WQRDLI
                               ======

WQRDLI - pronounced WORDLY, is a simple solo word game, something between a
crossword puzzle and Master Mind(R). Use logic and your knowledge of
language to deduce the hidden word.


                               Index
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WQRDLI
Whats new in V0.02? Whats new in V0.03? Whats new in V0.04? Requirements Game Rules To Play Scoring Sharing your results User Interface Configuration Detail Command Line About Word Lists Troubleshooting ToDo Program Status Requirements ============ SMSQ/E V3.36+ OR Qdos JS+/Minerva V1.98+ with + PE2 = ptr_gen V2.06+, and wman V2.09+ + TK2 V2.31+ + Home_bin V1.02 (optional but recommended) + Q2S_bin V0.03+ * AND + Qlib_run or Qlib_sys V3.36+ + EasyPtr's ptrmen_cde V4.10+ ! * Q2S_bin is a "compatibility toolkit" that adds some SBASIC functionality to SuperBASIC. Toolkit included in bin_ sub directory. ! In some cases earlier versions of OSes and toolkits may work - but NOT ptrmen_cde! Compatible with all colour modes (mode 2 not tested) if correctly configured. Minimum 512x384 resolution (although 512x256 works for up to 5 letter words). Approx 50K - 90K RAM (depending on choices) Approx 175K disc space; could be split over more than one device
Incomplete
Game Rules ========== The game chooses and secretes a random word of a defined length from a list and you have a limited number of goes to work out what the word is. Your first guess must naturally be totally random, apart from knowing the length of the word. On entering your guess the program evaluates the result and returns some clues: 1. Letters in your guess that do not match any letter in the secret word are marked as "open". 2. Letters in your guess that match one or more letters in the secret word but are not in the right place are marked with a different colour combination. 3. Finally letters in your guess that exactly match letters in the secret word AND are in the correct position are highlighted to indicate that fact. Each row represents a guess. You have one guess less than the number of letters in the word; the final row is for the secret word, revealed when you have guessed correctly - or run out of chances. To Play ======= The program can be EXecuted from the command line or from some program launcher. You can provide for an alternative configuration file by entering its name on the command line, eg EX "<path>WQRDLI_obj"; "/C<alternative config file name>" If you are not using SMSQ/E, or under Qdos, dont use a toolkit called Home_bin (or you launch the program from a Hotkey!) then you HAVE to either configure the program's home directory manually - use the standard Qjump configuration program, Config, for this, or JMS's MenuConfig, OR you must specify the Home Directory on the command line thus: EX "<wqrdli path>WQRDLI_obj"; "/H<wqrdli path = home>" The game starts up with the number of squares you have determined in the configuration file (see below). All words are of the same length. Click a square in the top row to start entering letters. Type in your guess and press ENTER (or DO) on the line when ready. If you have guessed correctly the word will be revealed on the last line, otherwise a new line will be presented for you to try again. Use logic and your knowledge of the language to guess before your choices run out! "Factory default" colours (GD2 mode QL colours, and QL mode 8): Blue square white ink: Open, ie no letters recognised or placed Red square white ink: Letter recognised but in wrong place Green square black ink: Letter recognised and in place Score: Black square white ink: Word recognised Black square red ink: Word not recognised You can configure most things to your taste; the square size, the word list to use, colours and more. Hopefully the config file is more or less self-explanatory.. If not, the gory detail can be found below. You can also operate with different config files, eg for different systems or users of your systems. Simply specify the config file to use on the command line: EX 'dev1_games_wrd_WQRDLI_obj'; '/CQL8_cfg' If the QL8_cfg is not in the WQRDLI home directory the full path name must be specified. Scoring ======= Scores are calculated by subtracting tries from the maximum possible score, with each guess multiplying the toll. For each wrong letter a penalty of 2 times the row number is paid For each correct letter in the wrong place the penalty is 1 times the row number. For each correct letter in the right place, there is no penalty. You can use non-existent words (ie not in the word list) but then an absolute penalty of 2 points for each letter (right or wrong) times the row number must be paid. (Ie it will