NAME

     boggle — word search game

SYNOPSIS

     boggle [-bd] [-s seed] [-t time] [-w length] [+ [+]] [boardspec]

DESCRIPTION

     The object of boggle is to find as many words as possible on the Boggle board within the
     three minute time limit.  A Boggle board is a four by four arrangement of Boggle cubes, each
     side of each cube displaying a letter of the alphabet or `qu'.  Words are formed by finding
     a sequence of cubes (letters) that are in the game's dictionary.  The (N+1)th cube in the
     word must be horizontally, vertically, or diagonally adjacent to the Nth cube.  Cubes cannot
     be reused.  Words consist solely of lower case letters and must be at least 3 letters long.

     Command line flags can be given to change the rules of the game.

     -b         Run boggle in batch mode.  A boardspec must also be given.  The dictionary is
                read from stdin and a list of words appearing in boardspec is printed to stdout.

     -d         Enable debugging output.

     -s seed    Specify a seed seed other than the time of day.

     -t time    Set the time limit for each game from the default 3 minutes to time seconds.

     -w length  Change the minimum word length from 3 letters to length.

     +          This flag allows a cube to be used multiple times, but not in succession.

     ++         This flag allows the same cubes to be considered adjacent to itself.

     boardspec  A starting board position can be specified on the command line by listing the
                board left to right and top to bottom.

     Help is available during play by typing ‘?’.  More detailed information on the game is given
     there.

BUGS

     If there are a great many words in the cube the final display of the words may scroll off of
     the screen.  (On a 25 line screen about 130 words can be displayed.)

     No word can contain a ‘q’ that is not immediately followed by a ‘u’.

     When using the + or ++ options the display of words found in the board doesn't indicate
     reused cubes.

AUTHOR

     Boggle is a trademark of Parker Brothers.

     Barry Brachman
     Dept. of Computer Science
     University of British Columbia