Ingrid Core

This crate contains the core crossword-solving code used in the Ingrid construction app, as well as a standalone binary that can be used to solve grids from the command line.

Usage

After setting up Rust, you can install the Ingrid Core CLI tool with cargo:

$ cargo install ingrid_core

Then you just need to provide a grid as an input file:

$ cat example_grid.txt
....#.....#....
....#.....#....
...............
......##.......
###.....#......
............###
.....#.....#...
....#.....#....
...#.....#.....
###cremebrulees
......#.....###
.......##......
...............
....#.....#....
....#.....#....
$ ingrid_core example_grid.txt
arte#estar#pram
leis#seale#aero
dancastellaneta
imgame##yeltsin
###punkd#agrees
jamesearlray###
adfee#beene#cma
baas#coats#coal
sms#proms#halle
###cremebrulees
issued#deere###
seabees##tonkin
beginningandend
nyet#croak#atta
sats#eerie#roos

You can also use a custom word list (the default is Spread the Wordlist) or customize various other options:

$ ingrid_core --help
ingrid_core: Command-line crossword generation tool

Usage: ingrid_core [OPTIONS] <GRID_PATH>

Arguments:
  <GRID_PATH>  Path to the grid file, as ASCII with # representing blocks and . representing empty squares

Options:
      --wordlist <WORDLIST>
          Path to a scored wordlist file [default: (embedded copy of Spread the Wordlist)]
      --min-score <MIN_SCORE>
          Minimum allowable word score [default: 50]
      --max-shared-substring <MAX_SHARED_SUBSTRING>
          Maximum shared substring length between entries [default: none]
  -h, --help
          Print help information
  -V, --version
          Print version information

Acknowledgments

• The backtracking search implementation in this library owes a lot to "Adaptive Strategies for Solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems" by Thanasis Balafoutis, which was helpful both as an overview of the CSP space and a source of specific implementation ideas.

• The CLI tool includes a copy of the free Spread the Wordlist dictionary published by Brooke Husic and Enrique Henestroza Anguiano.