I wanted to share a project that I've worked on over the course of a
few weekends. It's an entirely browser-based Across Lite Reader which
enables you to solve crossword puzzles using only a modern Web
browser. Think of it as a simple version of Across Lite that you don't
have to install, and can be used anywhere you have access to a modern
Web browser.
To use the tool, visit the following URL and drag a .PUZ file from
your computer into the browser window:
http://derekslager.com/puz/WHY?I'm fairly new to crosswords, and recently signed up for access to the
NYTimes crossword. I was dismayed to find that archived puzzles could
only be viewed using a special program which you had to download and
install. My laptop uses Linux, and the (ancient) version they posted
didn't work. I found an alternative Linux program (xword), but it
didn't support the circled squares in the first puzzle I tried (Jan
10, 2011), so that wasn't much better.
To solve my problem, I decided to make my own program using HTML5, so
all you need is a modern Web browser. I built this on Linux, and have
mostly tested it with Google Chrome, but it should work on any
operating system with a modern Web browser (for now this means Chrome
or Firefox, unfortunately IE9 does not support the necessary HTML5
APIs).
I'd love feedback from anybody willing to give this a try. I'd also
like to thank Amy Reynaldo, Jim Horne and Deb Amlen for the thoughtful
early feedback they provided. It greatly improved the usability of
this version.
