Webifi is a text and audio interface that enables chat interactions with web pages, in a style similar to an interactive-fiction game.
At this point, Webifi is not a general-purpose interface: it only works for crosswords. However, I plan to expand its capabilities to other kinds of web pages (mainly other word and number games). For now, the rest of this README guide describes everything in terms of the crossword application.
There are three motivating use cases for Webifi:
- An interactive-fiction interface can be a lot of fun. One can simply use Webifi as an additional interface to a crossword, coexisting with a standard interface. Using Webifi, you can navigate and solve the puzzle with some powerful extra features, while continuing to be able to also use the standard grid-based interactive interface.
- Using voice input and audio output, the Webifi interface can be used to solve a crossword without using the screen much (for example, while out running or walking).
- A sight-challenged user can use Webifi to solve a crossword, using voice inputs. They can use the text interface in conjunction with any screen-reading mechanism or extension that they may already be using, or they can use Webifi's own audio output.
In an interactive-fiction game (aka a text adventure), you move between various locations, interacting with your surroundings using simple text commands. Each crossword can be thought of as a text adventure game, where the clues are the individual locations. When you are "at" a particular clue, you can access the clue (command: clue), you can review what letters have been entered so far (command: entry), you can consult wordplay tools for help (commands: matches, anagrams, synonyms, etc.), you can enter (command: type) and check solutions (command: check), and so on. You can navigate across clues in various orders, jumping off to crossing lights or to clues that have the fewest unfilled letters, etc.
Here's a mock interaction with a Webifi-powered crossword, as an illustration:
> entry
Current entry in this 11 Across clue is: A_S__
> clue
The way to approach a wedding is through strong beer (5)
> matches
Here are some matches.
Assam, Assad, Aisha, Aisne
Aesop, asset, at sea, aisle
arson, assay, apses, asses
arsis, aesir, assai, apsis
arses, absey, adsum, absit
assot, A'asia
> type aisle
Entered aisle in 11 Across.
> check
All cells are correct
> next best
Inspects the foundations of some Berry Ave houses (4)
Current entry in this 6 Down clue is: ___S
Webifi provides some powerful assistive features for solving crosswords (of course, it's up to you as a solver to decide how much assistance you want to use—my own philosophy as a solver is to maximize my fun in solving, which sometimes means using some assistance to get past a clue that I might be stuck on). Webifi can help you find words matching a partial solution; it can offer possibilities for some cryptic wordplays such as anagrams and homophones. When online, it can also look up definitions and synonyms.
In a Webifi-enabled crossword, there is a link under the crossword that says "Webifi"; clicking on this link toggles the Webifi interface.
The webifi interface is a simple chat interface, similar to the command-line interfaces used in interactive text adventure games. The command prompt is at the bottom, and above it is scrollable log of recent commands as well as their responses.
If a web-page for a Webifi-enabled crossword is accessed with the URL parameter
webifi present in the URL, then the Webifi interface will open directly and
will stay open (the toggle link is not shown). Such a URL should be useful for
sight-challenged users, as it starts off the puzzle with the graphic interface
hidden, so that it does not get in the way. You can optionally set the value of
this parameter to be a dot-separated string like k1-v1[.k2-v2...] to
override certain options:
| Option key | Description | Option values | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
display |
Whether the crossword grid is displayed or not | off, on |
off |
audio |
Whether audio is turned on or not | off, on |
off |
To enter a command, type it at the chat prompt (you can also use voice-input if available). You do not have to press the "Enter" key after typing the command. Webifi will grab the command after a two-second lull in typing (this is to help with voice-typing, where activating the "Enter" key verbally is difficult on many mobile platforms). If you need to pause for longer than two seconds while typing, just type a space at the end and Webifi will then not grab the text (you can always erase the extra space if it's not needed, when you continue typing).
Trailing question-marks and periods are ignored in parsing commands. If you want to end with a question-mark (period) then add an additional period (question-mark) at the end.
You can use commands to toggle audio output on and off, and to toggle the standard graphic interface on and off.
Voice-typing into a web app is quite quirky, as of May 2022 (sadly). I have mostly tried it with Chrome on Android. The ideal interface that I would like is one where the microphone stays on while a user interacts with the web app. Unfortunately, I have not yet found a good way to get this functionality. The closest that I can get to it is by double-tapping on the microphone icon in the on-screen keyboard that shows up in Chrome on Android. This keeps the microphone on for long periods. However, at some point the microphone does shut off, requiring a fresh double-tap on its icon for reactivation.
