The Big Programming Thread - Page 209

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Thread Rules
1. This is not a "do my homework for me" thread. If you have specific questions, ask, but don't post an assignment or homework problem and expect an exact solution.
2. No recruiting for your cockamamie projects (you won't replace facebook with 3 dudes you found on the internet and $20)
3. If you can't articulate why a language is bad, don't start slinging shit about it. Just remember that nothing is worse than making CSS IE6 compatible.
4. Use [code] tags to format code blocks.

mustache

Switzerland309 Posts

December 05 2012 08:45 GMT

#4161

I'm programming a small snake game in C that runs in the console window. right now it clears and redraws the entire screen every time the snake moves 1 increment. this make the bottom of the screen start flickering because the redraw at the bottom takes longer than the top.

my question is if there is a way to go to a specific line in the console window, delete that line, and redraw it. that way i could check if something changed and update only that line.

using windows and visual basic

Sub40APM

6336 Posts

December 05 2012 09:25 GMT

#4162

On December 04 2012 06:48 Blisse wrote:

For example, if you call lower() on a string, then you check if the string has any uppercase letters. It even sounds redundant, no? as how can a lower cased string have uppercase letters anyways?

I agree with most of your post but must come to his defense. If you look back to his code, while he converts the input string into lower and does stuff to it, his check on Uppercase applies to the original input string, whatever it may be.

Arnstein

Norway3381 Posts

December 05 2012 10:33 GMT

#4163

Anyone know where I can find good exercises for double lists and matrices in Python?

KaiserJohan

Sweden1808 Posts

December 05 2012 10:47 GMT

#4164

I'm heavy into C++ and .NET but I need to learn some PHP+mySQL. Are there any good advanced tutorial sites out there? As in, they don't have to explain all the programming basics, just the language itself and the environment to work in. I have never developed in a web language so I'm new in that specific area.

Also what good free IDEs are there for php?

AmericanUmlaut

Germany2597 Posts

December 05 2012 11:28 GMT

#4165

On December 05 2012 19:47 KaiserJohan wrote:
Also what good free IDEs are there for php?

I use NetBeans for PHP and it works very well.

KaiserJohan

Sweden1808 Posts

December 05 2012 11:36 GMT

#4166

What about the eclipse PHP plugins?

Kambing

United States1176 Posts

December 05 2012 14:17 GMT

#4167

On December 05 2012 17:41 ghrur wrote:
Hi guys,

So next semester, I will be learning Python as part of a Comp Sci class I'll be taking. At the end of the class, we'll have to make a project primarily in Python. I've heard about this from my friends who're taking it now, so I've started contemplating the project. One of the thoughts I had was making an AI of sorts to play BW. It'd probably work through BWAPI. The problem is, a lot of my friends also say Python is too slow to be able to make the calculations for a game AI.

Anyway, I'd just like some opinions on if it'd be possible to build a BW AI-bot in python.

Thanks!

It's perfectly reasonable; you aren't going to be building anything crazy performance-demanding.

The only catch is that the BWAPI library is written in C++ so you would need to understand how to interop with C++ code from Python. Luckily, someone's already written Python bindings against BWAPI, so you don't even need to worry about that:

http://code.google.com/p/bwapi/
http://code.google.com/p/pybw/

Blisse

Canada3710 Posts

December 05 2012 14:28 GMT

#4168

On December 05 2012 17:45 mustache wrote:
I'm programming a small snake game in C that runs in the console window. right now it clears and redraws the entire screen every time the snake moves 1 increment. this make the bottom of the screen start flickering because the redraw at the bottom takes longer than the top.

my question is if there is a way to go to a specific line in the console window, delete that line, and redraw it. that way i could check if something changed and update only that line.

using windows and visual basic

I came across the same problem before. I knew this ability existed, because if you've used a lot of terminal installers, they often have a static download bar. However, I never found out how to do this.

