TuxWordSmith 0.8.0 being played with the Italian-English dictionary.
TuxWordSmith 0.8.0 main screen. Use -wx flag for admin GUI.
TuxWordSmith 0.8.0 help screen
TuxWordSmith 0.8.0 wxPython admin gui
TuxWordSmith is similar to the classic word game "Scrabble", but with unicode support for multiple languages and character sets. The game is currently distributed with forty-two (42) dictionary resources for playing Language[i]-Language[j] "Scrabble". For example, if configured to use the French-German dictionary, then the distribution of available tiles will be computed based on frequency of occurance of each character of Language[i] (French), and for each submission the corresponding definition will be given in Language[j] (German). The latest release (0.6.0) includes support for the Greek and Cyrillic (Russian, Ukranian) character sets, thus making it possible to play Scrabble in Greek, Russian and Ukranian, as well as a host of other languages which use latin characters. TuxWordSmith (TWS) is a "sister" application to TuxMathScrabble(TMS), the TWS code is 95% identical to the TMS code. (Lin/Win/Mac)
TuxWordSmith is a sister application to TuxMathScrabble. Historically, TuxMathScrabble (TMS) came first. The xdxf dictionaries made TWS possible, so I wrote it, but it's a very rudimentary implementation. Several of the dictionary resources are small. This could be ported to HTML5 just like the new TMS recently was.
Each dictionary resource contains a unique number of entries (words and definitions). Some effort has been made to filter acronyms, abbreviations and names, but this filtering is not perfect, and sometimes these creep into the central data structure. At any rate, once the configured dictionary is parsed and filtered, the set of surviving words are analyzed and corresponding entries are created for each unique set of letters in the central data structure. Each entry contains a list of words with the same letter content, among other things, such that entries are distinguished by their unique fingerprints.
Once the central data structure has been completely populated, a histogram of unique letter frequencies for the specific dictionary resource is created. If Language[i]=English, then there should be 26 channels to this histogram. However, if Language[i]=French, for example, then there are additional channels corresponding to letters with accents and the "c" with cedilla. Everything is determined dynamically according to the particular dictionary resource that has been configured. This distribution is then normalized to the configured total number of tiles, and a "bag of tiles" (just like Scrabble) is filled with the correct realative numbers of each character.
Coloring of the tiles occurs when a player draws tiles from the bag. This is something that can only be done with a computer Scrabble game. When tiles are exchanged, they go back into the bag of tiles, and if ever the bag is emptied, then the program refills the bag with another full set of "N" (according to configuration) tiles. So, it is the most fair and representative policy, unlike Scrabble. Also, the point value of each tile is computed based on realative frequency and normalized to the range [min,max] as also configured through the admin control panel.
Starting with version 0.6.3 the 40+ dictionaries for the application are to be downloaded and installed separately. See the link at http://www.asymptopia.org to download. If you still cannot find the dictionary resource you seek, check the xdxf website, where there are numerous other resources available: http://xdxf.revdanica.com/down/index.php You will need to make a slight modification to the resource you download, namely that the "full-name" string in the actual dict.xdxf file that you download is identical to the directory name under which it is stored. This is merely a useful convention adopted throughout the application. You will also need to manually edit the Globals/globals/config file and add the resource to the list under the parameter DICTIONARY_RESOURCES. If you do this correctly, it will then show-up in the admin gui's DICTIONARY_RESOURCES combobox. Note that Language[i] is limited to Latin, Greek and Cyrillic character languages. Korean, Chinese and Japanese won't work.
1. No blank tiles
2. Scoring and realative numbers of tiles determined fairly based on configured resource
3. No DoubleLetter, DoubleWord and TrippleLetter etc spots on board
4. Due to variation among dictionary resources, and thus differences in content, format and representation, very little hard-coding has been done to prevent use of abbreviations, names, and other types typically not allowed in regular Scrabble. In general, if it is in the dictionary resource, then Tux might use it! (You could, too, if you knew it was in there).
Turning both characters "off" (ie by setting to "None" character through admin control panel) will result in significantly faster game play in computer-vs-computer mode.
The current scheme uses individual Language[i]-Language[j] dictionary resources. Plans exist to combine these many individual resources into a single set of cross-referenced data vectors. In theory (ie. if it works) this will allow to play between ANY 2 supported languages, as opposed to being limited to the specific dictionary resources currently included. A small step in this direction was made with the inclusion of the Greek-English dictionary, which is really the English-Greek dictionary, inverted. Hopefully with more resources and cross-referencing options such a structure could be filled-in to some degree of completeness.
======================== TuxWordSmith-0.8.1 ======================== December 8, 2014Fix fullscreen capability via F6, all platforms
December 6, 2014
- New theme ala TuxMathScrabble-HTML5
- Fix wxpython support 2.8 and 3.0
- Rework wxadmin interface
- Remove extraneous u-double-dot char from Spanish-English letter distribution
- Tested on Mac, Gentoo Linux and Ubuntu 14.
NOTE: For Ubuntu use gtk2.8
NOTE2: The English-English dictionary is called "Merriam-Webster-Collegiate" (1932)
January 18, 2010
- Bugfix for missing path variable on some operating systems.
