More clarifications, please.

> * Your script with have three different word files PASSED to it...

PASSED? From de URL? From the command line? I supose puzzle.php is running from PHP as an Apache module, and also i supose the script must open 'wordlist.txt' with fopen() or file() or some other function, but this 'PASSED' is confusing me.

> # Your script should not take more than 30 seconds to execute. This obviously can vary machine per machine. Imagine your script running on a P2-333 with 128 megs of ram.

The script puzzle.php is then responsable of measuring the max 30 seconds on ANY posible machine. Is this ok?

> # Maximum memory consumed by a script should be 32 megs.

The max 32Mg... are the 'memory_limit' directive of php.ini?

> The only languages allowed are PHP, HTML and CSS.

CSS1? CSS2? on what browser do you execute the script?

Finaly, can you shown a phpinfo() of the machine(s) where the code will be executed?

Tankyou for your patience and sorry for my english.

Àngel

Passed is a bad word there. The wordlist.txt will be in the same directory as your script. Your script is responsible for opening and reading the file.

You script doesn't necessarily need to time itself. I will time your script and if it runs over 30 secs, it will be disqualified.

Yes, the 32MB will be in the memory limit directive in the ini file...

I will execute on Mozilla v1.0 and IE6.

As for phpinfo()s. I purposely do not provide these. You should concentrate on writing portable code.

IE and Mozilla?
Or our choice?

IE and Mozilla.

> You script doesn't necessarily need to time itself. I will time your script and if it runs over 30 secs, it will be disqualified.

But i dont know how fast your machine are. If i code an super-optimal script that executes in 1 second in my Pentium II 200 but needs 31 seconds in your 386-SX 40 (this is posible, uh?), then my script will be disqualified. Then, the only valid strategy, i believe, is to time itself in a bucle, and break the bucle just prior the time is 30 seconds long for display the result found at that time.

> As for phpinfo()s. I purposely do not provide these. You should concentrate on writing portable code.

Ok.

From the rules:

> Yes, any extension commonly available to PHP is allowed.

The terms 'portable code' and 'any extension commonly available' are a little ambiguous. Only an example: I am plannig my strategy with some regular expressions. I can code both Perl and Posix regex, but Perl regex are much more convenient for my. Are Perl regex suported? If not, are Posix regex suported? I supose both regex are suported (extensions commonly available) but i want not begin to codify if i am not sure my code will work. Is for that i have requested a phpinfo(), for not to do useless efforts.

Tankyou, an sorry again for my english.
Àngel

Both forms of regex are available. If in doubt about an extension, please ask here.