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Solving a crossword no longer feels like wading through a mire of foreign words and abbreviations, which can be scored appropriately low on constructors’ word lists (or removed altogether!), and that’s entirely due to the advent of software. Obscure/illegitimate words with common letter sequences like ETUI and IIII and AEAEA no longer dominate grids because the algorithms can find fills which stick primarily to in-the-language words and phrases.
#Best crosswords reddit software#
The advent of this software has made modern crosswords significantly better than their counterparts of even five or ten years ago. Indeed, there’s a number of commercially-available pieces of software which do just that, and good scored word lists are out there as well. It’s pretty simple to write an algorithm which, given an incomplete grid and a list of words (as well as a score for each word denoting how “good” it is), can provide a number of filled grid options (and can also optimize for total score). This is the stage where computers, for the most part, do outshine humans. Once a theme has been fleshed out, the next step is designing and filling in the rest of the grid. This isn’t the sort of idea that current – or even easily-imagined – software is capable of coming up with, and is representative of the kinds of creative re-imaginings of language that are very common in crosswords right now. And since BREXIT is so-named because it was BRitain’s EXIT from the EU, each of these constitutes its own BREXIT. The theme here is BREXIT – four people whose names begin with BR are clued in reference to a famous exit they’ve made ( BRAD PITT from his relationship with Jennifer Aniston, BRIAN JOHNSON from AC/DC, etc.). Take, for example, my theme from the sample puzzle (spoilers below!): This is a step which clearly highlights why computers will (likely) never fully replace people in cruciverbalism. The first step to writing (most) crossword puzzles is theme development. Technology has absolutely revolutionized both, but I believe humans are, and will continue to be, paramount to the highest level of performance. Both are endeavors that it’s easy to imagine a computer doing much better than a human. And, I get this question both about trading and about another passion of mine – constructing crossword puzzles. In our technology-driven world where computers are doing more and more of the tedious tasks once relegated to humans (and doing them more quickly and, in many ways, much better than humans ever did), this is a question I get a lot.
#Best crosswords reddit download#
It gets spoiled within the post, so try solving before reading on! Download the crossword here This is an original crossword I wrote which hasn’t appeared anywhere else.