Voice-typing will hopefully only get better over time, making use-cases (2) and (3) much more seamless than they currently are.
Here are all the commands that you can use, grouped by "avatars" that handle them. All input is handled case-insensitively. When audio is on, you can cut short any long output from Webifi by entering any text ("ok" and "shh" are good, natural choices).
This is the basic avatar. It provides commands that control settings, display, audio, etc. The available commands are as follows:
Get an introduction to Webifi and a listing of available avatars.
- whats your name
- what's your name
- who are you
- hi|hello|greeting|greetings|intro|introduction
Report or set audio mode.
- audio
- audio off|on|us|gb|au|in|za
- The US, GB, AU, IN, and ZA options allow you to switch to that country's accent, if available.
When you turn audio on, please prefer to use headphones for privacy as well as to avoid interference if using voice-typing.
Report or set whether the "peer element" is getting displayed.
- display
- display off|on
The peer element is the HTML element that Webifi has assumed the responsibility for providing interactivity with. Currently, that means the Exolve crossword's main DIV element. With this command, you can hide or un-hide that element.
Test how a word or phrase or sentence gets spoken.
- echo {sentence}
Get Webifi to talk faster or slower or at its normal speed.
- talk fast|faster
- talk slow|slower|slowly
- talk normal|normally
- talk|speed|rate [number]
- talk at [number]
- talking speed|rate [number]
The number, if specified, can be in the range 0.1 to 2.0.
Get a listing of all commands or get help on a specific command or topic.
- help|list|commands|? [{topic}]
- help|commands on|with|for [{topic}]
- detailed help
An interactive crossword player. The available commands are as follows:
Describe the crossword, providing info such as grid size, number of clues, title, preamble, etc.
- intro|introduction|describe|puzzle|crossword
Get current status and list some unsolved clues in fraction-most-filled order.
- status|look|where
- where am i
- how am i doing
- unsolved clues
Navigate to a clue by naming or characterizing it.
- [number]
- [number]A|[number]D
- [number] across|down|A|D
- navigate|best|easiest|solvable
- next|most best|easiest|solvable
- next
- next clue
- prev|previous|back
- previous clue
- first|last
- first|last across|down|clue
The "best" command and its variants will take you to the next best unsolved clue (in terms of having the most solved cells). The "back" command will take you the clue that you were looking at before the current clue. The "prev" and "next" commands go through the clues in their normal order.
When the result of a navigation clue takes you to a clue different from the clue that you were at, then after showing the new clue, its current entry is also shown.
Read the current clue again.
- clue
You also access different parts of the clue, which is especially useful when you are listening to the interface using audio. Each one of these commands will show three words from the clue (or fewer, if the clue ends before three words). With audio on, looking at a part of the clue with one of these commands will also read out any punctuation marks in the clue part.
- words|word|part|parts [number]
- words|word|part|parts at|from [number]
- clue words|word|part|parts [number]
- clue words|word|part|parts at|from [number]
- clue start|starting|end|ending
- words|word|clue at start|starting|end|ending
- words|word|clue at the start|starting|end|ending
- clue words|word at start|starting|end|ending
- clue words|word at the start|starting|end|ending
- words|word|clue after
- clue words|word after
- words|word|clue before
- clue words|word before
The [number], if used, should be the 1-based index of words in the clue. The "words after" and "words before" commands look within the clue for the phrase specified right after the command prefix.
Read the current entry (letters entered as well as blanks) and identify the current clue again.
- entry|current|read|cells|letters
- read|current entry|cells|letters
Describe clues for lights that cross the current lights.
- crossers
- crossing clues
- crossing lights
Enter the solution for the current clue, optionally starting at a cell.
- type|enter|fill {letters}
- type|enter|fill at|in|from cell [number] {letters}
The command should be followed by the letters that you want to enter. Note that if the entered letters have a conflict with some existing letter that was entered previously, or if you enter more letters than needed, then Webifi will ask you to confirm. You can enter "yes" or "ok" at that prompt, or you can enter anything else (to cancel).
The command "enter" may pose a problem when voice-typing (it might get ignored on some platforms). The command "fill" may get misinterpreted as "Phil". Hence, "type" is perhaps the best verbal command for entering letters into the grid.
Clear entries in the current light or a particular cell or everythere.
- clear
- clear cell [number]
- clear all
The "clear all" command asks for confirmation.
Check entries in the current light or a particular cell or everywhere.