I would appreciate an answer to this problem as well, even though I've moved on.

On December 05 2012 18:25 Sub40APM wrote:

Show nested quote +

Ooops. XD Strange that I missed that, though that would be another sample of redundancy, for this case.

Actually, now I'm deciding if it was wrong to get the Pig Latin of the lowercased word, though I'm not sure how abbreviations and proper nouns should be handled, because the words that would be created wouldn't be real words (though it's never a real word anyways).

CecilSunkure

United States2829 Posts

December 05 2012 16:46 GMT

#4169

A lot of your friends say Python is too slow for AI calculations? Sigh... A lot of your friends like to make assumptions without testing them. Python is perfectly fine for scripting AI. Your friends don't know what they're talking about.

That's weird, are you multi-threading at all? That sounds like screen tearing where you're calling WriteConsoleOutput too quickly. Are you at least double buffering? Here's a couple links, which should be way more than enough information for you to fix this:
http://cecilsunkure.blogspot.com/2011/11/windows-console-game-setting-up-window.html
http://cecilsunkure.blogspot.com/2012/07/windows-console-game-ascii-engine.html

mustache

Switzerland309 Posts

December 05 2012 18:24 GMT

#4170

+ Show Spoiler +


void Print_Field()
{
	int i;
	int h;
	system("cls"); // clears old screen
	printf("points: %d\n", points); // displays points in first console line
	for(i=0, h=1; i<AREA; i++) // prints gamefield, until the array with size AREA is completely printed
	{
		if(i == h*WIDTH) // array is 1 dimensional ; program skips to a new line every time WIDTH has been reached
		{
			printf("\n");
			h=h+1;
		}
		printf("%c", field[i].sprite); // chooses what character is printed
		
	}	
}

so im just cycling through my array and printing the values that are in that. but because the redrawing isnt fast enough the screen flickers(i assume)

I've just started out programming in general so im not sure what multi threading or double buffering is.(so im probably not using it)

ill check out the links in detail, but i'd like to program the game from start to finish by my self, to get more familiar with how things work.

EDIT: i noticed in my first post i wrote im using visual basic. I meant visual studio c++, and im coding in C. ouch

Bigpet

Germany533 Posts

December 05 2012 18:30 GMT

#4171

On December 06 2012 03:24 mustache wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +


void Print_Field()
{
	int i;
	int h;
	system("cls"); // clears old screen
	printf("points: %d\n", points); // displays points in first console line
	for(i=0, h=1; i<AREA; i++) // prints gamefield, until the array with size AREA is completely printed
	{
		if(i == h*WIDTH) // array is 1 dimensional ; program skips to a new line every time WIDTH has been reached
		{
			printf("\n");
			h=h+1;
		}
		printf("%c", field[i].sprite); // chooses what character is printed
		
	}	
}

I don't know about the performance characteristics of system("cls") but you shouldn't printf() every single charater. You flush way too often that way. I'd advise you sprintf() a whole frame and just call printf() once you constructed the whole frame.

Deleted User 101379

4849 Posts

December 05 2012 18:34 GMT

#4172

On December 06 2012 03:24 mustache wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +


void Print_Field()
{
	int i;
	int h;
	system("cls"); // clears old screen
	printf("points: %d\n", points); // displays points in first console line
	for(i=0, h=1; i<AREA; i++) // prints gamefield, until the array with size AREA is completely printed
	{
		if(i == h*WIDTH) // array is 1 dimensional ; program skips to a new line every time WIDTH has been reached
		{
			printf("\n");
			h=h+1;
		}
		printf("%c", field[i].sprite); // chooses what character is printed
		
	}	
}

It's not possible in default C as far as i remember, though there are libraries for that.
From a quick google, http://www.projectpluto.com/win32a.htm should work. I haven't tried it though since most of my C development was under linux where we had ncurses (which is not available for windows).

