to improve them or fix
bugs.  However, in careful hands they work quite well, as Bob will attest. 
 
CWC.EXE is about 150K, and requires 384K free memory.  CWEXPAND and ADDCLUES
are much smaller, in the 40K range for the .EXEs.  A fully-installed copy of
CWC, including Help files and printer drivers will fit comfortably on a 360k
floppy. 

You may purchase CWC from me for $57 US.  It comes with a very complete
owner's manual, the requisite product support, etc.  It is a professional
application in fit and finish, and is the leading crossword *design* software
for PCs in the US. CWC's user manual is 80 pages long. 

Crossword Clipper is included with the basic CWC package, but you're entitled
to *either* the DOS version *or* the Windows version for your $57. If you want
both, the additional cost is $15. 
 
Both are actually available now, the DOS version just won't be public until
next month.  Please let me know which version of CWCLIP (or both if desired)
to include with your package, and adjust the registration fee accordingly. 
 
I also have a Windows application called Crossword Clipper. It is not a design
tool, but rather a WYSIWYG layout tool. It allows you to import your puzzle
designs from Crossword Creator, then cut and paste them into any Windows app.
Great for Windows wordprocessing or desktop publishing.  Next month, a DOS
version of Crossword Clipper will also be available, to support non-Windows
wordprocessing and publishing via .PCX graphic files. 

If you wish to order a copy of CWC, send me a confirmation via email and I
will send a package to you.  If you want to try CrisCros and my utilities, I
can include those disks also.  Also, you may want to inquire with one of the
larger SHAREWARE vendors in the U.K. about CWC.  All ASP-approved vendors
(Association of Shareware Professionals) should have evaluation copies of CWC
5.0 in their libraries, which you can purchase for a few dollars.  You send me
the $57 dollars after you've had a chance to "test-drive" the software. 
 
Source code for CWC is not available, primarily because giving it away
significantly weakens my legal copyright.  I would not object to providing the
source code for CWEXPAND or ADDCLUES; they're written in Microsoft QuickBASIC.
I have no idea if the source for CrisCros is available.  It's not on the disk
I have, so you'd have to check with the author; and as I said yesterday, he's,
uh, kind of tough to get a hold of. 
 
All of the programs are text mode, DOS applications that will run on
IBM-compatible PCs. 

Thank you for your interest.  I'll look forward to hearing from you. 
 
Brad Kaenel, author 

Address:

Brad Kaenel 
PC -Helpline 
35250 Silver Leaf Circle 
Yucaipa 
CA 92399 USA 

phone +1 714 797 3091  

Compuserve Email is 72357.3523 I think you would Email from our net by 

                   72357.3523@compuserve.com 

Other material found on SIMTEL include enigmax, cwf12, wrdlk11b all PC based
packages. They could be the same as some of the material described above. I
don't know as none have been really tested yet. Any comments or even better 
are any of the developers on the NET?


Ross Beresford's ALVEARY is also in SIMTEL:

My crossword-related software for the PC is now available on SIMTEL:

pd1:<msdos.txtutl>
TEA100.ZIP       184983 bytes   TEA word search program for crosswords v1.00
TEABD100.ZIP      10261 bytes   Dictionary database encoder for TEA v1.00
TEADLING.ZIP     313893 bytes   TEA dictionary database - <MSDOS.LINGUISTICS>
TEADWEB.ZIP     1220604 bytes   TEA dictionary database - Webster's 2nd Ed

These archives comprise the full release of version 1.00 of The Electronic
Alveary (TEA). TEA is a word search program intended specifically for
crossword solvers and setters.

TEA offers the same functionality as a GREP-type program would on an ASCII
word list, but supports the concept of anagrams as well as templates in
its pattern specifications. It is intended to be faster and more convenient
to use than existing general tools for list searching.

TEA100.ZIP is the core package and only that needs to be downloaded
to try out the program. This archive includes a small dictionary derived
from the ispell package (40000 entries, US spellings, mixed case, inflected
forms, no phrases).

TEABD100.ZIP contains an encoder for the dictionary database files used
by TEA. This archive contains 'C' source and an MS-DOS binary that allows
TEA databases to be created from ASCII word lists.

The optional dictionary in TEADLING.ZIP was derived directly from the
files named WORDS[1-4].ZIP in the <MSDOS.LINGUISTICS> directory on SIMTEL
(110000 entries, US and UK spellings, lower case only, inflected forms,
no phrases).

The optional dictionary in TEADWEB.ZIP was created by merging the Webster's
2nd Edition word and phrase lists, which are distributed with many UNIX
systems (310000 entries, US spellings, mixed case, a few inflected forms,
phrases).

Some other software has come through this conference. Could the developers get
in touch so that they can be included in this list. That means you MTR!