Letter Clock generator

Main.java

import java.util.*;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int targetRows = 16;
        int width = 16;
        long tries = 0;

        double bestScore = 0;

        List<String> words = new ArrayList<>();
        List<String> result = new ArrayList<>();
        while (true) {
            tries++;
            System.out.printf("\rattempt: #%d", tries);
            words.clear();
            result.clear();
            double score = generateWords(words);
            int length = 0;
            String currentRow = "";
            for (String word : words) {
                // ignore space at the beginning of the word if the word starts a new row
                boolean postfixWhitespace = word.endsWith(" ");
                if (currentRow.length() == 0 && word.startsWith(" ")) {
                    word = word.substring(1);
                }
                if (postfixWhitespace) {
                    word = word.substring(0, word.length() - 1);
                }

                // place the next word on this row with as much overlap as possible
                for (int i = word.length(); i >= 0; i--) {
                    // but if that isn't possible, move to the next row.
                    if (currentRow.length() + (word.length() - i) > width) {
                        result.add(currentRow);
                        length += currentRow.length();
                        currentRow = "";
                        i = 0;
                        if (word.startsWith(" ")) {
                            word = word.substring(1);
                        }
                    }

                    // find as much overlap as possible (by i decreasing form word.length() to 0)
                    if (currentRow.endsWith(word.substring(0, i))) {
                        currentRow += word.substring(i);
                        break;
                    }
                }
                // add whitespace if the current word ended with whitespace
                if (currentRow.length() < width && postfixWhitespace) {
                    currentRow += " ";
                }
            }
            result.add(currentRow);
            length += currentRow.length() * 0.1;

            score += length;

            if (result.size() <= targetRows) {
                if (score > bestScore) {
                    bestScore = score;
                    System.out.printf("\nFound a solution! %2d characters, %2d rows, score: %8.2f\n", length, result.size(), score);
                    for (String line : result) {
                        for (int c : line.chars().toArray()) {
                            System.out.print((char) c + " ");
                        }
                        System.out.print('\n');
                    }
                    System.out.println("- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -\n");
                }
            }
        }
    }

    private static double generateWords(List<String> words) {
        Random random = new Random(System.nanoTime());
        double score = 0.0;

        // greeting
        words.add(" GOEDE ");
        List<String> orderedDayParts = Arrays.asList("MORGEN", "MIDDAG", "AVOND", "NACHT");
        List<String> dayParts = new ArrayList<>(orderedDayParts);
        Collections.shuffle(dayParts);
        score += scoreShuffledList(orderedDayParts, dayParts);
        words.addAll(dayParts);

        words.addAll(Arrays.asList(" ", " HET ", " IS "));

        // day
        words.addAll(Arrays.asList("MA", "DI", "WO", "DO", "VR", "ZA", "ZO"));
        words.add(" ");

        // day of month
        List<String> orderedDom = Arrays.asList("10", "11", "13", "14", "15", "16", "17", "18", "19", "20", "21", "22", "23", "24", "25", "26", "27", "28", "29", "30", "31");
        List<String> dom = new ArrayList<>(orderedDom);
        Collections.shuffle(dom);
        score += scoreShuffledList(orderedDom, dom);
        words.addAll(dom);
        words.add(" ");

        // month
        List<String> orderedMonths = Arrays.asList("JAN", "FEB", "MAA", "APR", "MEI", "JUN", "JUL", "AUG", "SEP", "OKT", "NOV", "DEC");
        List<String> months = new ArrayList<>(orderedMonths);
        Collections.shuffle(months);
        score += scoreShuffledList(orderedMonths, months);
        words.addAll(months);
        words.add(" ");

        // weather

        if (random.nextBoolean()) {
            words.addAll(Arrays.asList(" HET ", " WEER ", " IS "));
        } else {
            words.addAll(Arrays.asList(" HET ", " WEER: "));
        }
        List<String> weather = Arrays.asList("REGENACHTIG", "ONBEWOLKT"); // BEWOLKT is a substring of ONBEWOLKT
        words.addAll(weather);
        
        // 5/10/15
        words.addAll(Arrays.asList(" HET ", " IS "));
        if (random.nextBoolean()) {
            List<String> minutes = Arrays.asList("VIJF", "TIEN", "KWART");
            Collections.shuffle(minutes);
            words.addAll(minutes);
        } else {
            words.add("VIJFTIEN");
        }
        words.add(" ");

        // past/to
        List<String> pastto = Arrays.asList("VOOR", "OVER");
        Collections.shuffle(pastto);
        words.addAll(pastto);
        words.add(" HALF ");

        // uren
        List<String> orderedHours = Arrays.asList("EEN", "TWEE", "DRIE", "VIER", "VIJF", "ZES", "ZEVEN", "ACHT", "NEGEN", "TIEN", "ELF", "TWAALF");
        List<String> hours = new ArrayList<>(orderedHours);
        Collections.shuffle(hours);
        score += scoreShuffledList(orderedHours, hours);
        words.addAll(hours);
        
        return score;
    }

    private static double scoreShuffledList(List<String> orderedList, List<String> shuffledList) {
        // compute the number of items in original place
        double score = 0.0;
        for (int i = 0; i < orderedList.size(); i++) {
            int difference = Math.abs(i - shuffledList.indexOf(orderedList.get(i)));
            score -= Math.pow(difference, 1.5) + 10 * difference;
        }
        score /= orderedList.size();
        return score;
    }
}