Tried to compile your code using cython, didn't really work

.gitignore

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+*.o
+*.so
+*.c
+build/
+types_dump
+words_alpha.txt
+

fiveletterwords.py

@@ -1,110 +1,121 @@
 import time
-start_time = time.time()
+#from pyannotate_runtime import collect_types
+try:
+    #collect_types.start()
 
-filestub = '/Users/mattparker/Dropbox/python/five_letter_words/'
+    start_time = time.time()
 
-def load_words():
-    words_txt = '/Users/mattparker/Dropbox/python/five_letter_words/words_alpha.txt'
-    with open(words_txt) as word_file:
-        valid_words = list(word_file.read().split())
-    return valid_words
+    #filestub = '/Users/mattparker/Dropbox/python/five_letter_words/'
 
-word_length = 5
+    def load_words():
+        # I used a ramdisk to speed up loading
+        words_txt = '/mnt/tmp/words_alpha.txt'
+        with open(words_txt) as word_file:
+            valid_words = list(word_file.read().split())
+        return valid_words
 
-word_length2 = word_length*2
-word_length4 = word_length2*2
-word_length5 = word_length4 + word_length
+    word_length = 5
 
-# number of scanA increases per progress report
-stepgap = 1000
+    word_length2 = word_length*2
+    word_length4 = word_length2*2
+    word_length5 = word_length4 + word_length
 
-# Yes, that is the alphabet. In the default order python makes a list in. Weird.
-alphabet = ['f', 'g', 'o', 'q', 't', 'b', 'y', 'h', 'r', 'u', 'j', 'w', 'i', 'p', 's', 'd', 'l', 'e', 'k', 'm', 'n', 'v', 'z', 'c', 'a', 'x']
+    # number of scanA increases per progress report
+    stepgap = 10
 
-# I could be clever and write this to be dynamic
-# but for now I'll hard code everything assuming five words
-number_of_sets = 5
+    # Yes, that is the alphabet. In the default order python makes a list in. Weird.
+    alphabet = ['f', 'g', 'o', 'q', 't', 'b', 'y', 'h', 'r', 'u', 'j', 'w', 'i', 'p', 's', 'd', 'l', 'e', 'k', 'm', 'n', 'v', 'z', 'c', 'a', 'x']
 
-english_words = load_words()
+    # I could be clever and write this to be dynamic
+    # but for now I'll hard code everything assuming five words
+    number_of_sets = 5
 
-print(f"{len(english_words)} words in total")
+    english_words = load_words()
 
-fl_words = []
+    print(f"{len(english_words)} words in total")
 
-for w in english_words:
-    if len(w) == word_length:
-        fl_words.append(w)
+    fl_words = []
 
-print(f"{len(fl_words)} words have {word_length} letters")
+    for w in english_words:
+        if len(w) == word_length:
+            fl_words.append(w)
 
+    print(f"{len(fl_words)} words have {word_length} letters")
 
-word_sets = []
 
-unique_fl_words = []
-for w in fl_words:
-    unique_letters = set(w)
-    if len(unique_letters) == word_length:
-        if unique_letters not in word_sets:
-            word_sets.append(unique_letters)
-            unique_fl_words.append(w)
+    word_sets = []
 
-number_of_words = len(unique_fl_words)
+    unique_fl_words = []
+    for w in fl_words:
+        unique_letters = set(w)
+        if len(unique_letters) == word_length:
+            if unique_letters not in word_sets:
+                word_sets.append(unique_letters)
+                unique_fl_words.append(w)
 
-print(f"{number_of_words} words have a unique set of {word_length} letters")
+    number_of_words = len(unique_fl_words)
 
-doubleword_sets = []
-doubleword_words = []
+    print(f"{number_of_words} words have a unique set of {word_length} letters")
 