usually be cheaper to knowingly use a wrong letter on the next guess if it spells a known word rather than use a rubbish word to get by..) Sharing your results ==================== You can press F4 at the end of the game to save a PIC file of your solution. Note: This option saves the PIC in your designated folder using the name of the selected word, eg WORD_pic. If a PIC of the same name already exists it is overwritten! Note the PIC created will be of the same mode that the system is in during play, ie 0, 8, 16, 32, or 33. If you have the latest QTImage you can easily convert your PIC to a JPEG file for sharing online. Either load the PIC file into QTImage and Export it from there or: ERT FEW("<qti path>pic2jpg"; "<pic path>WORD_pic <dos path>WORD.jpg") User Interface ============== To move the window: If you are using SMSQ/E with WM_MOVEMODE > 1: Grab the Title bar using your mouse and HOLD the left mouse button down to move the window. Qdos users can use just HIT the title bar and park the window move sprite at some convenient location. Or use CTRL + F4 Pressing ESC or DOing the title bar will quit the game. If a game is in progress you will be asked for confirmation. Click on any square in the top row to start entering letters. As you type the highlight moves to the next square. You can move forward or backward along the row using the left and right cursor keys, or using TAB and SHIFT TAB. Normally the cursor skips over squares marked as containing the right character in the right place. Simply DO such a square to enter a different letter there. When you are satisfied with your guess press ENTER (or DO on the active row with the mouse button). Note: Only the current row will receive input. At the end of the game: At this point you can also create an image (PIC) of the grid. Simply press F4 and the image will be saved to your configured location. To play again, DO the message line with your mouse or press F3. Scores are kept as an export text file in your configured location. Configuration Detail ==================== The default configurtion file is called wqrdli_cfg unless you specify a different one, using the /C option, on the command line. A couple of different ones are included as examples. The format of the configuration file is quite rigid: The first line contains the version identifier. It must be the only item and on the first line. Blank lines and lines starting on * are considered comment lines and can be anywhere after the first line. Dont change the order of items! Every item has to have a valid value A value is an equals sign followed by the value and terminated by a space: item =value comment This is true for all values except "messages" which may not have inline comments appended; the whole line after the = is the value. Some individual values: ----------------------- wordlist: If the word list is in the dic subdirectory under home directory then only its name is required. In all other cases the full path and filename must be specified, eg wordlist =en5GB - refers to the file <home>dic_en5GB alternatively: wordlist =win2_dics_eng_wdl_l5_txt - is a specific file in another location Note that if you change word length you should also start a new score file! (For more information on word lists see below) scorefile =<filename> for <home><filename> or scorefile =<path><filename> The score file is a simple text file and follows the PSION export file convention, ie it could be imported into Abacus, Archive (or some external program) and manipulated or merely displayed there. verbose =1 - <> 0 => list all guesses; 0 => list word only If verbose mode is chosen then words not found in word list are marked with an asterisk. You could then spell check them and manually add them to your list in the correct alphabetical position. picdir =<directory> - This is where your PICs go square =36 - this sets the size for all squares; letter squares and score squares. If too large it may cause the window to become larger than the screen; if too small the letters or scores may not fit. palette =1 - system palette colours 0..3 sound =0 - Any value other than zero => sound on xpos =200 - x - position (-1 => current pointer position) ypos = 20 - y - position (-1 => current pointer position) x/y can also be set to -2 => centred in the x and/or y position on screen colour =QL - Colour depth QL or 24 (any other value than "QL" => colour 24 => RGB). RGB colours can only be specified when the display is in GD2 mode, while QL colours are displayable in all modes. If QL colour is specified then all colour values are taken to be, and MUST conform to, QL colour values, basically 0..255 If RGB (non-QL) colour is specified then all values are taken