- check
- check cell [number]
- check all
Any incorrect cells in scope will get cleared. This command is only available in crossword where the solution has been provided.
Reveal entries in the current light or a particular cell or everywhere.
- reveal
- reveal cell [number]
- reveal all
This command is only available in crossword where the solution has been provided. The "reveal all" command asks for confirmation.
Get words or phrases matching the letters that have been entered so far in the current light.
- matches
- matching words
- matching phrases
- what fits
Word patterns, anagrams, word sounds, definitions, synonyms. The available commands are as follows:
Use dictionarydev.api to look up a word or phrase.
- define|definition|definitions {phrase}
- look up definition|definitions|meaning of {phrase}
Use dictionarydev.api to look up synonyms of a word or phrase.
- synonym|synonyms|syns {phrase}
- synonym|synonyms|syns of {phrase}
The synonyms obtained from this free API are not that great, unfortunately: very few words have available synonyms. I am still looking for a good, free synonym service not encumbered with API tokens etc.
Get words or phrases matching the given letter pattern.
- pattern|word-pattern|letter-pattern {pattern>}
The pattern can be something like c??ssw?r? or s?u? u?, etc.
Get anagrams of a word or phrase or any set of letters.
- anagrams|anagram {phrase}
- anagrams|anagram of {phrase}
Get homophones of a word or phrase.
- homophone|homophones {phrase}
- homophone|homophones of {phrase}
- words sounding like
Get Spoonerisms of a word or phrase.
- spoonerism|spoonerisms {phrase}
- spoonerism|spoonerisms of {phrase}
To enable Webifi on crosswords published on a web site (that uses Exolve), you need to add the following files in your serving directory:
You also need these two files from the Exet project:
Your crossword page that uses Exolve should use Exolve v1.34 or later, in
order for it to offer Webifi. This means that it's either a
derivative of
exolve.html,
or it loads the files
exolve-m.js
and
exolve-m.css.
Assuming the necessary Webifi scripts and icon files listed above are made available by the server, Exolve can be made to offer the Webifi interface in one of three ways.
- The webifi script files are included through script tags in the crossword file.
exolve-option: webifiis used in the crossword specifications.webifiis passed as a URL parameter. Note that in theexolve-option: webificase and in the URL parameter case, it is not necessary to add script tags to load the webifi scripts, as they will automatically loaded if not already present.
TODO.
I would like to thank T. V. Raman, who is an excellent cryptic crossword solver, for spending several hours with me discussing ideas about this project, working through crosswords to figure out important elements for the interface, trying out my demos and offering excellent insights and suggestions.
UKACD18
Copyright (c) 2009 J Ross Beresford
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CMUdict
-------
CMUdict (the Carnegie Mellon Pronouncing Dictionary) is a free
pronouncing dictionary of English, suitable for uses in speech
technology and is maintained by the Speech Group in the School of
Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.
The Carnegie Mellon Speech Group does not guarantee the accuracy of
this dictionary, nor its suitability for any specific purpose. In
fact, we expect a number of errors, omissions and inconsistencies to
remain in the dictionary. We intend to continually update the
dictionary by correction existing entries and by adding new ones. From
time to time a new major version will be released.
We welcome input from users: Please send email to Alex Rudnicky
(air+cmudict@cs.cmu.edu).
The Carnegie Mellon Pronouncing Dictionary, in its current and
previous versions is Copyright (C) 1993-2014 by Carnegie Mellon
University. Use of this dictionary for any research or commercial
purpose is completely unrestricted. If you make use of or
redistribute this material we request that you acknowledge its
origin in your descriptions, as per the license information included
in the dictionary file (a Simplified BSD lincense).
If you add words to or correct entries in your version of this
dictionary, we would appreciate it if you could send these additions
and corrections to us (air+cmudict@cs.cmu.edu) for consideration in a
subsequent version. All submissions will be reviewed and approved by
the current maintainer, Alex Rudnicky at Carnegie Mellon University.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The current version of cmudict is now cmudict-0.7b
[First released November 19, 2014]
Note that the first '.' in the file name has changed to a '-' as it
was observed that file systems occasionally get confused about the
scope of the extension.
Please note that the dictionary is modified incrementally, to correct
errors are incorporate new words. If you require a unique version, be
sure to specify a revision when you check it out.
cmudict-0.7b includes various systematic fixes and additional words.
As always please let us know if you see a problem or want to suggest a
word.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2022 Viresh Ratnakar
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
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The latest code and documentation for Exet can be found at:
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