-scanA = 0
-while scanA < number_of_words-1:
-    scanB = scanA + 1
-    while scanB < number_of_words:
-        give_it_a_try = word_sets[scanA] | word_sets[scanB]
-        if len(give_it_a_try) == word_length2:
-            doubleword_sets.append(give_it_a_try)
-            doubleword_words.append([unique_fl_words[scanA], unique_fl_words[scanB]])
-        scanB += 1
-    scanA += 1
+    doubleword_sets = []
+    doubleword_words = []
 
-number_of_doublewords = len(doubleword_sets)
+    scanA = 0
+    while scanA < number_of_words-1:
+        scanB = scanA + 1
+        while scanB < number_of_words:
+            give_it_a_try = word_sets[scanA] | word_sets[scanB]
+            if len(give_it_a_try) == word_length2:
+                doubleword_sets.append(give_it_a_try)
+                doubleword_words.append([unique_fl_words[scanA], unique_fl_words[scanB]])
+            scanB += 1
+        scanA += 1
 
-print(f"we found {number_of_doublewords} combos")
+    number_of_doublewords = len(doubleword_sets)
 
-counter = 0
+    print(f"we found {number_of_doublewords} combos")
 
-success_found = []
+    counter = 0
 
-scanA = 0
-print(f"starting at position {scanA}")
+    success_found = []
 
-while scanA < number_of_doublewords-1:
-    if scanA % stepgap == 0:
-        print(f"Up to {scanA} after {time.time() - start_time} seconds.")
+    scanA = 0
+    print(f"starting at position {scanA}")
 
-    scanB = scanA + 1
-    while scanB < number_of_doublewords:
-        give_it_a_try = doubleword_sets[scanA] | doubleword_sets[scanB]
-        if len(give_it_a_try) == word_length4:
-            scanC = 0
-            while scanC < number_of_words:
-                final_go = give_it_a_try | word_sets[scanC]
-                if len(final_go) == word_length5:
-                    success = doubleword_words[scanA] + doubleword_words[scanB]
-                    success.append(unique_fl_words[scanC])
-                    success.sort()
-                    if success not in success_found:
-                        success_found.append(success)
-                        print(success)
-                scanC += 1
-            counter += 1
-        scanB += 1
-    scanA += 1
+    while scanA < number_of_doublewords-1:
+        if scanA % stepgap == 0:
+            print(f"Up to {scanA} after {time.time() - start_time} seconds.")
 
-print(f"Damn, we had {len(success_found)} successful finds!")
-print(f"That took {time.time() - start_time} seconds")
+        scanB = scanA + 1
+        while scanB < number_of_doublewords:
+            give_it_a_try = doubleword_sets[scanA] | doubleword_sets[scanB]
+            if len(give_it_a_try) == word_length4:
+                scanC = 0
+                while scanC < number_of_words:
+                    final_go = give_it_a_try | word_sets[scanC]
+                    if len(final_go) == word_length5:
+                        success = doubleword_words[scanA] + doubleword_words[scanB]
+                        success.append(unique_fl_words[scanC])
+                        success.sort()
+                        if success not in success_found:
+                            success_found.append(success)
+                            print(success)
+                    scanC += 1
+                counter += 1
+            scanB += 1
+        scanA += 1
+    #collect_types.stop()
+    #collect_types.dump_stats("types_dump")
+    print(f"Damn, we had {len(success_found)} successful finds!")
+    print(f"That took {time.time() - start_time} seconds")
 
-print("Here they all are:")
-for i in success_found:
-    print(i)
+    print("Here they all are:")
+    for i in success_found:
+        print(i)
 
-print("DONE")
+
+    print("DONE")
+except KeyboardInterrupt:
+    #collect_types.stop()
+    #collect_types.dump_stats("types_dump")
+    print("Keyboard interrupt caught. Tried to dump stats")

setup.py

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+from setuptools import setup
+from Cython.Build import cythonize
+
+setup(
+    ext_modules=cythonize('fiveletterwords.py')
+)