Possible Bugs, Fixes, Features

This page describes current known problems/issues, some possible future enhancements, and some development background. Removed many older (1.0-1.2) comments. [This needs to be updated to reflect 1.4 more accurately]

Items are grouped loosely by category, and may be tagged with:

[??]: indicates a general issue, problem or possible feature
[!!]: a known problem, usually system-related
[1.x]: feature or fix introduced as of a particular version
[REG]: in registered user version

platform-specific notes

The Windows and Macintosh installers/uninstallers use InstallAnywhere.

Zaurus: accessible in Games menu/tab; works best in standard portrait orientation; Prefs: Browser, Help: opera & helpbrowser
PocketPC: CrozzWord installation currently a manual process; mini-keyboard menu eliminates need for popup soft keyboard; Transcriber not accessed by Jeode; Prefs layout combines Pencil and Square rows; Open/Save limited to My Documents folders; Prefs: Browser, Help: IELaunch (uses DLL)
Windows: after initial startup, check/change Browser and Help Prefs to preferred browser application; Windows: initially: right click, Open With, Choose Program, Other, Program Files\CrozzWord\CrozzWord.exe; later: right click, Open With, "Launch Anywhere GUI" (or just doubleclick if you set "Always use this program to open these files"); only Java fonts accessible; Prefs: Browser, Help: url -- uses system browser setting via rundll32; it's also possible to select a specific application, e.g., C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE
Mac Classic: no color in Across/Down menus, scrollbars; Help/Register not disabled; NYT secure access does not work due to missing security classes in MRJ; cmd-N inserts initial "N" when sequencing thru .zip files; Apple menu: About ignored; Quit quits application without checking/saving current puzzle; start CrozzWord with an initial file by: drag&drop any .puz onto CrozzWord icon, or doubleclick a .puz saved by CrozzWord; Prefs: Browser, Help: openURL (uses Internet Config browser setting)
Mac OS X: no color in scrollbars; Help/Register not disabled; NYT secure access works; libraries included in 10.2.2; cmd-N inserts initial "N" when sequencing thru .zip files; Apple menu: About, Preferences ignored; Quit quits application without checking/saving current puzzle; Open With .puz file (choosing CrozzWord) not recognizing initial local puzzle; Prefs: Browser, Help: open (uses Internet browser setting)

general user interface/commands

[1.2] faster refresh for other local, non-scrolling changes (changing direction, select another word); and after menu/choice popups, dialog closing
[1.1] About uses helpbrowser but [!!] remote/mail URLs don't work in Opera
[1.2] progress has Cancel to interrupt slow connection; [1.1] progress box primitive
[1.0] primitive positioning/sizing/format of windows; [1.1] better
[1.1] confirms whether to save current puzzle before: exit (except !! Cancel: see Z); confirms Prefs: Reset All; [??] confirm other operations: exit Prefs w/o Set; before Next or Open, before Clear All, Reveal All, Check All
[1.1] restores puzzle input focus after most dialogs/commands; [??] if menubar or across/down choice is opened, but then not selected, puzzle needs to be reselected (focus is lost)
[1.1] Pencil (vs. pen) mode: less certain guesses in a lighter color (pref), e.g., gray instead of black
[1.1] added Home,End,Page Up,Page Down for scrolling from soft kbd
[??] more menu commands, key shortcuts, navigation keys, hardware buttons; [!!] "Ctrl-" key (Fn + Left shift) doesn't work; [??] by default, Tab moves between controls, though it could be made to behave more like Enter
how to see more of puzzle; [1.2] smaller Sq. Size Prefs provided, scrollbars hide when unnecessary, e.g., for Sq. Size=19, 11x11 puzzle entirely fits, Sq.Size=14: 15x15 [??] zoom to different size, e.g., View : Zoom : Fit (also would require adjusting font sizes)
[1.2] Enter key (with Enter: Skip Filled and Check: Input) jumps to next incomplete/incorrect word; smaller squares can eliminate scrollbars; [??] should Check Input (always or via option) turn off after game completed
[??] how many puzzles remaining in current set: e.g., display 2/15, beep at end
[??] display length of each across/down clue, e.g., append (7) -- though might be confusing/redundant for some puzzles
[??] timer and pause
[??] internationalization. [1.2] CrozzWord remaps a few accented characters; it uses "resources" so, could easily be localized (at least for European languages) -- any volunteers?
[??] Print (not requested)

preferences

[1.1] more Zaurus-specific fonts added
[1.2] General preference for font used for menubar menus, choice menus, buttons, labels, and popup dialogs (alert, confirm, progress) -- but not window titles; [!!] due to Z bug, menubar items, e.g., File, do not reflect change until next time CrozzWord starts; submenus, e.g., Check, never display new font
[??] persistence of properties file across installations; [1.0] copy&restore java/properties/crozzword.properties; [1.1] copy&restore etc/crozzword.properties; [1.2] .ipk does not include properties file, so user file not uninstalled/overwritten

