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OCTANS
Octans is a program to solve Algot's Wordplay
(Wordsearch) puzzles
Andinus
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Table of Contents
─────────────────
1. Demo
2. Installation
.. 1. Release
.. 2. From Source
..... 1. Without `git'
..... 2. With `git'
3. Documentation
.. 1. Implementation
.. 2. Options
..... 1. dict
..... 2. visualize
..... 3. length
..... 4. path
..... 5. verbose
4. News
.. 1. v0.2.3 - 2022-01-12
.. 2. v0.2.0 - 2021-03-04
.. 3. v0.1.4 - 2021-02-19
.. 4. v0.1.3 - 2021-01-24
.. 5. v0.1.2 - 2021-01-20
.. 6. v0.1.1 - 2021-01-20
.. 7. v0.1.0 - 2021-01-19
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Website <https://andinus.nand.sh/octans>
Source <https://git.tilde.institute/andinus/octans>
GitHub (mirror) <https://github.com/andinus/octans>
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1 Demo
══════
This was recorded with `asciinema'.
[https://asciinema.org/a/385500.png]
⁃ Octans v0.2.3: [Visualized Output]
⁃ Octans v0.1.0 - finds 10 solutions to a puzzle:
<https://asciinema.org/a/385598>
⁃ Octans v0.1.0: <https://asciinema.org/a/385500>
⁃ Octans 2021-01-14: <https://asciinema.org/a/384464>
⁃ alt-link (download): <https://andinus.nand.sh/static/octans>
[https://asciinema.org/a/385500.png] <https://asciinema.org/a/385500>
[Visualized Output]
<https://andinus.unfla.me/resources/projects/octans/v0.2.3_2022-01-12_sample_input.mp4>
2 Installation
══════════════
Octans is released to CPAN, you can get it from there or install it
from source. In any case, `zef' is required to install the
distribution.
You can run Octans without `zef'. Just run `raku -Ilib bin/octans'
from within the source directory.
• *Note*: Octans requires `WWW' module. You can however chose to not
install it if you wish to run it locally. Checkout the `without-www'
branch.
2.1 Release
───────────
1. Run `zef install octans'.
Octans should be installed, try running `octans --version' to confirm.
2.2 From Source
───────────────
You can either download the release archive generated by cgit/GitHub
or clone the project if you have `git' installed.
2.2.1 Without `git'
╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌
1. Download the release:
• <https://git.tilde.institute/andinus/octans>
• <https://github.com/andinus/octans/releases>
2. Extract the file.
3. Run `zef install .' in source directory.
2.2.2 With `git'
╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌
All commits will be signed by my [PGP Key].
┌────
│ # Clone the project.
│ git clone https://git.tilde.institute/andinus/octans
│ cd octans
│
│ # Install octans.
│ zef install .
└────
[PGP Key]
<https://andinus.nand.sh/static/D9AE4AEEE1F1B3598E81D9DFB67D55D482A799FD.asc>
3 Documentation
═══════════════
3.1 Implementation
──────────────────
Initially it went over the list of words & checked if they exist in
the grid. This was very slow.
Currently it walks the grid & checks if the current string exist in
the dictionary. This is faster for these reasons:
• The dictionary is sorted, we perform binary range search on the
dictionary to return the list of all words that start with specific
string.
• Starting positions are limited.
If the dictionary wasn't sorted then this probably would've been
slower than previous implementation.
The `neighbors' subroutine (`lib/Octans/Neighbors.rakumod') was taken
from my AoC (Advent of Code) 2020's day-11 solution.
3.2 Options
───────────
3.2.1 dict
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Octans's default dictionary file is `/usr/share/dict/words', use
`--dict' flag to change the dictionary. The words in dictionary must
be seperated by a newline (`\n') & sorted alphabetically.
3.2.2 visualize
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Generates a video solution for the puzzle.
3.2.3 length
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Minimum word length to look for. Default is 7.
3.2.4 path
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The path to be passed must be a *readable file* or an *url* in either
format:
• Link when you view it from your local instance:
<https://tilde.zone/web/statuses/105531207939242077>
• Link from Algot's profile:
<https://mastodon.art/@Algot/105333136907848390>
3.2.5 verbose
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This will increase verbosity.
4 News
══════
4.1 v0.2.3 - 2022-01-12
───────────────────────
⁃ Add visualize option.
`--visualize' now generates a video solution for the puzzle using
Cairo and ffmpeg.
4.2 v0.2.0 - 2021-03-04
───────────────────────
⁃ Removed `sample' option
`--sample' will not solve the sample puzzle.
⁃ Removed shorthand for verbose option
`-v' won't work in `v0.2.0'.
⁃ Change representation of visited squares
When `--verbose' was passed, it would print the solved puzzle with
visited squares replaced with fancy characters. Now it marks them by
adding:
• `*' to visited + gray squares (start positions)
• `/' to visited squares
⁃ Removed time taken
Time taken won't be printed anymore.
It was misleading because the time printed was not the
time taken to find that specific word, it was the time
taken to find all the words upto that word. It would
reset for each starting position.
4.3 v0.1.4 - 2021-02-19
───────────────────────
⁃ Fixed the puzzle parsing regex
The older regex fails to parse this puzzle:
<https://mastodon.art/@Algot/105690195742318751>.
4.4 v0.1.3 - 2021-01-24
───────────────────────
⁃ Added an option to specify minimum word length.
4.5 v0.1.2 - 2021-01-20
───────────────────────
⁃ Input puzzle can now be of any size & not restricted to 4x4 grid.
4.6 v0.1.1 - 2021-01-20
───────────────────────
⁃ Read puzzle from a file.
4.7 v0.1.0 - 2021-01-19
───────────────────────
⁃ Improved performance by using a better algorithm to find words in
the grid.