jimbly / regex-crossword

Implementation of a RegExp crossword.

regex-crossword

Implementation of a RegExp crossword.

View the current version at http://jimbly.github.io/regex-crossword/

Original puzzle written by Dan Gulotta for the 2013 MIT Mystery Hunt: https://web.mit.edu/puzzle/www/2013/coinheist.com/rubik/a_regular_crossword/ popularized through http://www.i-programmer.info/news/144-graphics-and-games/5450-can-you-do-the-regular-expression-crossword.html

TODO List

• Auto-check against known solution
• Allow choosing between multiple crosswords puzzles
• Allow users to save their own puzzles and load other people's
• Track time spent solving puzzle
• Rotate buttons
• Undo/redo

regex-crossword's Issues

just-capture-group runs should be one or more

Hi, this is neat, having fun at lunch trying to solve it.

Should runs that are just a single capture group, such as the one in the top row (E|RC|NM)* be (E|RC|NM)+? Or notably the .* should be .+?

Greedy matching breaks a clue

For (...?)\1* the pattern matching is greedy, which will always accept strings of the form ABCABCABCABC, but fail to match strings like ABABABABABAB

This is because for ? it tries to match maximum number of letters possible (ABA). And then the rest of regex doesn't work anymore. Instead. ? should probably iterate through both options and return True if either is True.

Need to sanitize the input

By injecting HTML code into the Regex rule field(s), it's possible to run Javascript, modify the stylesheets and load other media in the player's browser when the page loads.

Example:
https://jimbly.github.io/regex-crossword/?puzzle=eyJzaXplIjoiMSIsImF1dGhvciI6IiIsIm5hbWUiOiIiLCJ4IjpbIjxzY3JpcHQ+d2luZG93LmxvY2F0aW9uLmhyZWYgPSBcImh0dHBzOi8veW91dHUuYmUvZFF3NHc5V2dYY1FcIjwvc2NyaXB0PiJdLCJ5IjpbIi4qIl0sInoiOlsiLioiXX0=

Share on twitter when solving the puzzle [spoiler]

It would be nice to give feedback when solving the puzzle (everything is green) and a way to share it on Twitter to spread the information about the game.

I've got this

and nothing happens.

Suggestion: Annotate cells

I really had fun with this puzzle, although I kept switching to a spreadsheet with annotations of possibilities for each cell

It would be nice to have the ability to annotate cells with possibilities like it usually done in Sudoku for example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brainium.sudoku.free

Feature Request: Highlight the 3 affected regexes on hexagon focus

Pretty self-descriptive request, bold/highlight the three regexes that touch a given cell when the cell is highlighted, tracing it manually by eye can be tricky.

Answer link only goes to the 'original' crossword

I'm stuck on one of the other puzzles (color) and tried to pull up the answer as a hint, but the link is static and doesn't go to the different puzzles.

Incorrect clue? [SPOILERS]

I just tried this puzzle, and the .*(.)C\1X\1.* clue seems to be backwards. I think it should be .*(.)X\1C\1.*.

This is as far as I've gotten, but there's no way I can see to reconcile the two red fields.

If I swap them by setting board_data.z[8] = '.*(.)X\\1C\\1.*'; I can solve the puzzle:

Feedback on partially completed rows?

I'm not serious about this as a feature request, but I thought this forum post might be of interest?

http://forum.processing.org/two/discussion/7225/that-mit-regular-expression-sudoku-puzzle