C boggle - word search game bog [-b] [-d] [-s#] [-t#] [-w#] [+[+]] [boardspec]

mkdict

mkindex

The object of boggle is to find as many words as possible on the Boggle board within the three minute time limit. A Boggle board is a four by four arrangement of Boggle cubes, each side of each cube displaying a letter of the alphabet or `qu'. Words are formed by finding a sequence of cubes (letters) that are in the game's dictionary. The (N+1)th cube in the word must be horizontally, vertically, or diagonally adjacent to the Nth cube. Cubes cannot be reused. Words consist solely of lower case letters and must be at least 3 letters long.

Command line flags can be given to change the rules of the game. The + flag allows a cube to be used multiple times, but not in succession. The ++ flag allows the same cubes to be considered adjacent to itself. A seed other than the time of day is specified by -s#, where # is the seed. The time limit can be changed from the default 3 minutes by using the flag -t#, where # is the duration (in seconds) of each game. The minimum word length can be changed from 3 letters by specifying -w#, where # is the minimum number of letters to use.

A starting board position can be specified on the command line by listing the board left to right and top to bottom.

The -b flag puts boggle in batch mode. A boardspec must also be given. The dictionary is read from stdin and a list of words appearing in boardspec is printed to stdout.

Help is available during play by typing `?'. More detailed information on the game is given there.

Mkdict reads a word list from stdin, one word per line, and writes a dictionary usable by boggle to stdout. The dictionary is assumed to be sorted. Improper words are filtered out.

Mkindex reads a dictionary produced by mkdict from stdin and writes an index file usable by boggle to stdout.

Bog accesses a dictionary file, a dictionary index file, and a helpfile. Locations are system dependent. The dictionary file must have been created by mkdict and the index file by mkindex. boggle(6), boggletool(6) If there are a great many words in the cube the final display of the words may scroll off of the screen. (On a 25 line screen about 130 words can be displayed.) No word can contain a 'q' that is not immediately followed by a 'u'. When using the '+' or '++' options the display of words found in the board doesn't indicate reused cubes. Boggle is a trademark of Parker Brothers. Barry Brachman

Dept. of Computer Science

University of British Columbia