to be RGB hex values. An RGB hex value looks like this: [$]<hex digit> * 1..6, ie An optional dollar sign, followed by at least one, and up to 6, hex digits. backgrnd =226 - This is basically the grid colour. If your system is running in QL colour mode then RGB24 colours cannot be used and any such will crash the program with an overflow error. Applies to all colour values below. hilite =2 - The colour of the highlight box closed =228 - Covered squares (ink is irrelevant) hidden =255 - Secret word cover The next batch of colours come in pairs: Paper colour, followed by ink colour: open => Uncommitted letter squares nearly => For squares containing letters of right kind in wrong place. done => For squares containing letter of right kind in right place. The next few relate to the display of scores: scoresq =0 - Score square scorex =2 - Score word not found ink scorew =7 - Score word found ink The next tranche is for you to insert the relevant messages in a language of your choice. Note that the whole line after the = sign is taken to be the message, so no comments are allowed. Messages should be kept short. noword =Word not found win =Good one! lose =Try harder! quit => Quit string: Quit <Y/n> (question mark and space added by program) codes => yn, jn, on, .. the two first letters of yes/no (ESC and ENTER added by program) Command Line ============ Anything put on the command line overrides the corresponding entry in the configuration file. /<key> gives the command, followed by the parameter. If the parameter includes a / or a space it must be wrapped in quotes. The following commands can be given: /H - Home Directory - this overrides any other Home Directory setting. /C - Alternative command file. Only the file name and extension need to be given if the file is in the Home Directory. /X - x-position of game window at startup /Y - y-position of game window at startup Either x-position or y-position or both can be gives as -1 => current pointer position -2 => centred on screen any positive value represents an absolute position on screen. Example: EX '<path>WQRDLY_obj'; '/X-2 /Y20 /C QL8_cfg' Meaning: Execute WQRDLI, centred horizontally, 20 pixels below top of screen, using <home>QL8_cfg as the configuration file. About Word Lists ================ A few sample word lists are supplied but you can make your own in any language you are comfortable with. You can find word lists as plain text files (of varying quality!) in most languages on the Internet. Write a small S*BASIC program to split any such list into separate files for different word lengths in accordance with the specification below. This program is designed for word lengths of between 4 and 9 characters. No guarantees if you stray outside these limits! For your own sanity's sake you should spell check your word lists before use! It should also be fairly comprehensive! (Very irritating to be told by a computer that a word you know well, doesnt exist!) Remove any words with non-alphabetic letters, such as hyphens or apostrophes. Here are the basic rules: 1. All words in a list must be of the same length 2. Only one word per line, terminated with LF (CHR$(10)) 3. All words must be in lowercase letters 4. The list must be sorted alphabetically, a..z 5. No blank lines anywhere in list (including at the end) One conformity check you can apply is that the file length, divided by the word length + 1, must equal the number of words in the list! <word count> = <file length> / ( <word length> + 1 ) Troubleshooting =============== The boot file hangs or says you dont have the right toolkits. If it hangs break into the program. In both cases: try RUNing it again! Qlib reports a BPUT error: Your version of TK2 is too old. WQRDLI needs TK2 V3.10 or later. Out of range error on startup: This probably means you have defined RGB colours in your config file but are trying to run the program in QL mode. The program will also crash if you have defined a square size and/or a word length that requires a window larger than the screen will permit. No checks are made by the program, it will just crash. Just alter the configuration file and try again! Mode 0 and 8: You can play WQRDLI on a QL in mode 0 or mode 8, or in an emulator in all modes 0.. 