butt.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

def valuesFromFile(file):
    values = {}

    for line in open(file):
        keyVal = [i.strip() for i in line.split(":")]   # whitespace should not matter
        if len(keyVal) != 2: continue                   # invalid line, was not in the form <key>:<value>
        letter, val = keyVal                            # now we know there's exactly two values - key, and value

        # all values should be lowercase, so case doesn't matter on lookups
        letter = letter.lower()

        # if we didn't get an integer in the string (or no string at all), just use 1
        try: val = int(val)
        except (TypeError, ValueError): val = 1

        values[letter] = val

    return values

class Scrabble:
    def __init__(self, valueFile="letterValues.txt"):
        # get a letter-value map - what it says on the tin
        self.letterValues = valuesFromFile(valueFile)

    def getWordValue(self, word):
        # keep running tally
        totalValue = 0

        for i in word:  # i being the next character in word
            i = i.lower() # case shouldn't matter
            letterValue = self.letterValues.get(i, 0)  # if character not in values, assume default of 0
            totalValue += letterValue

        return totalValue

    def getBestWord(self, words):
        highest  = -1
        best = ""

        for word in words:
            # code reuse son
            val = self.getWordValue(word)

            # higher values wins always
            # lower length wins on ties
            if val > highest or (val == highest and len(word) < len(best)):
                highest = val
                best = word

        return best


def main():
    import sys  # we need this for sys.stderr
    import os   # we need this for os.path.isfile
    pointFile = input("point-value file? (hit enter for default) ")

    # if we got an actual file, use it
    if os.path.isfile(pointFile):
        pointThingy = Scrabble(pointFile)

    else: # otherwise, just use the default

        # if the user gave a file path, tell him it doesn't exist
        #  silence on errors is typically not a good decision
        if len(pointFile) > 0:

            # {} gets replaced with pointFile here
            # we print to sys.stderr because technically, this is an error
            print("file \"{}\" does not exist, using default".format(pointFile), file=sys.stderr)

        pointThingy = Scrabble()

    wordsRaw = input("words? (seperate with comma) ")     # this is a string, no newline
    wordList = [i.strip() for i in wordsRaw.split(",")]   # every word in wordsRaw, split on commas, with whitespace trimmed

    # self-explanatory
    if len(wordList) == 1:
        word = wordList[0]
        # first {} gets replaced with word, second {} its value
        print("value of \"{}\" is {}".format(word, pointThingy.getWordValue(word)))

    else:
        best = pointThingy.getBestWord(wordList)
        # {} replaced with best
        print("best word in list is \"{}\"".format(best))


# python trick: this is true if you're running from the command line or whatever,
#  but false if you're importing
if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()