Linotype

Linotype is a simple ruby implementation of the Letterpress for iOS game mechanic. Letterpress was created by Loren Brichter and is sold on iTunes. Linotype is meant to be used to write other programs such as simple player command line games, cheating/simulation programs, web-based versions, or whatever else you can think of. My goal is that the community will submit pull requests to this project so that programs can share a common engine.

The project was inspired by this tweet by Andy Baio.

The project was started by @barelyknown.

Installation

$ gem install linotype

Usage

The library provides a very simple interface using built in Ruby objects. The goal of the design is to use object oriented design strategies internally but to keep the public interface very simple to make it easy to use and extend.

Here's a basic rundown of the primary public methods:

>   game = Linotype::Game.new

>   game.board
=>  [[{:letter=>"N", :row=>0, :column=>0, :covered_by=>1, :defended=>true},
      {:letter=>"S", :row=>0, :column=>1, :covered_by=>1, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"L", :row=>0, :column=>2, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"K", :row=>0, :column=>3, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"W", :row=>0, :column=>4, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false}],
     [{:letter=>"T", :row=>1, :column=>0, :covered_by=>1, :defended=>true},
      {:letter=>"P", :row=>1, :column=>1, :covered_by=>1, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"Y", :row=>1, :column=>2, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"E", :row=>1, :column=>3, :covered_by=>1, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"E", :row=>1, :column=>4, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false}],
     [{:letter=>"L", :row=>2, :column=>0, :covered_by=>1, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"O", :row=>2, :column=>1, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"L", :row=>2, :column=>2, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"Z", :row=>2, :column=>3, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"Z", :row=>2, :column=>4, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false}],
     [{:letter=>"T", :row=>3, :column=>0, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"B", :row=>3, :column=>1, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"W", :row=>3, :column=>2, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"M", :row=>3, :column=>3, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"F", :row=>3, :column=>4, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false}],
     [{:letter=>"B", :row=>4, :column=>0, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"O", :row=>4, :column=>1, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"F", :row=>4, :column=>2, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"M", :row=>4, :column=>3, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false},
      {:letter=>"V", :row=>4, :column=>4, :covered_by=>nil, :defended=>false}]] 

>   # Takes about 8 seconds on a laptop -- brute force solution
>   game.potential_plays
=>  ["WORD","MATCHES","FROM","DICTIONARY","IN","AN","ARRAY"]

>   next_play = game.best_next_play

>   game.play(*next_play[:coordinates])
=>  true

>   game.moves.last.to_hash
=>  { :player=>1,
      :word=>"SPLENT",
      :valid=>true,
      :coordinates=>[[0, 1], [1, 1], [2, 0], [1, 3], [0, 0], [1, 0]],
      :invalid_reason=>nil,
      :player_sequence=>1,
      :total_sequence=>1,
      :score => {
        :defended_before=>0,
        :covered_before=>0,
        :defended_after=>2,
        :covered_after=>6,
        :defended=>2,
        :covered=>6}
      }

>   game.scores
=>  {1=>2, 2=>0}

#   pass by playing a nil move
>   game.play
=>  true

>   game.play
=>  true

>   game.over?
=>  true

>   game.winner
=>  1

Dictionary

The default dictionary is based on the the Internet Scrabble Club's TWL06 dictionary. Any dictionary can be used by replacing the contents of the words.txt file in the /lib/linotype/dictionary directory.

Feature Ideas

• Game board loading from iOS screen shot
• Word suggestions (faster)
• One player command line game
• Vowel/consonant ratio setting for random boards
• Built in dictionaries for different languages or topics

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request
6. Thanks <3