Ars Magna Read Me

Ars Magna_, version 1.0 A R S M A G N A _, version 1.0 Ars Magna_ is a program to generate anagrams — words or phrases with their letters rearranged to spell something else. For example, the letters in the word dormitory can be rearranged to spell dirty room. Given a name, a short phrase, or a word, Ars Magna_ finds all the anagrams which can be made from words in a dictionary which is included with the program. What the program does -- a quick look It looks like there are a lot of options, but it's not really that bad. The things the program asks you about are: • which file you'd like to use for a dictionary (the program comes with a couple of dictionaries, or you can use your own) • the phrase (or name, or_) that you'd like to try rearranging • whether you'd like to read the anagrams on the screen, store them in a file, or just count them without printing them anywhere • if you do want the anagrams on the screen, whether you'd like the program to pause after each screenful If you don't like fancy frills, just press RETURN in response to every question (except when it asks for a phrase to anagram). You can also type HELP whenever you're asked a question. Some phrases produce literally millions of anagrams, so you can stop the output at almost any point. A quick example Suppose you're interested in finding what you can spell with the letters in Ronald Reagan. Start up the program. Its first question is Name of dictionary file [press RETURN to use “anagram dict”]? Chances are that you don't have your own dictionary, and even if you do have your own, the ones supplied with Ars Magna_ may be more useful (more on this later). If you do have a dictionary, type its name here. Otherwise, press RETURN, and Ars Magna_ will use its usual dictionary. The program can take words from several dictionaries, so the next question is Next dictionary name [press RETURN if no more]? Again, you're probably using only one dictionary — just press RETURN if so. If you have several dictionaries you'd like Ars Magna_ to take words from, you can type their names, one per line, and press RETURN after you've entered them all. p. 1 Ars Magna_, version 1.0 Fine print #1: You'll be asked the questions about dictionaries just once, at the beginning of the program, and the dictionaries you give will be used for each phrase you give the program to anagram. To use different dictionaries, you have to quit the program and start again. Fine print #2: If your disk doesn't have the document “anagram dict” on it, the program won't let you jus…