spelling – Holland Numerics: Blog and Forums

Even more educational games have been added!

Some time ago I introduced a new Educational Games membership, which added access to the web apps on this blog site on top of the Free membership. Please note, however, that, even if you copy the web links, they will only work when accessed from the Educational Games page, which can be accessed from the blog menu by logged-in members with the correct permissions.

I have now had some time to add some more games, which are based on Logic Puzzles similar to Wordle:

In Word of 4 you try to guess a 4-letter word randomly selected each time by the computer. The 4-letter words were extracted from an open-source 150,000-word English (UK, not US) dictionary, and inappropriate and accented foreign words removed.

In Word of 5 you try to guess a 5-letter word randomly selected each time by the computer. The 5-letter words were extracted from an open-source 150,000-word English (UK, not US) dictionary, and inappropriate and accented foreign words removed.

More educational games, and more members can access them!

Some time ago I introduced a new Educational Games membership, which added access to the web apps on this blog site on top of the Free membership. Unfortunately I couldn’t add Educational Games to the Programmer and Recruiter levels at that time, but now I’ve worked out how to make this work. This means that all Programmer and recruiter members will automatically get access to the Educational Games apps via the menu option “Educational Games”. It is also important to remember that, even if you copy the web links, they will only work when accessed from the Educational Games page.

At the same time as the access has been simplified I have added some more games, which are based on the classic console games from the late 20th century:

Hamurabi allows you to try your hand at governing Ancient Sumaria for a 10‑year term of office. The original Basic program was supplied with DEC System-10 mainframes in the mid-1970’s.

Blake’s 7 includes a number of references to classic sci-fi series. Y is the Liberator symbol, because the ship had 3 engines arranged in a Y-shape. H is the symbol for the Federation ships, but is probably closer to the shape of the Empire’s TIE fighters from Star Wars. If you try to exceed a speed of 5, then you will get the following warning: “The engines will not stand that!” (Scotty, Star Trek).

A little more to help the children learn – no SAS involved!

Since becoming a parent many years ago, I have had access to computers and written educational software for my children, and now for my grandchildren..

One of my original spelling programs now has a family nickname of “GIFAFFE”, due to a check I had failed to do while compiling the list of animals to spell! This program has been re-written (with completely correct spellings!) as a web app called SpiderWord, where a word must be correctly guessed to let the Bug escape from the Spider slowly descending on a thread with every incorrect letter. The currently available word lists now cover biology (Dinosaurs and Reptiles), spelling (Long Words (Things) and Long Words (Describing)), literature (Thomas the Tank Engine Character Names), geography (Countries) and sport (1-Word English Football Clubs).

If you would like me to include new word lists in this game, then please send them to me using the Contact Us link in the menu. Priority will be given to requests from Educational Games members.

Another of my interests is in mental arithmetic, and I have re-written some of my Chrome apps as browser-independent web apps covering multiplying (from x2 to x20), arithmetic (adding, subtracting, multiplying, and combinations using parentheses), decimal arithmetic (like the arithmetic app, but using decimals), detective (find the missing number in 13 different types of sequences) and fraction arithmetic (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing).

Note that all of the web apps have time limits that can be changed to specific times per question between “No limit” and a probably impossible limit of “5 seconds”.

Also, only the local storage in your browser is used to store the past results, so the statistics are never shared, and can be cleared by you at any time!

I have recently added a logic-based game called Number Logic.

You can choose how many numbers can be used:

— 1 to 4 = 256 possible numbers
— 1 to 5 = 625 possible numbers
— 1 to 6 = 1,296 possible numbers

(1) The computer sets the numbers, you guess and the computer scores.
(2) You set the numbers, the computer guesses and you score.
(3) Can you guess the numbers quicker than the computer?

All of these web apps, and more as I develop further programs, can be accessed via a menu link called “Educational Games”, which will be seen after you have subscribed to this blog’s Educational Games membership, which is currently priced at GBP 5.00 for 3 months access.

Note that, if you already have Programming or Recruiter membership, then changing to the Educational Games membership will remove all of your current privileges, as they are not compatible!! I would, therefore, recommend creating a new blog profile for Educational Games membership, as it will then not be sent any of the SAS-related emails from the site, and will have exclusive access to the web apps.

Something to help the children learn – no SAS involved!

This weekend marks to start of the half-term school holidays in most parts of the United Kingdom, although some schools have been encouraging learning-from-home since the beginning of the pandemic. Since becoming a parent many years ago, I have had access to computers and written educational software for my children.

One of my original spelling programs now has a family nickname of “GIFAFFE”, due to a check I had failed to do while compiling the list of animals to spell! This program has been re-written (with completely correct spellings!) as a web app called SpiderWord, where a word must be correctly guessed to let the Bug escape from the Spider slowly descending on a thread with every incorrect letter. The currently available word lists now cover biology (Dinosaurs and Reptiles), spelling (Long Words), literature (Thomas the Tank Engine Character Names), geography (Countries) and sport (1-Word English Football Clubs).

If you would like me to include new word lists in this game, then please send them to me using the Contact Us link in the menu. Priority will be given to requests from Educational Games members.

Another of my interests is in mental arithmetic, and I have re-written some of my Chrome apps as browser-independent web apps covering multiplying (from x2 to x20), arithmetic (adding, subtracting, multiplying, and combinations using parentheses), decimal arithmetic (like the arithmetic app, but using decimals), and fraction arithmetic (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing).

Note that all of the web apps have time limits that can be changed to specific times per question between “No limit” and a probably impossible limit of “5 seconds”.

SAS can correct your spelling!

The following SAS keywords are recognized even if you don’t spell them correctly:

DATA = dat, dta, daa, ddata, date*
RUN = ru, rn, rnu, urn, ruin, runt*
PROC = pro, prc, poc, porc, pric
QUIT = qut, qui, quti, qit, quite, quiet
SET = sett, sent*
FILE = fil, fill*
OUTPUT = outputsomething, outputnothing*
IF = fi*
THEN = the*
DO = doo*
PUT = putit, putting*
INPUT = imput
END = endit*

This behaviour can be controlled using OPTIONS AUTOCORRECT from SAS 9.3 onwards. To maintain this behaviour use OPTIONS AUTOCORRECT to show warnings in the log, but allow the program to continue, which is the default. OPTIONS NOAUTOCORRECT will show an error in the log at the first incorrect spelling, and then stop the program.

Can you add to my list?

(* Taken from the “Job Security” papers by Art Carpenter and Tony Payne.)