Re: Crossword generator

From: Gerry Quinn (gerryq_at_DELETETHISindigo.ie)
Date: 11/06/04 

Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 12:31:20 -0000

In article <Pine.LNX.4.60-041.0411021544550.20634
@unix41.andrew.cmu.edu>, ajo@nospam.andrew.cmu.edu says...
> The input to the generator would be a crossword grid of black and white
> squares, and the output would be the same grid with all the white squares
> filled with letters such that each contiguous horizontal and vertical
> sequence of letter-squares formed a word in some given dictionary (also
> supplied as input).

I think basically you will want to do a depth-first search with back-
tracking. Probably you will want to combine this with a heuristic that
tries first to fill out isolated remaining words, or those with most or
nastiest filled-in letters. The idea is to tell quickly if you have
reached a dead end. When far from a dead end, you could try words in
random order, to ensure a good variety of solutions.

- Gerry Quinn

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