talkmagic.co.uk

I plan to write my own branching/progressive anagram generation software.

I know there are a few programs of this sort already so I'll only bother if I can give my version features the rest don't have.

My wish list:
Should run on mobile platforms (PDA, mobile phone) not just my desktop;
Integrated script management I don't just want a list.. I want to be able to devlop my patter for a list as well, in a manner that gels with the "human" approach;
Script assistant for those times when inspiration fails and I can't find the words to deal with a negative the assistant would provide script suggestions "No not U, but, two U''s side-by-side, as in W!"

Can I appeal to the progressive anagrammers out there and ask what features you would like to see (essential or otherwise), as I may share this software with you at some point.

Last year I found some code of the anagram creator I wrote back in 93/4. It was fairly basic, but it did the trick (written on an Atari Portfolio on the train from Sydney to Melbourne!).

To be honest, all you need is the ability to read from a text file and then spit out a list.

Take care, Ian

Ian, I take it you appreciate I'm not just talking "straight" anagramming here. I mean the sort of branching or progressive anagrams* involved in the likes of "What's Your Sign" type effects .

OK, generating the branching for a particular list isn't rocket science but developing "elegant" trees is apparently beyond the scope of the software available at the moment - that's one issue I'd like to tackle.


*This is actually a misnomer but seems to have become accepted over the years. Binary Search Tree might be a better term (if a little geeky )

Yep, I made a whole bunch of branching trees at the time. Lee Earle gave me some ideas and I went to work.

The early version of my script did the grunt work of sorting the letters and ordering them, then the actual creation of the list was done by hand which made things slightly more elegant.

I've still got a few lying around. I posted one for Monopoly properties on the Genii forum a while back (several years, actually) and I recently found a version of Contimental that has all the European countries, books of the Bible (what _was_ I thinking!) and the contents of a spice rack. I think I'll have to dust them off again

Take care, Ian

Get the duster out as I'd be interested!

I've never done a "read" using this technique but fancy adding it to my repertoire. To practice my delivery skills (cause that's what this is all about right?) I've devised a reading where I intuit a card's value selected from a 5-card poker hand (dealt by the spec to himself). It has a worse case of two negatives. All the negs are so well covered (IMHO) they're just little slips along the way rather than "wrongs". Less than 4% of the time I'll fail to deliver - but these are psi-experiments right?

I'll scale up to something more ambitious if I've got the delivery skills and get the reactions I'd like on this one.

PS: I got Monopoly for the kids at Xmas (fair swap I reckon) - I see the place names have changed since I was a kid!

Am I right in thinking that a progressive anagram is a bit like hangman but without the positions?

What is it that your software will do?

The reason I ask, is because I always like a little challenge between work scripts myself.

Marv:
>>Am I right in thinking that a progressive anagram is a bit like hangman but without the positions?
The way I present it - yes

>>What is it that your software will do?
Check out PANAGRAM (The Underground Collective) - it'll cost you a tenner to try the beast though.
You should have "What's My Sign", "Astrolingua", "Sign Language" or at least one of these (Sorry for the dozen or so other variants I have missed) as part of you classic reference library.

>>The reason I ask, is because I always like a little challenge between work scripts myself.
Here's one for you then. Help me with my probabilty math: The spec draws 5 cards from a 52 card deck, I tell him he's playing "Deuces Wild" and he should replace any 2's he's drawn with another card from the deck. What are the odds that the highest card in his hand is a ten or better (aces high)?

stepSeven wrote:Here's one for you then. Help me with my probabilty math: The spec draws 5 cards from a 52 card deck, I tell him he's playing "Deuces Wild" and he should replace any 2's he's drawn with another card from the deck. What are the odds that the highest card in his hand is a ten or better (aces high)?

0.94

The fact that the 2s get replaced means they might as well not exist, so the pack consists of 48 cards.

There are 10-A * 4 suits = 20 high cards and 28 low cards

P(contains a ten or higher) = 1 - P(contains only 9 or lower)

= 1 - (28/48 * 27/47 * 26/46 * 25/45 * 24/44)
= 1 - 0.0573
= 0.9427

Without the wilds, it's 0.92

Give me another!

I was interested in the principle of progressive anagrams, rather than the specifics of a trick.

Are you trying to determine the quickest route to a star sign, say? Do you want the tree of letters you should progress through?

So as not to bore the others with the potential technical issues with items on your wishlist, I PM'd you with some info. Briefly, for those reading this, the first item on the wishlist is not easily accomplished with a single program, and may not be possible depending on the target PDA or mobile phone.

It's a bit off topic, but I love the glider!

Take care, Ian

IanKendall wrote:It's a bit off topic, but I love the glider!

Take care, Ian

Thanks . And, it is there for the right reason as well

Swiftly trying to get back on topic..

Marv:
>>I was interested in the principle of progressive anagrams
Not sure if we can discuss this here without some element of disclosure - maybe you could request a discussion on another thread?. Failing that check out the references to effects I made earlier.

Are you trying to determine the quickest route to a star sign, say? Do you want the tree of letters you should progress through?
Neither. I'm trying to determine what features the users of this sort of software would like to see.

IanKendall wrote:It's a bit off topic, but I love the glider!

Off topic: John Conway has a lot to answer for!

On topic: If you put the search space into a spreadsheet and analyse it's characteristics (vowels, word length, and so on), you can create data sets and sort them by whatever primary key you like to find the best. You might then be able to ask seemingly vague questions that actually narrow the search space very efficiently.

Really Off-topic:
Conway - Who'd have thought his cells would have been gliding across threads some 40 years laters, eh? Anyways, getting back to the automata in question..

Off topic:
Tomo: >>You might then be able to ask seemingly vague questions that actually narrow the search space very efficiently.

I can just see it "Let me look into your mind. Are you thinking of an 8 letter word with 2 vowels in it?" Very Banachek

Anyways, getting back to the question..

On topic:
What features would the users of progressive anagramming software would like to see?

One idea that comes to mind is a "trainer" like in stackview.