Scratch

Sure! In fact, I've set it up so that all you have to do is code a funciton called "moveRed" or "moveBlue" which takes in a board and spits out a board whith your move done, and I handle the rest. I'll even release UI games for each entry so "spectators" can try battling them themselves by clicking on the hexagon!

blob8108 wrote:

Hardmath123 wrote:

Sure! In fact, I've set it up so that all you have to do is code a funciton called "moveRed" or "moveBlue" which takes in a board and spits out a board whith your move done, and I handle the rest. I'll even release UI games for each entry so "spectators" can try battling them themselves by clicking on the hexagon!

Cool    how is the board represented? It'd be neat if there were built-in ways for representing the board, placing pieces, etc. (They'd have to copy the board, as opposed to modifying it in-place, so you can use it to investigate multiple states, of course.)

The board is represented by a 10x10 array (I've posted this bit earlier). The framework will include a copy(array) function, and you will be given a copy of the board to operate on.

For the sake of elegance it would be nicer to have a single function -- couldn't you just have one "move" function containing the AI code, and then flip the x/y co-ordinates behind the scenes for the other player?

Yep! You will have to create a single function which takes in a board and returns the board with your move done. I take care of everything else.

The UI (human versus computer) option is a good idea -- I was going to suggest that. It'd let you test your AI by playing it yourself!

The HTML file will also have a "random" player so that you can test it against a random player, too.

You should have a single html file download containing the basic framework, for everyone to code their AIs in. Ideally, it'd have a <textarea> built-in for coding your function right there on the page 

It will allow you to import, view, and test code from a .js file.

Then for the competition, you can use a modified version containing each entry (in a dictionary of functions?) and automate them competing.

For the judging, beautifulness of code should definitely be a factor. 

blob8108 wrote:

Hardmath123 wrote:

blob8108 wrote:

For the sake of elegance it would be nicer to have a single function -- couldn't you just have one "move" function containing the AI code, and then flip the x/y co-ordinates behind the scenes for the other player?

Yep! You will have to create a single function which takes in a board and returns the board with your move done. I take care of everything else.

So there isn't a separate "moveRed" and a "moveBlue"? 

Oh, I see what you meant now. I thought you meant that both entries must be submit in the form of a single function, but now I realized you meant the name should be the same. The problem is, if the name is the same, how do I call a specific one my code? If both functions were named "move", if I call "move", both functions will get called. So, depending on your team (not who should move), you name your function moveRed or moveBlue. My back-end basically does the dirty work like alternating between players and rotating the board for you. 

Hardmath123 wrote:

blob8108 wrote:

Hardmath123 wrote:

Yep! You will have to create a single function which takes in a board and returns the board with your move done. I take care of everything else.

So there isn't a separate "moveRed" and a "moveBlue"? 

Oh, I see what you meant now. I thought you meant that both entries must be submit in the form of a single function, but now I realized you meant the name should be the same. The problem is, if the name is the same, how do I call a specific one my code? If both functions were named "move", if I call "move", both functions will get called. So, depending on your team (not who should move), you name your function moveRed or moveBlue. My back-end basically does the dirty work like alternating between players and rotating the board for you. 

Sorry — I think I'm perhaps being slightly unclear    I was (stupidly) assuming you were still having one entry per person ~ in which case, I would suggest doing it as follows:

Each person writes an entry that consists of a single function. This function would just handle a single case (blue, perhaps) and your code would flip both the colors and the co-ordinates behind the scenes for the other (red) player. Alternatively, if you really need the AI code to handle the cases for each color, it might be nicer to pass it which team it is in as an argument to the function (eg move("red") or move("R") or something like that).

Having just a single function is nicer — it just seems more elegant to me. And then if you ever have more than two teams, you can play any of the AIs against any other one.

Just a thought 

Rescheduled? Excellent! At the moment it looks like I can make that date for a competition!

sparks wrote:

Rescheduled? Excellent! At the moment it looks like I can make that date for a competition!

Whoo! 

Players
Roijac
bobbybee
blob8108
rookwood101
sparks
Hardmath123 (if there are an odd number of players)
These will be organized into two teams randomly once there are 9 or 10 applicants. I figured that's the fairest way.

roijac wrote:

can we get an object like RedRecord for caching?

You can always cache as:
1. window.redteamcache=contents;
2. document.body.innerHTML=document.body.innerHTML+"<div id='redteamcache'>contents</div>";
3. a cookie

Use the first option. 

True, that's a good point, but some people were hesitant (see the first page) and teams build confidence. Maybe we could allow individual entries too? But then how would I run them against each other? Maybe run all programs against all others and see who has the most wins? So many unanswered questions... Suddenly having a month to figure all this stuff out seems like a godsend! 

Hardmath123 wrote:

Suddenly having a month to figure all this stuff out seems like a godsend! 

now you have time to build the engine so we can test our AIs! 
where are you going to dev it? sourceforge?

UPDATE/POLL: I'm almost done with the layout after struggling with CSS3 for an hour. Here's a question: how do you want to be able to test your code? Here are your choices:
• Save it in an external file and import it into the document (drag into document)
• Copy and paste code into textarea
Also, do you want to be able to code an opponent yourself, or should I just include a few defaults for you to pick from?

Hardmath123 wrote:

UPDATE/POLL: I'm almost done with the layout after struggling with CSS3 for an hour. Here's a question: how do you want to be able to test your code? Here are your choices:
• Save it in an external file and import it into the document (drag into document)
• Copy and paste code into textarea
Also, do you want to be able to code an opponent yourself, or should I just include a few defaults for you to pick from?

It'd be really neat to do both — have a textarea on the page that loads its contents from a string somewhere in the html file when you load the page, but you can then edit in the textarea in the page. That way, you can use your own text editor if you prefer; but you also get the convenience of being able to edit it in the page 

Now, if only JS supported triple-quoted strings...

bump

Hardmath123 wrote:

Ok, another question: due to absolutely un-thought-out CSS whitespace compatibility in textareas, you have a choice of being able to indent your code, or having code scroll horizontally rather than wrap if the line is too long. Which would you prefer? Should you be able to expand the coding window to the whole screen (it currently resides in a sidebar)?

Horizontal scrolling is a pain. Expanding it might be useful; but I imagine one would mainly use a real text editor, to be honest. Indentation is much more important; go with that. 

...what precisely was the problem with CSS/textareas?

blob8108 wrote:

Hardmath123 wrote:

Ok, another question: due to absolutely un-thought-out CSS whitespace compatibility in textareas, you have a choice of being able to indent your code, or having code scroll horizontally rather than wrap if the line is too long. Which would you prefer? Should you be able to expand the coding window to the whole screen (it currently resides in a sidebar)?

Horizontal scrolling is a pain. Expanding it might be useful; but I imagine one would mainly use a real text editor, to be honest. Indentation is much more important; go with that. 

...what precisely was the problem with CSS/textareas?

Textareas do not support whiteSpace:pre. They only support no-wrap (scroll but don't indent) and pre-wrap (indent but don't scroll). I will go for indentation, as you suggested, since I don't expect you to code there, just tweak numbers.