Blisse

Canada3710 Posts

December 05 2012 18:37 GMT

#4173

On December 06 2012 03:24 mustache wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +


void Print_Field()
{
	int i;
	int h;
	system("cls"); // clears old screen
	printf("points: %d\n", points); // displays points in first console line
	for(i=0, h=1; i<AREA; i++) // prints gamefield, until the array with size AREA is completely printed
	{
		if(i == h*WIDTH) // array is 1 dimensional ; program skips to a new line every time WIDTH has been reached
		{
			printf("\n");
			h=h+1;
		}
		printf("%c", field[i].sprite); // chooses what character is printed
		
	}	
}

Could you try building the array as a giant string, and then calling printf once on that entire string? That should solve it.

@Cecil, I think he's writing a literal basic Console program, not a WIN32 application that interfaces with the Console. XD (even though it's kinda a subset of the other)

RoyGBiv_13

United States1275 Posts

December 05 2012 18:50 GMT

#4174

On December 06 2012 03:37 Blisse wrote:

Show nested quote +

Yep, turns out this is one of those things Windows sucks at. This program would run as intended on a Unix box, because of how POSIX streams work. In any case, probably best practice to build your string first, then print it. It will make the code a bit more readable.

Also, sorry that you have to deal with windows command line :/

CecilSunkure

United States2829 Posts

December 05 2012 18:51 GMT

#4175

On December 06 2012 03:37 Blisse wrote:

Show nested quote +

Oh I see, haha. Yeah just use a single printf call. The screen might "flicker" a little when the console scrolls. You can change the height in characters of the console so that it cannot scroll, if you wanted to.

Recognizable

Netherlands1552 Posts

December 05 2012 18:52 GMT

#4176

Could somebody explain to me whilst keeping terminology to a minimum what Indendation(Python) actually does. I keep coding and doing stuff but this is something I keep wondering about. My guess is that it separates things.

CecilSunkure

United States2829 Posts

December 05 2012 18:55 GMT

#4177

On December 06 2012 03:52 Recognizable wrote:
Could somebody explain to me whilst keeping terminology to a minimum what Indendation(Python) actually does. I keep coding and doing stuff but this is something I keep wondering about. My guess is that it separates things.

It creates a new scope every time you indent. The scope closes when the indent is de-indented.

mustache

Switzerland309 Posts

December 05 2012 18:59 GMT

#4178

Ok thanks, ill try using a single string, though on my first try the game start crashing :D ill have to give it another go

btw here the code if anyone's interested, and wants to see the flickering.
+ Show Spoiler +

#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <Windows.h>
#include <time.h>

/**************************************************************************************************************/
#define HEIGHT (24)
#define WIDTH (50)
#define AREA (HEIGHT*WIDTH)
#define MAX_LENGTH (40)
//#define LENGTH (30)
#define RIGHT ('d')
#define LEFT ('a')
#define UP ('w')
#define DOWN ('s')


/**************************************************************************************************************/
struct position // structure prototype for positions in array
	{
		int x;
		int y;
		char sprite;
	};

	struct position field[AREA]; // gamefield array
	struct position snake[MAX_LENGTH]; // snake body array
	struct position snake_temp[MAX_LENGTH]; // temp snake array copy
	struct position fruit;
	char input = RIGHT;
	int SPEED = 5;
	int points = 0;
	int LENGTH = 1;
	char buffer[AREA+1];
/**************************************************************************************************************/
int Game_Menu();
int Sub_Menu();
void Field_Set();
void Print_Field();
int Snake_Set();
void Snake_Input();
void Snake_Init();
void Menu();
void Fruit_Gen();
void Fruit_Set();
/**************************************************************************************************************/

int main()
{
	int game_loop = 1;
	int main_loop = 1;
	srand(time(NULL));

	while(main_loop ==1)
	{
		Game_Menu();

		game_loop = 1;
		while (game_loop == 1)
		{
			Snake_Input();
			Field_Set();
			Fruit_Set();
			game_loop = Snake_Set();
			Print_Field();
		}
	}
	return 0;
}

