Crossword Puzzle Data Format

The biggest crisis in computer science today is the lack of a good crossword puzzle data format.

There are some existing formats:

• XPF Universal Crossword Puzzle Data Format

– XML based, minimal redundancy, answers summarized in grid

• Yet Another Crossword Data Format

– YAML-like (i.e. not YAML), more redundancy, no answer summary, online parser restricts to 15×15 or 17×17

There are also some terrible formats:

• Across Lite

– BINARY format (!!) with “older TEXT version”. Enough said. The TEXT version does have no redundancy, however.

• XwordInfo JSON – doesn’t even have a real name, and doesn’t deserve one. The format is full of redundancy, and is difficult to use. Example .json.

Special purpose formats:

• .xd format from File Format Leads to Crossword Scandal and the Data Store and Program