Letterpress board searcher

board_searcher.rb

#/usr/bin/env ruby

# A brute-force letterpress board searcher. It takes about 90 seconds to search a board.
#
# Good uses: train on your vocabulary with boards you lost on.
#
# LAZY AND STUPID CHEATERS: DO NOT USE THIS FOR CHEATING. CHEATERS NEVER WIN.
class BoardSearcher
  attr_reader :board

  def initialize(unsorted_board)
    @board = unsorted_board.sort
  end

  def contains(unsorted_candidate)
    candidate = unsorted_candidate.sort
    candidate_index = 0

    @board.each do |letter|
      candidate_index += 1 if letter == candidate[candidate_index]
    end

    (candidate_index == candidate.length) ? true : false
  end
end

if __FILE__ == $0
  filename = ARGV[0] || "/usr/share/dict/words"
  board = (ARGV[1] || "asviqaazotvepjffysjrrasdl").chars.to_a

  searcher = BoardSearcher.new(board)

  File.foreach(filename) do |line|
    candidate = line.downcase.chomp
    if searcher.contains(candidate.chars.to_a)
      puts candidate
    end
  end
end

Here's one in ocaml; 10x faster! ~ https://gist.github.com/4013882