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  1. Dec 01, 2011
    • Sam Moore's avatar
      Mostly messing with "forfax" AI · 041c37d1
      Sam Moore authored
      It would be nice to have an AI that doesn't segfault.
      
      Currently segfault caused by Board::ForgetPiece.
      valgrind outputs a lot of wierd crap about std::vector and uninitialised values
      Uninitialised values created by std::vector::push_back()
      All I am pushing is a simple pointer (Piece*), so I don't know WHY uninitialised values happen...
      The std::list used in MakeMove is somehow using the same memory as the std::vectors of the board, which is causing invalid reads
      Stupid, stupid stdlib.
      
      I think that once that is fixed, forfax is pretty much done. I'd like to see how well it plays, but... segfaults.
      
      I also fixed dummy to take into account the modified turn protocol which prints piece ranks. dummy just reads them and ignores them.
      
      I plan to make the manager program more useful
      	- Enable human players
      	- Add command line arguments for things like timeouts, graphics on/off etc
      	- Read a game from a file (so that games can be viewed after they are run)
      I need to go through the manager program carefully and make sure that the way AI programs quit actually works
      Ideally the AI program has a short period to exit gracefully before it is killed
      I think for some reason the AI program always just gets killed.
      
      At some point I need to setup a VM for this. I should probably do that.
      
      I also might change minor things like the tokens (from random characters to digits + a few characters) and the internal ordering of the enum Piece::Type
      041c37d1
  2. Nov 30, 2011
    • Sam Moore's avatar
      Modified Turn Response Protocol, added handling for SIGPIPE, changed placeholder images · 2ab27eb6
      Sam Moore authored
      The "outcome" of a move is now listed as:
      
      TYPE [ATTACKER_RANK] [DEFENDER_RANK]
      
      Where ATTACKER_RANK and DEFENDER_RANK will be present if TYPE is one of: KILLS, DIES, BOTHDIE, and indicate the ranks of the pieces involved.
      This involved adding a class MovementResult, which stores the ranks of pieces in addition to an enum, replacing the enum Board::MovementResult
      
      The sample agent "forfax" was causing broken pipes, which caused the manager program to exit.
      I added a handler for SIGPIPE in manager/main.cpp to ensure that the manager program reports a DEFAULT victory to the other AI, and exits gracefully.
      However, I still don't know WHY forfax causes broken pipes, but hopefully its a problem with forfax and not with the manager program.
      
      I edited the images used by the graphical display to show the ordered ranks of the pieces, rather than some obscure characters.
      Unfortunately I have just realised that the enum used for Piece::Type stores ranks in the wrong order.
      In the actual game, LOWER numbers are better, in my enum, HIGHER numbers are better.
      To make things more confusing, I made the printed ATTACKER_RANK and DEFENDER_RANK correspond to the traditional numbering, not the enum numbering...
      2ab27eb6
  3. Nov 29, 2011