On 2/13/06, mightyjackservo4000 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>  1) I can run Quackle without any apparent problems if I execute it
>  from the shell, but for some reason it doesn't run correctly if I try
>  to run it by clicking on a shortcut icon that I placed on my desktop
>  and linked to quacker.  If I try to run the program through that
>  shortcut, "Generate Moves" only gives me a list of various possible
>  exchanges and clicking "Commit" closes the program without a visible
>  error message.  I don't know enough about the in-depth workings of
>  Linux to know whether this has something to do with a bug in the
>  Quackle program.  So does this indicate a bug or just that Quackle is
>  programmed to only work through the shell at this point?

I'm able to launch Quackle from the OS X Finder and from a button on
my KDE Taskbar.  It sounds like Quackle can't find its dictionary
file.  Set your shortcut's working directory to be the dictionary
where the binary is located.

>  2) I've seen mentions of an open-source word study program called
>  Letterbox that Jason and John collaborated on.  I haven't been able to
>  find it through a Google search.  Is it available somewhere?  Is it
>  usable?

It's pretty usable.  We have it stored in the same Sourceforge project
as our Anagrams IRC bot here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/anabot

I think the N. American dictionary file there is OWL2 as printed (with
WEAPONEERED* and the other errors) + LWL.  The Sowpods is OWL2 + LWL +
OSWI + Lexpert's Chambers long words.  Neither is exactly what anyone
would want right now, but I haven't had time to fix it.  Letterbox has
far fewer features than Zyzzyva, but it's served Jason and me well,
and it's very fast.  It's designed for going through the whole
dictionary in a short time.  There's not yet an Options or Preferences
screen.  Options (like time per word, which is probably set quicker
than most people would want) are set through the file
~/.qt/letterboxrc on Linux or the com.callithump.Letterbox.plist file
on OS X.  Only way to change the font right now is with qtconfig.  Has
never been compiled for Windows, so I don't know if there are related
issues to expect.  When the list of words you are studying is saved,
the file will mark which words you missed, number of keystrokes typed
(backspace included) per word, milliseconds spent per word (the latter
two are broken for plural anagram sets).  Jason and I review our
missed words by awking them out of the saved files.  There's a record
misses option in letterboxrc I hacked together for Mark Kenas that
will put filename's missed words in filename-misses.  I never use it,
but it seems to work for him.  The NASowpods mode may or may not be
completely broken right now.  There's also a bug on OS X that the
window doesn't show up right if the dock is hidden.  So there's
actually a lot of stuff that doesn't work which hasn't been fixed
because it doesn't bother me or Jason.  This means that improving
Letterbox is a much lower priority than fixing Quackle, because there
are many, many Quackle bugs which deeply bother us.

>  3) Why is it that the Quackle Yahoo group doesn't provide an
>  announcement on its home page or on the My Groups page when there are
>  new messages or new members?

I don't know.

John


 
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