- A command-line interface for downloading and playing cryptic crosswords from within the terminal.
- Puzzles are sourced from the free crosswords uploaded daily to Lovatt's.
- cliptic is written in Ruby using the ncurses library
- Fix the ssl certificate bug that prevents fetching puzzles
- Fix the "out of range" bug when moving to an undefined index using
g
- Add manual redraw feature to the main puzzle view. Called with
^L(useful for terminal resize) - Add exit controls to the resize interface (
qor^C)
- VIM-like keybindings
- Puzzles scraped daily from Lovatt's. Puzzles are cached locally to prevent excessive requests
- Progress can be saved to continue puzzles at a later time
- Time taken to complete the puzzle is logged on completion of puzzle. High scores can be viewed within cliptic
- Track progress for puzzles released in the last week
- Puzzle history is tracked, making it easy to pick up recently played puzzles
- Select puzzles to play by date manually (puzzles are available for up to 9 months from release)
- Customisation of cliptic's appearance
- Ruby
- Ncurses
- Curl
- curb
- curses
- sqlite3
- cliptic is available as a Ruby Gem. To install, simply run:
gem install cliptic- Or, to install manually:
git clone https://github.com/apexatoll/cliptic
cd cliptic
rake build install- To run cliptic after installation, simply run the command
clipticfrom within the terminal - When the program is first run it will ask the user whether they want cliptic to generate a default config file. This is located in
~/.config/cliptic/cliptic.rc - If the screen is too small to display cliptic, please resize until the prompt disappears
- There are other commands that can be run from the command line
- The command
cliptic todaywill play today's puzzle - This command can be followed with a negative number to play a puzzle n days before today
- For example
cliptic today -2will play the puzzle from the day before yesterday
- The command
cliptic resetwill allow the user to reset progress in cliptic. - The command can be followed with either
all,states,scoresorrecents allresets all progressstatesresets all game progressscoresresets high scoresrecentsresets puzzle history
- On the main menu there are several options
- Play today's puzzle
- Show this week's progress
- Select a date manually
- Display recent puzzles
- Show high scores
- Exit cliptic
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
j/DOWN, k/UP |
Move curso 9D04 r |
q |
Back/quit |
ENTER |
Make selection |
- By default, cliptic uses vim-like keybindings for navigation and text manipulation. There are plans to release more "accessible" keybindings in the future.
- Text manipulation is modal akin to vim. Vim-users will be familiar with insert and normal modes
- The currently focussed clue is displayed within the window at the bottom of the screen. If you are on a cell that is an intersection of two clues (ie an across and a down) you can swap between them using
TAB
- There are 2 game modes that can be played. These can be changed in the cliptic config file.
- Auto_mark = 1 (default)
- Each clue is marked once every cell is filled
- The clue will be highlighted green or red depending on whether the attempt is correct
- Auto_mark = 0
- No clues are marked automatically, similar to a paper crossword
- Clues can be checked manually using the
^Gcommand
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
^S |
Save current progress (note that progress is saved when exiting puzzles by default) |
^R |
Reveals solution for focussed clue (note that this forfeits adding this puzzle to high scores) |
^C |
Exit puzzle |
^E |
Resets timer and progress for puzzle |
^G |
Mark current progress (only relevant if auto_mark is set to 0) |
^P |
Pause game |
^L |
Redraws the screen (useful on resizing terminal window) |
- There are several ways to navigate the cells of the cliptic grid in NORMAL MODE.
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
h, j, k, l |
Move cursor left, up, down, right. Arrow keys can also be used |
(n)w |
Move to (nth) next unsolved clue |
(n)b |
Move to (nth) previous unsolved clue |
e |
Move to end of clue |
<clue number>g |
Move to clue by number |
<cell number>G |
Move to cell by number (not 0 indexed |
TAB |
Swap from across to down clue (or vice versa) |
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
a-z |
Enter character to cell |
BACKSPACE |
Delete one character |
ESC |
Exit insert mode. Enter normal mode |
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
I |
Move to the start of the clue and enter insert mode |
a |
Advance one cell and enter insert mode |
c(obj) |
calls d(obj) then enters insert mode |
d(obj) |
delete the object provided after d (may be w for word or l for character) |
i |
Enter insert mode |
r(char) |
Replaces the character under the cursor with char |
x |
deletes the character under the cursor |
- Cliptic settings can be added to the cliptic.rc file found at
~/.config/cliptic/cliptic.rc
- Affect how cliptic functions
- Set using the format
set <setting> <0/1>
| Item | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
auto_advance |
Move to next clue after solve | 1 |
auto_mark |
Mark clues as they are entered | 1 |
auto_save |
Save progress on exit | 1 |
- Colours are numbered 1-16.
- 0 is default terminal color
- 1-8 equates to your terminals 8 default colours.
- 9-16 equate to same colours as the background and blank as the foreground
- To set colour settings use the format
hi <obj> <colour>
| Item | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
active_num |
Grid number of active clue | 3 |
bar |
Top and bottom bars | 16 |
block |
Grid blocks | 8 |
box |
Box outlines | 8 |
grid |
cliptic grids | 8 |
incorrect |
Incorrect clue attempt | 1 |
correct |
Correct clue attempt | 2 |
prompt |
Menu prompt | 3 |
default |
Default text color | 0 |
meta |
Clue box metadata | 3 |
num |
Inactive grid numbers | 8 |
logo_text |
Logo text color | 3 |
I |
Insert mode prompt | 15 |
N |
Normal mode prompt | 12 |
menu_active |
Active menu option | 15 |
menu_inactive |
Inactive menu option | 0 |
- Cliptic is still in development
- If you have any feature requests or find any bugs please leave a new issue
- Contributions welcome!
Dedicated to WES who passed on to me his love of crosswords