Z/Jeode/system

[!!] Cancel button generally bypasses Window event / message; Cancel(single) usually exits, and Cancel(hold) [power off/suspend] when CrozzWord installed on a card exits without asking; exit may occur also after installing other applications; [1.2] this should work if single Cancel generates ESC
[!!] OK button should generate Enter (according to docs), but generates a space
[!!] "today" may not be accurate for accessing latest puzzles (if you're not in Insignia's hard-coded list of cities, no Java time zone adjustment occurs)
[??] MIME not completely/clearly supported; it's possible to click on Documents or File Manager files in application/x-crozzword folder (possibly setting mime.types); however, Exec run script cannot access file parameter, so CrozzWord starts up empty. how to change the MIME type for syncing .puz files? (default: application/octet-stream)
[1.1] CrozzWord should install/run properly with any card/format, e.g., ext2
[??] landscape (with keyboard on right) displays ok; other landscape, and upside-down portrait not sized/located properly; since Rotation does not seem to be well-supported, since the crossword layout is more symmetric in portrait (and keyboard is easier to use!), and after adding more prefs, CrozzWord might not support other orientations. low priority.

puzzles

update built-in host list w/ new sites; [1.2 REG] sites updated regularly, and user preference for custom site list
[??] sorting of categories and descriptions is case-sensitive; Z's version of Java doesn't have a case-insenstive sort function (I could make this work if it's a problem, though I assume you'd rather have things update/insert quickly...)
sort, separate, or group(submenus) site choices: [1.2] grouped into categories, alphabetically; [REG] user can create new categories (via HTML page)
[?? REG] direct Unscramble unsupport -- unlikely since the unscramble algorithm is not publicly available; better parsing would be needed to extract the unscramble key from vicinity of puzzle description; for now, download .puz to desktop, use Across Lite to unscramble puzzle, then sync to Zaurus.
[1.2 REG] NYTimes Premium (subscription only) via extra library for https: ; [1.x] download files to desktop or via Opera on Z; [??] are there other subscriptions sites with Across Lite puzzles?
[??] not tested with networks which require a proxy
[?? REG] There are many Solving Tools, esp. online sites that lookup patterns in dictionaries based on current word guess, e.g., C?OS??WO??; in addition, One Across uses uncertainty (i.e., "Pencil") and current clue to find/rank suggestions. Most puzzles have the solution provided, so Check and Reveal can offer some help already; however, lookup help could be useful for scrambled puzzles (or any puzzle). A potential "Lookup" command would query a site and display a list of possible answers; select one to fill in the current word; perhaps a colored triangle would indicate this status. With enough requests for this, and consensus on the specific service(s) to use, I could investigate adding -- the main problem is that return data is embedded/formatted in HTML (rather than XML) -- differently for each site -- so custom extraction code would need to be written.
[??] actual HTML parsing rather than extracting adhoc patterns from web pages -- for sites with incorrect or overly complex HTML, to cleanup file titles that contain IMG and FONT tags, and identify unscramble key #; HTML parser available with "Swing" or possibly other libraries
[??] keep track of puzzles already viewed/solved
[??] set up CrozzWord as a plugin/helperApp for Opera (or other browser)
[1.3,1.4] many new puzzles formats; [??] add other puzzle file formats/sites

Why a new (and non-free) Crossword application?

Although there are several Java-based applets for solving crosswords, the Opera browser on Zaurus does not currently support applets; even if it did, an applet cannot access the local file system, and is linked to only a single web site; and it might not be completely compatible with the Java version supported on the Zaurus, nor display properly or optimally on its small screen.

In addition to these applets, there are some free desktop applications for solving crosswords -- these are free because of income from licensing crossword authoring tools or content, in turn supported by subscriptions or advertising. These same apps are not available on new platforms for a variety of reasons: different/changing OS/development environments, market too small to justify porting/testing, ... So, new applications have usually been developed for new platforms, e.g., for Palm, WinCE, Psion, Newton, costing from $15-$30. Although I have released a few earlier freeware Zaurus apps, I decided to make CrozzWord available as inexpensive shareware ($15) in order to justify support of application and puzzle site lists.

Last Updated: 14-Nov-2003