int Game_Menu()
{
	int menu = 1;
	int game_loop;
	char menu_input = 'o';


	while( menu == 1)
	{
	  Menu();
	  menu_input = getch();
	  menu = Sub_Menu(menu_input); 
	}

	system("cls");
	return 0;
}
void Menu()
{
	system("cls");
	printf("*******************************************************************************\n");
	printf("*                    *****   *   *   *****    *   *   ****                    *\n");
	printf("*                    *       **  *   *   *    * *     *                       *\n");
	printf("*                    *****   * * *   *****    *       **                      *\n");
	printf("*                        *   *  **   *   *    * *     *                       *\n");
	printf("*                    *****   *   *   *   *    *   *   ****                    *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*     SET SPEED OPTIONS[s]                       SET OBSTACLE OPTIONS[o]      *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                              START GAME[y]                                  *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                             *\n");
	printf("*                                                                    exit[x]  *\n");
	printf("*******************************************************************************\n");
}
int Sub_Menu(char menu_input)
{
	int output = 1;
	char set_char = 'z';

	switch(menu_input)
	{
	case 's':
		system("cls");
		printf("*******************************************************************************\n");
		printf("*                    *****   *   *   *****    *   *   ****                    *\n");
		printf("*                    *       **  *   *   *    * *     *                       *\n");
		printf("*                    *****   * * *   *****    *       **                      *\n");
		printf("*                        *   *  **   *   *    * *     *                       *\n");
		printf("*                    *****   *   *   *   *    *   *   ****                    *\n");
		printf("*                            DIFFICULTY SETTINGS                              *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*     HARD[h]                                               EASY[e]           *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                              MIDDLE[m]                                      *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                             *\n");
		printf("*                                                                    exit[x]  *\n");
		printf("*******************************************************************************\n");
		
		while(set_char != 'm' && set_char != 'e' && set_char != 'h')
		{
			set_char = getch();
		}
		switch(set_char)
		{
		case 'e':
			SPEED = 100;
			break;
		case 'm':
			SPEED = 5;
			break;
		case 'h':
			SPEED = 0;
		}
		break;
	case 'o':
		printf("you are in obstacle menu");
		break;
	case 'y':
		output = 0;
		Snake_Init();
		break;
	case 'x': 
		printf("you exited the game");
		break;
	}

	return output;
}

void Field_Set()
{
	int i,h;// counter variable

	
	
	
	for(i = 0, h=0; i< AREA;i++)// writes x and y coordinates into gamefield array
	{
		
		field[i].x = i%WIDTH;
		field[i].y = i/WIDTH;
	}
	

	for(i = 0; i< AREA; i++)// writes boundarys into gamefield
	{
		if(field[i].x == 0 || field[i].x == (WIDTH-1) || field[i].y == 0 || field[i].y == (HEIGHT-1))
		{
			field[i].sprite = '*'; // boundary
		}
		else
		{
			field[i].sprite = ' '; // empty space
		}
	}
}

void Print_Field()
{
	int i;
	int h;
	system("cls");
	printf("points: %d\n", points);
	for(i=0, h=1; i<AREA; i++) // prints gamefield
	{
		if(i == h*WIDTH)
		{
			printf("\n");
			
			h=h+1;
		}
		printf("%c", field[i].sprite);
		
