crossword

OK I am new to Prolog, so excuse me if this is something trivial, but I can't seem to find a proper elegant answer to this. I am trying to work out the exercise here on learnprolognow.org , exercise 2.4 (the crossword). The exercise provides these facts: word(astante, a,s,t,a,n,t,e). word(astoria, a,s,t,o,r,i,a). word(baratto, b,a,r,a,t,t,o). word(cobalto, c,o,b,a,l,t,o). word(pistola, p,i,s,t,o,l,a). word(statale, s,t,a,t,a,l,e). And the solution I came up with to solve the crossword placement of each word is this: crossword(V1, V2, V3, H1, H2, H3) :- word(V1, V1a, V1bH1b, V1c, V1dH2b, V1e,

Given a list of words, how would you go about arranging them into a crossword grid? It wouldn't have to be like a "proper" crossword puzzle which is symmetrical or anything like that: basically just output a starting position and direction for each word. Would there be any Java examples available? I came up with a solution which probably isn't the most efficient, but it works well enough. Basically: Sort all the words by length, descending. Take the first word and place it on the board. Take the next word. Search through all the words that are already on the board and see if there are any