                      Yet Another Word List [YAWL]

                                    i
                                 The List

Why indeed is there even a need for Yet Another Word List? The notorious
"linux.words" list, the public domain "Websters 2", the ispell and
cracklib dictionaries, not to mention various and sundry purported
Scrabble lists are already available in electronic form. None of these,
though, are optimized for word game use and as comprehensive as the
YAWL. At 263,533 words, this list subsumes the SOWPODS list beloved of
international Scrabble players.  There is no arbitrary word length cutoff,
and even words longer than 20 letters find a place in the list.

Care has been taken to ensure that the YAWL word list (word.list) will
for all time remain copyright free. It is based on the updated Public
Domain ENABLE (Enhanced North American Benchmark Lexicon), researched
and compiled by the author and his colleague, Alan Beale. The ENABLE
list has become a sort of de facto on-line standard for word gaming,
having been adopted by  Scrabble servers and used as the basis for at
least one commercial word game. Additional content in the list came from
Alan Beale's painstakingly researched "2DICTS" and "OSPDADD" lists, an
"OSW" clone list generously contributed by the amateur lexicographer,
C.M.L. Wristlock, David Duffy's list of Australian bird names, and a short
list of computer jargon oriented "signature words" added by the author
of this package. While there might be suspicions of arbitrariness in
the choice of words these signature words, they add a pungent, slightly
smoky idiosyncratic flavor to the brew.

Those who, in spite of themselves,  develop an asthetic
appreciation of the YAWL package are urged to download the
lists it is based on, in the ENABLE2K and SUPP2K archives, from
http://personal.riverusers.com/~thegrendel/software.html. These archives
contain Alan Beale's erudite, but eminently readable research notes,
a treat for the amateur lexicographer.

The YAWL word list itself (word.list) is, of course, in standard
UNIX ASCII format, one word per line, terminated by an LF. Those
unfortunate Windows persons desiring a DOS ASCII word file, lines
terminated by an LF-CR, can download the "tofrodos" package from
http://chrisheng.hypermart.net/ or http://thor.prohosting.com/~cslheng/,
which contains both 16 and 32-bit Windows executables for converting
text files from UNIX to DOS format.

The YAWL list, word.list, is herewith and forever placed in the
Public Domain, which means there are no restrictions on its use and
redistribution for "lawful" purposes. This means you may not use the list
to rob banks or swindle investors, but short of that, pretty much anything
goes. If you decide to incorporate the list into a game, application,
or product, the author requests, as a courtesy, notification of same,
so that he can gain a moment's satisfaction in return for all the effort
he has put into this project.



                                   ii
                             The Utilities

This new version of the YAWL package now includes two simple anagramming
utilities. They are interesting and useful in their own right, but
their true purpose is to inspire all the Linux word gamers and coders
out there to invent and create...  word games, using the YAWL list,
of course.  It would truly be nice to see a successor to Scrabble -
a new generation word game with strategic depth, a word game with some
of the sheer crystalline beauty of chess and the sheer profundity of Go,
a word game rewarding artistic play rather than dry list memorization,
a word game for those who truly love the richness of the English language
and revel in its peculiar permutations, a word game that will take the
gaming community by storm, a word game that will invade living rooms
all across the civilized world, in short, a word game fated to run on
millions of Linux machines.


Using 'anagram' involves nothing more than typing, from the command line
(console or xterm), 'anagram letter-set [dictionary]'. Omitting the
[dictionary] defaults to the YAWL list, installed by this package as
"word.list" in /usr/dict.  Omitting the letter set causes the program
to prompt the user for input.  The letter set may include "wild cards"
(blank tiles), which are represented as underscores (_). The output goes
to stdout, and may, of course be redirected to a file.

Examples:
  anagram lkwa
  ------------
     al
     aw
     awl
     ka
     la
     law
     walk
 
   anagram whea_l
   --------------
     aa
     aah
     aal
     ab
     able
     ace
     ache
     ... and 459 other words.

   anagram abcd /usr/dict/linux.words
   ----------------------------------
     anagrams the letterset "abcd" using /usr/dict/linux.words.



The multiple word anagram utility, "multi" works similarly. The syntax, from
the command line, is:
   multi [letter set] [number of words] [word file]

Example:
   multi abcdefghij 3
   ------------------
   bach fed jig
   bach jig fed
   bad chef jig
   ...
   bid chef jag
   ...
   jab chef dig
   ...and 49 other combinations.

Using "multi" can provide some cheap thrills when a party gets dull.

Both "anagram" and "multi" have their own man pages, installed by a
"make install".

It would take only a few small tweaks to transform the anagram code into an
unscramble tool for "scramblegrams" or even a "find the missing letters"
utility for crossword puzzle fans. This is left as an "exercise for the
reader".

Mendel Cooper
thegrendel@theriver.com

--
Scrabble is a registered trademark of Milton Bradley, a subsidiary of Hasbro,
Inc.

ENABLE, YAWL, and 2DICTS are not trademarks.
