boggle - word search game
boggle [-bd] [-s seed] [-t time] [-w length] [+ [+]] [boardspec]
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.
-b Run 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.
-d Enable debugging output.
-s seed Specify a seed seed other than the time of day.
-t time Set the time limit for each game from the default 3 minutes to
time seconds.
-w length Change the minimum word length from 3 letters to length.
+ This flag allows a cube to be used multiple times, but not in
succession.
++ This flag allows the same cubes to be considered adjacent to
itself.
boardspec A starting board position can be specified on the command line
by listing the board left to right and top to bottom.
Help is available during play by typing `'?. More detailed information
on the game is given there.
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
BSD April 1, 2001 BSD
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