OmCheeto said:
Some people question this method as being the equivalent of cheating, and I concur.
I have argued with myself whether using spreadsheets or other such aids is a form of cheating and I decided that it is not. In this case, cheating (or lack thereof) is in the mind of the beholder. I think of "cheating" as gaining unfair advantage over others by not following the rules in a game or competition.
Here we have a game in which we are tasked with finding a target word in at most six tries. There is only one rule, "Each guess must be a valid 5-letter word." The algorithm does not allow invalid 5-letter words, therefore the rule cannot be violated that way. This brings us to the edge of the proverbial slippery slope.
Question 1: Is it cheating to have a list of all 12,972 valid 5-letter words and check for matches?
Answer 1: No, because the list is freely available on the web. Everyone who plays the game obviously has web access and hence list access. No unfair advantage here.
Question 2: Is printing the list from the web cheating?
Answer 2: No, anyone can do it so no unfair advantage here either.
Question 3: Is loading the list into a spreadsheet cheating?
Answer 2: No, what difference does it make other than hard copy is harder to manage and search than electronic form. No unfair advantage here.
Question 3: Is writing VBA code to facilitate the search of matches on the spreadsheet cheating?
Answer 3: Writing code to automate the search, instead of doing it manually, expedites the process. There is the advantage of shorter completion time. However, it is not unfair to people who cannot write code because this game is not a timed task. Players can take as much time as they need to complete it.
In conclusion, I think that people who consider using the list and spreadsheets as "cheating" have already chosen what they want to get out of this game and how. Then they call cheaters those who don't share their choices. That's unfair.
It has already been mentioned in this thread that we all get out of the game what we want to get out. I wholeheartedly agree, so let's leave it at that.