	}
	
	
}

int Snake_Set()
{
	int game_loop = 1;
	int i;

	for(i=0;i<LENGTH;i++)
	{
		if(field[snake[i].x + snake[i].y*WIDTH].sprite == '*' ||field[snake[i].x + snake[i].y*WIDTH].sprite == 'X')
		{ 
			Beep(500,500);
			game_loop = 0;
		}
		else if(field[snake[i].x + snake[i].y*WIDTH].sprite == 'O')
		{
			points = points + 10;
			if(LENGTH < MAX_LENGTH-1)
			{
				LENGTH = LENGTH +1;
			}
			Fruit_Gen();
			Beep(500,30);
			Beep(400,100);
		}
		else
		{
			field[snake[i].x+ snake[i].y*WIDTH].sprite = '*';
		}
	}
 return game_loop;
}

void Snake_Input() // DONT FORGET TO SET THE DIRECTION TO AN INITIAL VALUE
{
	int i;
	int temp_input;
	

	for(i=0; i<1; i++)
	{
		if(kbhit() == 1)
		{
			temp_input = getch();

			if(temp_input == RIGHT || temp_input == LEFT || temp_input == UP ||temp_input == DOWN)
			{
				input = temp_input;
			}
		}
		else
		{
			Sleep(SPEED);
		}
	}
	for(i=0; i<LENGTH; i++) // copies snake into a temp snake array, and increase the positions
	{
		snake_temp[i].x = snake[i].x;
		snake_temp[i].y = snake[i].y;
	}
	
	for(i=0;i<LENGTH;i++)
	{
		snake[i+1].x = snake_temp[i].x;
		snake[i+1].y = snake_temp[i].y;
	}
	

	switch(input)
	{
	case RIGHT:
		snake[0].x = snake[0].x + 1;
		break;
	case LEFT:
		snake[0].x = snake[0].x - 1;
		break;
	case UP:
		snake[0].y = snake[0].y - 1;
		break;
	case DOWN:
		snake[0].y = snake[0].y + 1;
		break;
	}
}

void Snake_Init()
{
	int i;
	Fruit_Gen();
	points = 0;
	LENGTH = 1;
	for(i = 0; i<MAX_LENGTH;i++)
	{
		snake[i].x = WIDTH/2-i;
		snake[i].y = HEIGHT/2;
	}
}

void Fruit_Gen()
{
	int random_x;
	int random_y;
	int fruit_loop = 1;
	
	while(fruit_loop == 1)
	{
		random_x = rand()%(WIDTH/2+1);
		random_y = rand()%(HEIGHT/2+1);
		if(random_x != 0 && random_x != WIDTH && random_y != 0 && random_y != HEIGHT)
			{	
			fruit_loop = 0;
			fruit.x = random_x;
			fruit.y = random_y;
			}
	}
}

void Fruit_Set()
{
	field[fruit.x+ fruit.y*WIDTH].sprite = 'O';
}

Recognizable

Netherlands1552 Posts

December 05 2012 19:06 GMT

#4179

I had to search for what scope is but I guess I understand it a bit better now. Why is this important? Why doesn't the computer understand what you are doing when you aren't indenting?

def f(a,b):
    c = a + b
    c = g(c) + X
    d = c * c + a
    return d * b

Am I right in saying that this works because return is in the same scope as C,D and so it can do something with these variables. If return wasn't indented it wouldn't be able to do that because it wasn't in the same scope and therefore can't do anything with those variables?

CecilSunkure

United States2829 Posts

December 05 2012 19:10 GMT

#4180

On December 06 2012 04:06 Recognizable wrote:
I had to search for what scope is but I guess I understand it a bit better now. Why is this important? Why doesn't the computer understand what you are doing when you aren't indenting?

def f(a,b):
    c = a + b
    c = g(c) + X
    d = c * c + a
    return d * b

Yeah that's right. When you make something within a scope, things outside of that scope cannot access the variable. It's not about the computer "knowing what you are doing", the Python interpreter is just following rules the creator laid out. Scoping is a good thing.

If there was no scoping (or another way to say this is if there were only the global scope) then you could only have one name to one identifier. This gets annoying when you want to reuse an identifier.


for i in range( 0, 10 ):
  print( i )

for x in range( 0, 10 ):
  print( x )

You can see here I've already used two different identifiers, x and i. Luckily those two variables are within the scope of the for loops, otherwise I'd have to use a different variable name for each loop.

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