Sprouts 2018 Tournament: NoCanDo

We will run two NoCanDo tournaments at Sprouts: one for humans and one for computers. Attendees can participate in the human tournament by acting like a human. They can also submit code for a computer player. This page provides the code for that.

Source Code

In order to write the player, you'll need some files. (These are all from my GitHub for CG Code.)

• NoCanDo.java: This is the code that models the game. Each turn, your player will get an instance of this and be asked to make a move. This also includes two constants, CombinatorialGame.LEFT and CombinatorialGame.RIGHT, which will be used in the Player you write.
• Pair.class: Used by NoCanDo.java. I include the .class instead of the source code here because it's an assignment in one of my classes (sorry).
• CombinatorialGame.java: Superclass for NoCanDo.java. You'll need this to compile everything.
• Player.java: Superclass for the player you will write. Your class has to inherit from this and include NoCanDo for the generic type, so the signature should look like:

  public class WhateverYourNameYourPlayer extends Player<NoCanDo> {

  Except you should name your player something that no one else will name theirs. Player.java has the getMove method, which you must override. The method signature you'll include is:

  public NoCanDo getMove(NoCanDo position, int playerId)

  , where playerId is one of the two constants from above, indicating which player is taking this turn. You'll want your player to be able to handle both cases.
• RandomPlayer.class: The compiled source for a random player. You'll probably want this to test things.
• PositionFactory.java: The abstract class for position generators. It's needed to compile NoCanDo.java.
• Referee.java: The class that alternates the turns back and forth between the two players.
• RefereeWithSwingDisplay.java: Subclass of the referee that shows a graphical version of the board as the game is played.
• ManualAdvancingSwingReferee.java: A class that is referenced in NoCanDo.java, so you'll need it to compile.
• SwingDisplayable.java: Used by NoCanDo to display things.

Once you have all of this, you can test your player with the following code:

//set things up
Player<NoCanDo> random = new RandomPlayer<NoCanDo>();
Player<NoCanDo> myPlayer = new WhateverYouCalledYourPlayer();
PositionFactory<NoCanDo> factory = new NoCanDo.PositionBuilder(); //only creates empty boards
Referee<NoCanDo> ref = new ManualAdvancingSwingReferee<NoCanDo>(random, myPlayer, factory);

//run the tests
ref.call(); 
//then test it the other way
ref = new ManualAdvancingSwingReferee<NoCanDo>(myPlayer, random, factory);
ref.call();

//now run a gauntlet (with no GUI)
ref = new Referee<NoCanDo>(myPlayer, random, factory);
ref.gauntlet(100); //plays 100 games and prints results
        

When you have a working player, please email it to Kyle and he'll include it in the tournament!

Return to the Sprouts 2018 homepage.