TEA Crossword Helper finds clue answers based
on known letters and other information, such as letters that might be
anagrammed. It was developed in 1992 and now has thousands of customers
worldwide.
The power of TEA comes from its pattern language, which I devised as
an extension of conventional
regular
expression matching. Simple concepts such as template matching, anagram
matching, choice lists and letter variables can be combined in a variety of
ways to help solvers find the right answer.
TEA also functions as a Dictionary and Thesaurus and comes with the
WordNet® database, Webster's
Revised Unabgridged Dictionary and many other resources.
My other objectives for the product were comprehensiveness and performance:
TEA now has over a million words and phrases and continues to be
expanded as new answers come to light, but only takes around 1 second to search
the entire list.
TEA is written in C++ using Borland C++Builder and runs
on Windows XP and Windows Vista. It uses the Borland Object
Windows Library (OWL), Visual Component Library (VCL),
and the Win32 API.
Sympathy Crossword Construction is
used to make crosswords. It was first released in 1994 and has revolutionized
the crossword creation process, allowing constructors to create higher quality
results in less time.
Sympathy supports all the major types of crossword and allows
constructors to fill their grid in several different ways: its automatic
filling algorithm uses innovative datastructures to give lightning fast fills;
you can also fill interactively, for precise selection of answers. It has
unparalleled support for thematic crosswords, catering for all of the standard
gimmicks such as misprints and rebuses; you can also restrict answers based on
TEA's patterns.
Sympathy gives you fine control over the grid image, allowing you to
change the appearance of text and graphics as necessary for thematic
crosswords. It has been used for almost all
Listener Crossword grids for
many years and serves the needs of several other crossword series.
Sympathy also helps constructors at the clue writing stage: it
incorporates clue databases, allowing you to automatically use available clues
for an answer, avoid reusing previous clues, or just refer to back to them; the
Wordplay Wizard (also available
as a separate application) tool helps you write cryptic clues.
Sympathy is written in C++ using Borland C++Builder and
runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista. It uses the Borland
Object Windows Library (OWL), Visual Component Library
(VCL), the Win32 API and SQLite.