January 15, 2010
- All users take their own unique copy of .tws_config_master and save to $HOME/.tws_config
December 27, 2009
Bugfix for display.init() problem under windows (my XP at least). Specifically, added the following @lines 170-173 tws.py:
if self.env.OS=="win": os.environ['SDL_VIDEODRIVER'] = 'windib' pygame.display.init() pygame.init()
Bugfix @TuxWordSmith/environment.py to avoid ambiguity of having 2 nested TuxWordSmith directories ( ie. TuxWordSmith/TuxWordSmith/ ). Caused errors running installed version from $HOME with $HOME/TuxWordSmith existing.
December 22, 2009
This release (0.7.7) implements the CPU activity capping scheme as just released in TuxMathScrabble 0.7.0.
The original fireworks show at the startup screen is now off by default. Sound is also off by default.
The language is English-English by default. The default language resource is Merriam-Webster-Collegiate.
Launch the application with the -wx flag to obtain access to the gui administration and configuration interface.
There you can select your desired language resource. You can look at the various directory sizes under the xdxf/ directory to see the realative sizes of the various included dictionaries. The default English is very complete.
Some are not so complete, but may be entertaining to watch in demo mode (computer vs. compter). Note that in demo mode the CPU usage will remain quite high as "most of the time" the computer will be finding a good move for a player. In that case the CPU really is needed. "Capping the CPU activity" in this case means limiting the number of screen repaints. In past versions if the CPU was not in full use for the purpose of fitting a word, then the application would repaint itself -- often needlessly -- putting CPU activity back to 100%.As a result of no longer including dependencies for the Windows version, now all three platforms (Win/Lin/Mac) use the exact same code. I have personally tested on Linux and Windows, but not Mac. Please let me know about your experience on a Mac.
Another big difference from past releases is that 0.7.7 has two variants ... one which has only a few dictionaries and is thus a smaller size to download, and another variant which has every dictionary and is quite large. If you have a slow connection then you can download the smaller variant and get the specific additional dictionary you would like from the SourceForge archive.
There is one more big change if you run under Windows: No more .exe with all dependencies contained. You need to install Python and PyGame (definitely) and wxPython (optional, ie can play defaults but cannot use admin gui to change languages).
May 6, 2009
- The wxGTK (aka wxPython, wxWidgets, etc) GUI toolkit is now merely an option, and no longer required.
- In connection with [1] the application now accepts 3 command line options: -help, -wx and -d
December 6, 2008
- Fixed bug where tile dropped on existing got permanently "absorbed" (ie. disappeared)
- Changed default throwback behavior: Now, invalid moves not thrown back. Throwback via keyboard shortcut.
- Program launcher name changed from TuxMathScrabble to lowercase tuxmathscrabble
- Default included dictionary is Merriam-Webster English Dictionary
- Filter out biographical names (entries having xml tag = "biographical name")
November 3, 2008
- Arbitrary number of dictionary resources can exist; they are now dynamically "discovered".
- F1 on background clears last definition (more convenient for 1-handed playing.
- Mouse wheel over tray shuffles tray tiles
- Long-standing bug fixed: when "show all" in admin panel, then save, lose sidebar image pathname -> crash! (fixed).
- Mouse wheel over tray shuffles tiles (saves having to reach w/left hand to press F5, as previously implemented)
- Fixed crash on disconnected single-letter submission where variable "exprtype" reference undefined
- Changed some variables to be shown in admin panel by default: SoundOn,
- Fixed capability to save changes to IMAGE_ADMIN_SIDEBAR
- Reduced-by-consolidation use of color and font variables ...
- Went from "wx.lib.flatnotebook" back to "wx.Notebook" for older wx installation compatability.
- Restored ToolTips for all items throughout admin configuration panel.
- Updated fireworks show by going over each type and making parameter adjustments
- F2 Key fills background color and currently rendered definition, only, so can read (ie as tiles underneathe often make difficult to read).
- Installation is now optional. Game can be played from unzipped package directory.
- Fixed last definition surface layout and word wrapping.
In this release the Spanish-English dictionary is included as the default. The various other language[a]-language[b] dictionary resources have been put on SourceForge. In this release additional dictionary resources are downloaded and installed individually. The url is: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=183670&package_id=273695&release_id=637678 The best English dictionary to use is: Merriam-Webster-Collegiate To install them simply unzip and copy to the following appropriate directory:
Linux stand-alone: $HOME/TuxWordSmith/xdxf/ Linux installed: /var/games/TuxWordSmith/xdxf/ Windows: C:\Program Files\TuxWordSmith\TuxWordSmith\xdxf\July 7, 2008: The main feature of this release is the addition of English-Chinese mode, where you play in English and definitions are shown in Chinese (Traditional, Simplified and the Pinyin -- all three styles).
Also added are several other resources created by inverting existing dicts (see manifest).
English-German and English-Russian (full resources) were also added.
NOTE: All the dictionaries came from http://xdxf.revdanica.com/down/index.php
April 26, 2008