About Polyglot.zz¶
| Polyglot: | knowing or using several languages |
|---|---|
| zz: | distinctive subset of chars from the word puzzle |
Polyglot.zz is a collection of libraries for generating word search puzzles implemented in multiple languages. Each implementation provides conceptually equal interface; omitting language specific syntax differences. The implementation details are internal to each language and are not required to be equal.
See full list of available implementations here »
Features¶
- ability to extend puzzle state (add/remove words over time)
- supports multiple alphabets (default is English)
- supports various board configurations (default is N x N square)
- configurable words directions
Motivation¶
Beyond providing a library for generating word puzzles, this project has a few alternative agendas. The purpose of this project is to provide:
- better understanding of language differences
- fixed standard problem for learning new languages
- semi-interesting problem for optimization
- understanding of best practices and efforts required to maintain a multi-language project
The choice of using word puzzles as the problem to solve is ideal because it requires no servers, network connection, or reuse permission (i.e. expensive licenses). It allows constructing a search problem without any prior dataset and the problem is presented dynamically by applying various constraints to the search space, whereby it is easy to go from a simple problem to a more complex problem by simply changing constraints. Overall, this problem allows focusing on finding an actual solution instead of focusing on the mechanics of networking and interoperability.