From: William James <w_a_x_man@...>
Date: 2005-09-02T05:04:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Word Chains (#44)


Simon Kr�ger wrote:

> One of the programs that crashed was my second submission (it wasn't
> even labeled as solution) that was just a try to make it as short as
> possible (while still being kind of fast) and the change in interface
> was clearly mentioned: "the dictionary is the optional third parameter,
> no -d"

Added a line to your program that lets it accept -d.
Since this program is so short compared to the others, I
consider it quite noteworthy.

p=$*.index('-d') and $* << $*[p+1] and $*[p,2]=[]
dict, len = Hash.new{|h,k|h[k] = []}, ARGV[0].size
IO.foreach(ARGV[2] || 'words.txt') do |w| w.chomp!
   if w.size != len then next else s = w.dup end
   (0...w.size).each{|i|s[i]=?.; dict[s] << w; s[i]=w[i]}
end
t, known = {ARGV[1] => 0}, {}
while !known.merge!(t).include?(ARGV[0])
   t = t.keys.inject({}){|h, w|(0...w.size).each{|i|
     s=w.dup; s[i]=?.; dict[s].each{|l|h[l] = w if !known[l]}};h}
   warn 'no way!' or exit if t.empty?
end
puts w = ARGV[0]; puts w while (w = known[w]) != 0