Word Solver

Status: Draft | Implemented | July 2024

Note: This code has been implemented, but hasn’t been documented

The word solver is complicated. Really complicated.

It provides an attempt at a crossword grid solver. The goal is to find a set of clues that can be used to make a puzzle. It is the heart of the autofill dialog.

Overview

The WordSolver class has a deceptively simple API. The autofill dialog creates one instance and keeps it around for the lifetime of the dialog.

The object has three states. If it’s running, then get_count() will give an update on how many iterations it’s done.

Thread safety

The WordSolver stores information about the current run, as well as a copy of the Crossword board. It is only modifiable from the main thread with two exceptions:

• The count member keeps tabs of how many boards we’ve tried for informational purposes. It should only be accessed via the g_atomic_int_* functions

• The solution array is also accessed via threads, and all access should be done by holding the solutions_mutex.