qrs 1.2.0

Provides word game-related tools that can be configured with custom settings, letter scores, and wordlists.

qrs

tool for Quarrel (and other word games)

Summary

Provides word game-related tools that can be configured with custom settings, letter scores, and wordlists.

Works on Python 3.6 and above. Tested on Windows 10.

Contents

• Summary
• Contents
• The qrs library
• Direct execution
• Example case
• Settings

The qrs library

Install the qrs library to use its functionality in your projects.

python -m pip install --upgrade qrs

>>> from qrs import build_settings, Ruleset
>>> q = Ruleset(
...     build_settings(
...         {'max': 8}
...     )
... )
>>> print(
...     q.solve_str('wetodlnm')
... )

        --- query: delmnotw (8 letters) ---

        8 letters - 18 points
         MELTDOWN

        5 letters - 14 points
         MOWED

        4 letters - 12 points
         MEWL

        3 letters - 10 points
         MEW, MOW, WEM

        2 letters - 6 points
         EW, OW, WE, WO

>>> _

Direct execution

$ qrs

qrs: _

Upon being called from the command line, it will display an input screen.

Type your letters into the field, press Enter, and wait for the program to calculate the best words. Once done, choose one from the list that corresponds with the number of letters you have available or the next lowest. See the example below to find out why you might not need to use all of your spaces.

Example case

Here's an example using the default program settings. Our situation is the following:

• We're playing Quarrel, and thus, we get eight letters.
• Our letters are wetodlnm.
• We have seven spaces to use.

After installing the library, we'll open a command line and run the program.

Since we know we don't need words longer than eight letters, we can minimise loading time by configuring the program to only calculate for words of that length. We can do this by passing our desired settings as command arguments:

$ qrs --max 8

qrs: _

Note: this has the same effect as creating a qrs.json file, then running the command from the same directory:

// qrs.json
{"max": 8}

## from folder with qrs.json
$ qrs

The program will have to load a wordlist whichever way it is run. Once it finishes loading, we can input our letters and press Enter.

qrs: wetodlnm

        --- query: delmnotw (8 letters) ---

        8 letters - 18 points
         MELTDOWN

        5 letters - 14 points
         MOWED

        4 letters - 12 points
         MEWL

        3 letters - 10 points
         MEW, MOW

        2 letters - 6 points
         OW, WE, WO

qrs: _

This output tells us that the anagram is MELTDOWN, but we can't make that word because we can only use seven letters. In this case, our best word is MOWED (14 points). Based on this output, we also know that our opponent cannot score higher than us without all eight spaces.

Note: a word like LETDOWN scores the same number of points as MOWED, but isn't recognised as a "best word" in this case. This is because when words are tied for points, the program will choose the word/s with the fewest letters.

The fewer letters your word has, the faster you can write it into your game. This is especially important in Quarrel, as the tiebreaker for equal points is input speed.

Settings

Upon being run from the command line, the program will automatically generate (or look for) a qrs.json file in the directory from which the command is run. This file contains the program's settings, which can be changed to suit your needs.

When using qrs as a library, you should pass a dict with any of the following keys into build_settings to generate a full settings object, then pass the output to a Ruleset to create a new instance. Here are all the currently supported settings:

Setting	Default	Description
debug	false	Shows the program's inner workings whilst calculating. Note that this may negatively affect performance on certain devices or IDEs.
exclude	[]	List of words that the program will never output.
game	"quarrel"	Determines the letter scoring system used for calculating points. The value here is passed into build_letter_scores(), and defaults back if invalid.
include	[]	List of additional words for the wordlist.
lower	false	Displays output in lowercase letters. The default setting displays capital letters to mimic the style of word games like Scrabble and Quarrel, however some people may find lowercase output more readable.
max	longest length in wordlist	Determines the maximum word length the program will calculate for.
min	2	Determines the minimum word length the program will calculate for.
noscores	false	Determines whether point values for words are considered, in which case only the highest-scoring words are displayed. If you don't care about scoring, turn this on to see all words.
repeats	false	Determines whether letters can be used more than once. Change this according to your word game's rules; for example, Scrabble tiles can only be used once in a single word, whereas New York Times's Spelling Bee allows the reuse of letters.

When running directly:

• To change your settings, do one of the following:
  • Open qrs.json in a text editor and change any values. Make sure to save the file once you're done.
  • Pass the setting as a command argument like this: --setting value
    • If applicable, this will automatically update the settings file.

$ qrs --lower --max 8 --debug

  # debug info displayed here

qrs: _

• If qrs.json is not in your folder, try running the program and letting it fully load. It should then create the file.
• After saving qrs.json, the program will not change if it's already running. Close the program and rerun it to use the changed settings.