CS21 Lab 7: Top-Down Design: text twist

Please read through the *entire* lab before starting! Also, as always, run update21 to create your cs21/labs/07 directory and create your programs for lab 7 in this directory.

Our lab this week and next is to write a game similar to Text Twist. This is a word game where the user is given 7 letters and has to make as many words as possible from the set of 7 letters. For example, given the letters peeteds, you can make 'deepest', 'speed', 'pets', and so on...

For this lab you will use top-down design. We are giving you two weeks to complete this program. However, we require your initial top-down design due this Friday (Mar 22) and the full implementation the following Friday (Mar 29).

Remember, for the design of a program, you should have:

• main() completely written
• functions called from main() all stubbed out with parameters, comment, and a return statement
• clear use of data structures and variables in main() and the stubbed-out functions
• a design that runs without errors (although it doesn't play the game yet)

Here are some examples of text twist games to help you see how the game works:

• example #1
• example #2
• example #3

You have some freedom in how you want your game to look. Here are our requirements for this game and lab:

• create design-tt.py first (should have main() done, all function stubs, should run but not do anything)
• after you have the design done, copy the file to tt.py and implement:
  cp design-tt.py tt.py
• user keeps entering words until no words left or they want to quit
• user can quit at any time
• allow user to shuffle the letters
• only 4-7 letter words allowed
• pick random 7-letter word to start game (and shuffle the letters)
• use the system dictionary in /usr/share/dict/words
• keep track of words played
• don't allow invalid words (must be makable with given letters and a valid English word)
• keep score (higher points for longer words)
• display score-dependent message at end
• find all possible words and use to determine number of words left and best-possible score

Here are a few tips you may find useful...

• to shuffle a python list, use the shuffle() function in the random library
• to convert between strings and lists, you can use list() and join():

  >>> S = "hello!"
  >>> L = list(S)
  >>> print L
  ['h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '!']
  >>> "".join(L)
  'hello!'
  

• the system dictionary (/usr/share/dict/words ) is just a text file you can open and read in
• one way to find all possible words given 7 letters: search through the dictionary, one word at a time, and decide if that word can be made with those letters

Once you are satisfied with your program, hand it in by typing handin21 in a terminal window.