Weapon of Mass Destruction

Well, I took some time today to play with Scrabblizer and had some fun with it. Throw a made up rack in there, then open up TextMate and write as many words as I can make from the letters. Then, hit Enter and get the answers.

It was a helpful exercise, but checking my answers was a nightmare. I was mixing and matching my words, different lengths, sometimes putting the plural long after the singular, etc.

So, I decided to take Scrabblizer and build it out. And we got the Scrabble Coach:

Hoo, doggie! This little gem fits the bill nicely! First, you enter your rack by clicking the tiles at the top. Then, looking at the graphical rack, you start entering words. Your words go in the top row of grids, divided out by word length so you have a good idea of how many big and small words you have. Then, when you have practiced enough, you get your answers.

Walla! Here's the winner. Along the bottom row of grids come the answers. All the answers are alphabetical and sorted by word size, so it's very easy to see what went right and what went wrong. And then you're scored!

Very fun practice. You can even play competitively if, say, your wife sits in the same room as you. :-) And going through the racks and getting all the answers after your toil is extremely educational. I'm loving it.

Again, if you'd like this program, just let me know. The code is, sadly, hideous, hahaha...so, no code. But, it's extremely stable and free of the bugs. ;-)

(I, admittedly, rushed the coding effort because of my extreme desire to actually USE it.)