33. However, there are subtle (and not so subtle) differences in display emulation across the board. A 512x256 screen is rather a tight fit, so your options will be limited. With some additional effort it might have been possible to iron out how these differences affect the look of the program, either by making separate versions, or by adding more conditions and variable metrics in the code.. - But I havent: Im happy with playing WQRDLI on my systems, ie QPC2, SMSQmulator, and Q68, all in glorious high colour mode, where it works as intended. The source code is made available so you can tailor it to your system(s) if you like. I cant remember much about mode 8 on a real QL, but emulators seem to struggle a bit.. so you may need to wrestle with your system a little to get it to work. Under Q-emulator you have to CTRL + c to find it after execution. It works best if the system is in mode 8 before you EX WQRDLI. Also, the PIC creation in QL mode is not perfect. If the window is not properly aligned on screen the image will be slightly off. This may be fixed one day. Perhaps you know how to fix it? Config file/Score file etc not found: The test to check whether a file name has a path prepended to the file name is rather simplistic: the program checks to see whether there is a valid device number (1..8) in the fourth position of the file name. If there is, it assumes the path is fully specified, so a file name like QL48_cfg would not be properly recognised! The cure is to specify the full path and file name, or to rename the file. A fix for this issue may be made in a future version.. The game crashed (God forbid!) or you removed the game by other means and now you cant move the pointer with the cursor keys: Type CKEYON at the console and all should be well again. You had to pause the game to do something else and now you cant move the pointer with the cursor keys: Click the game window somewhere outside of the grid before you pause, or type CKEYON at the console. Whats new in V0.02? =================== The only change to WQRDLI with this version compared to the previous one is that now also losses are logged to the score file. This has resulted in a small change to the score file format. If you want to continue using your current score files, you can run a small script, ..wrd_src_UPDTscore_bas, and thereafter just continue as usual. Alternatively, rename or delete your old score files and start afresh. This is how you use UPDTscore: 1. LOAD ..wrd_src_UPDTscore_bas in a standard S*BASIC console 2. Enter RUN 3. Enter the filename of the score file you wish to update 4. Copy the temporary resultant file (default: ram1_score_exp) over your old score file. 5. Repeat from (2) for any other score files you use. Note: You only need to update score files that are created with the default 'verbose' setting in your config file. Whats new in V0.03? =================== By popular demand Ive added a character elimination display to the program. As the game progresses, any characters in your guess that do not match any character in the hidden word are marked. This should make it easier to spot characters that should be avoided in your next guess. You need to update your configuration file(s) for this. Either: 1. LRUN <wrdli home>update_bas and enter each wqrdlixx_cfg file that you have to do the update automatically, or 2. Load each wqrdlixx_cfg file into a text editor and change the first line from WQRDLI01 to WQRDLI02 (remember that these eight characters (plus LF) must be the only thing on the first line!) and after the first active line following wordlist =<wordlist filename> add the line charset =ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Note that if your WQRDLI language is not English, you may need to add additional characters. This is not done automatically by the update program! For Norwegian and Danish the line might look like this: charset =ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZÆØÅ You may have to alter the square size to fit in extra characters beyond the default 26. (But only do this if you need or want to!) Eg alter: square =36 Square size to square =40 Square size This, however, will render the window size too big for the standard QL 512x256 display! Whats new in V0.04? =================== A bug in the elimination display caused letters that had not been eliminated to be wrongly marked. This has now been fixed. Misspelt key 'loose' in WQRDLI config files has been changed to 'lose' as in: lose =Try harder! ToDo ==== Re-think program logic. This was designed-as-you-go Tidy code and make efficient! Improve code commentary to better enable maintenance and future updates Error messages, eg on screen shot, score file, etc..? Improve QL mode screen shots Improve sounds Program Status ============== V0.01, pjw, 2022 Feb 03 V0.02, pjw, 2022 Apr 12, Also log lost games; new score file format. V0.03, pjw, 2022 Jul 21, character elimination display, minor tweaks Updated boot, added update_bas Updated Q2S_bin/Q2QUX_bin Requires wqrdli_cfg updated to ID 02! V0.04, pjw, 2024 Feb 26, Fixed bug in character elimination display Conditions of use and DISCLAIMER as per Knoware.no