`wordlebot`

An application that tries to solve a Wordle puzzle only by using clues. You decide the word to discover (if you want to compete with wordlebot, use the word you already solved for the day.) As wordlebot provides guesses, you need to give the clues.

NOTE: If you give an incorrect clue, you'll have to start over because wordlebot's game state will have been permanently altered.

Running

After cloning the project, run it with

$ cargo run

There are command line options to enable more information or to change the theme.

``` Webster 1.0.2 Guesses a word by using Wordle clues

USAGE: wordlebot [OPTIONS]

OPTIONS: -h, --help Print help information

    --limit <LIMIT>
        This sets the limit which decides whether the number of words
        remaining is reported instead of each word.

        [env: WORDLEBOT_LIMIT=]
        [default: 20]

-t, --theme <THEME>
        Once the word is guessed, it displays a summary of the guesses just
        like the official app. This option allows you to change the color of
        the blocks.

        [env: WORDLEBOT_THEME=]
        [default: normal]
        [possible values: normal, high-contrast]

-v, --verbose
        Reports how many words are left in its vocabulary, after applying
        all the clues. When the number of words drops below a limit, all the
        remaining words are printed.

-V, --version
        Print version information

```

Giving Clues

Giving clues is mostly straightforward: Place a B in the corresponding position of a letter that isn't in the word. Place a Y in the spot where the letter is in the word, but its current position is wrong. Place a G in the spot where the corresponding letter is correct and in the right spot.

It gets a little difficult when a guess uses a particular letter more than once. If you find yourself trying to figure out how to provide proper clues, follow this procedure:

Assign the Gs first
Any remaining instances of the letter are handled left to right. Assign Ys before Bs.

For instance, if the word was OTTER and the guess was TATTY, the second T would get the G clue. Then we go left to right with the remaining Ts so the first T gets the Y clue. Since OTTER doesn't have any more Ts, the third T gets the B clue. So the clue you would provide would be YBGBB.

To-do items

[X] Make wordlebot use all three forms of clues
- [X] Handle GREEN hints
- [X] Handle YELLOW hints
- [X] Handle BLACK hints
[X] When wordlebot correctly guesses, emit the colored-box output that Wordle uses to show your friends how you did, without giving away any part of the puzzle.
[ ] If it's too hard to give perfect clues, wordlebot can perform both roles: guessing and generating the clues.

Progress

This section shows the progress the program made as more clues were handled.

Only Green Clues

For this run, wordlebot only used green hints. It can take a while to solve the puzzle because it only makes progress when the word it chooses generates green hints. But even this can cause surprising results. For this run, the word to solve was CAMEL. Here's how one session went:

My guess: QUIRK (vocabulary: 2315 words) Result> bbbbb My guess: BATCH (vocabulary: 2315 words) Result> bgbyb My guess: BAWDY (vocabulary: 304 words) Result> bgbbb My guess: PASTY (vocabulary: 304 words) Result> bgbbb My guess: RAJAH (vocabulary: 304 words) Result> bgbbb My guess: MAMMA (vocabulary: 304 words) Result> bggbb My guess: GAMUT (vocabulary: 10 words) Result> bggbb My guess: RAMEN (vocabulary: 10 words) Result> bgggb My guess: GAMER (vocabulary: 5 words) Result> bgggb My guess: TAMER (vocabulary: 5 words) Result> bgggb My guess: GAMER (vocabulary: 5 words) Result> bgggb My guess: CAMEO (vocabulary: 5 words) Result> ggggb My guess: CAMEL (vocabulary: 2 words) Result> ggggg Solved it! The word was "CAMEL"

QUIRK was a terrible, first guess. We should probably make the first guess one of the several words that have been deemed "good, initial guesses".

Green and Partial Yellow Clue Support

For this next run, support for yellow hints was added. It fared better but really could use the information that black hints provide.

My guess: REGAL (vocabulary: 2315 words) Result> bybyg My guess: CHILL (vocabulary: 95 words) Result> gbbbg My guess: CAROL (vocabulary: 7 words) Result> ggbbg My guess: CAVIL (vocabulary: 3 words) Result> ggbbg My guess: CAVIL (vocabulary: 3 words) Result> ggbbg My guess: CAMEL (vocabulary: 3 words) Result> ggggg Solved it! The word was "CAMEL"

Green, Yellow, and Black Clue Support

Here's the run when the Black hints were added:

My guess: IRATE Hints> bbyby My guess: GLEAN Hints> byyyb My guess: FELLA Hints> byyby My guess: HAZEL Hints> bgbgg My guess: EASEL Hints> bgbgg My guess: CAMEL Hints> ggggg Solved it! The word was "CAMEL"

Despite taking 6 guesses, it didn't repeat itself and the set of matching words kept getting smaller and smaller (I removed that info from the output.) It's biggest problem is that it can "recall" every word instead of the most common, like a person would do. For instance, a person wouldn't choose HAZEL because "Z" has a low probability of being used. Nor would one choose FELLA because the double L burns an opportunity to get a clue for another letter.

All Clues and Better Word Selection

A version has been committed that picks "better" words. Here's a session:

My guess: IRATE Hints> bbyby My guess: SHEAF Hints> bbyyb My guess: NAMED Hints> bgggb My guess: CAMEL Hints> ggggg Solved it! The word was "CAMEL"