When the user plays WordGuess game, the computer first selects a secret word at random from a file provided to the program. The program then prints out a row of dashes—one for each letter in the secret word and asks the user to guess a letter. If the user guesses a letter that is in the word, the word is re-displayed with all instances of that letter shown in the correct positions, along with any letters correctly guessed on previous turns. If the letter does not appear in the word, the user is charged with an incorrect guess.
The user keeps guessing letters until either (1) the user has correctly guessed all the letters in the word or (2) the user has made eight incorrect guesses.