#!/usr/bin/env perl use v5.24; use warnings; use experimental 'signatures'; no warnings 'experimental::signatures'; use List::Util 'none'; # our board will be represented with an array of 14 slots, from 0 to 13. # Positions 6 and 13 represent the "home pit" for the human and the # computer, respectively. use constant PLAYER_HOME => 6; use constant COMPUTER_HOME => 13; use constant FIRST => 0; use constant AGAIN => 1; exit main(@ARGV); sub main { $|++; # disable buffering on standard output, every print will be # done immediately welcome(); # startup message # this array will keep track of computer-side failures, defined as # "the computer did not win". Whenever the computer loses or draws, the # specific sequence of moves will be saved and then used to drive # the search for a (hopefully) optimal move. my $failures = []; while ('enjoying') { # a new game starts, let's reset the board to the initial condition my $board = [ (3) x 6, 0, (3) x 6, 0 ]; # this string will keep track of all moves performed my $moves = '/'; # the human player starts my $turn = 'player'; say "\n"; print_board($board); while (not is_game_over($board)) { my $move; # this will collect the move in this turn if ($turn eq 'player') { # "first" move for player # player_move(...) does the move selected by the player, # returning both the selected move as well as the pit id # where the last seed landed ($move, my $landing) = player_move($board); # if we landed on the Player's Home Pit we get another move $turn = $landing == PLAYER_HOME ? 'player-again' : 'computer'; } elsif ($turn eq 'player-again') { # "second" move for player # here we call player_move making it clear that it's the # second move, to get the right prompt eventually. We only # care for the $move as the result, so we ignore the other. ($move) = player_move($board, AGAIN); $turn = 'computer'; } else { # the computer_move(...) function analyzes the $board as well # as adapting the strategy based on past "failures" (i.e. # matches where the computer did not win). For this it's # important to pass the log of these failures, as well as the # full record of moves in this specific match. ($move, my $landing) = computer_move($board, $failures, $moves); print "\nMY MOVE IS ", $move - 6; # do the second move in the turn if conditions apply if ($landing == COMPUTER_HOME && ! is_game_over($board)) { # save the first move before doing the second one! $moves .= "$move/"; my ($move) = computer_move($board, $failures, $moves); print ',', $move - 6; } $turn = 'player'; } # append the last selected move by either party, to track this # specific match (useful for computer's AI and ML) $moves .= "$move/"; print_board($board); } # assess_victory() returns the difference between player's and # computer's seeds, so a negative value is a win for the computer. my $computer_won = assess_victory($board) < 0; # if this last match was a "failure" (read: not a win for the # computer), then record it for future memory. push $failures->@*, $moves unless $computer_won; } return 0; } # calculate the difference between the two home pits. Negative values mean # that the computer won, 0 is a draw, positive values is a player's win. # The difference is also returned back, in case of need. sub assess_victory ($board) { say "\nGAME OVER"; my $difference = $board->[PLAYER_HOME] - $board->[COMPUTER_HOME]; if ($difference < 0) { say 'I WIN BY ', -$difference, ' POINTS'; } else { say $difference ? "YOU WIN BY $difference POINTS" : 'DRAWN GAME'; } return $difference; } # move the seeds from $pit and take into account possible bonuses sub move_seeds ($board, $pit) { # get the seeds from the selected pit $pit my $seeds = $board->[$pit]; $board->[$pit] = 0; # $landing will be our "moving cursor" to place seeds around my $landing = $pit; while ($seeds > 0) { $landing = ($landing + 1) % 14; # 12 --> 13 -[wrap]-> 0 --> 1 --$seeds; ++$board->[$landing]; } # check for "stealing seeds" condition. This cannot happen in home pits if ($landing != PLAYER_HOME && $landing != COMPUTER_HOME && $board->[$landing] == 1 && $board->[12 - $landing] > 0) { my $home = $pit < 7 ? PLAYER_HOME : COMPUTER_HOME; $board->[$home] += 1 + $board->[12 - $landing]; $board->@[$landing, 12 - $landing] = (0, 0); } return ($pit, $landing); } sub get_player_move ($board, $prompt) { print "\n$prompt? "; while (defined(my $move = )) { chomp($move); # remove newline return $move - 1 if $move =~ m{\A[1-6]\z}mxs && $board->[$move - 1]; print 'ILLEGAL MOVE\nAGAIN? '; } die "goodbye\n"; } sub player_move ($board, $stage = FIRST) { my $prompt = $stage == FIRST ? 'YOUR MOVE' : 'AGAIN'; my $selected_move = get_player_move($board, $prompt); return move_seeds($board, $selected_move); } sub computer_move ($board, $failures, $moves) { # we will go through all possible moves for the computer and all # possible responses by the player, collecting the "best" move in terms # of reasonable outcome (assuming that each side wants to maximize their # outcome. $best_move will eventually contain the best move for the # computer, and $best_difference the best difference in scoring (as # seen from the computer). my ($best_move, $best_difference); for my $c_move (7 .. 12) { next unless $board->[$c_move]; # only consider pits with seeds inside # we work on a copy of the board to do all our trial-and-errors my $copy = [ $board->@* ]; move_seeds($copy, $c_move); # it's time to "think like a player" and see what's the "best" move # for the player in this situation. This heuristic is "not perfect" # but it seems OK anyway. my $best_player_score = 0; for my $p_move (0 .. 5) { next unless $copy->[$p_move]; # only pits with seeds inside my $landing = $copy->[$p_move] + $p_move; # the player's score for this move, calculated as additional seeds # placed in the player's pit. The original algorithm sets this to # 1 only if the $landing position is greater than 13, which can # be obtained by setting the ORIGINAL environment variable to a # "true" value (in Perl terms). Otherwise it is calculated # according to the real rules for the game. my $p_score = $ENV{ORIGINAL} ? $landing > 13 : ($landing + 1) % 14 > 6; # whatever, the landing position must be within the bounds $landing %= 14; # if the conditions apply, the player's move might win additional # seeds, which we have to to take into account. $p_score += $copy->[12 - $landing] if $copy->[$landing] == 0 && $landing != PLAYER_HOME && $landing != COMPUTER_HOME; # let's compare this move's score against the best collected # so far (as a response to a specific computer's move). $best_player_score = $p_score if $p_score > $best_player_score; } # the overall score for the player is the additional seeds we just # calculated into $best_player_score plus the seeds that were already # in the player's pit $best_player_score += $copy->[PLAYER_HOME]; # the best difference we can aim for with this computer's move must # assume that the player will try its best my $difference = $copy->[COMPUTER_HOME] - $best_player_score; # now it's time to check this computer's move against the history # of failed matches. $candidate_moves will be the "candidate" list # of moves if we accept this one. my $candidate_moves = $moves . $c_move . '/'; for my $failure ($failures->@*) { # index(.) returns 0 if and only if $candidate_moves appears at # the very beginning of $failure, i.e. it matches a previous # behaviour. next if index($failure, $candidate_moves) != 0; # same sequence of moves as before... assign a penalty $difference -= 2; } # update $best_move and $best_difference if they need to ($best_move, $best_difference) = ($c_move, $difference) if (! defined $best_move) || ($best_difference < $difference); } # apply the selected move and return return move_seeds($board, $best_move); } sub welcome { say ' ' x 34, 'AWARI'; say ' ' x 15, 'CREATIVE COMPUTING MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY'; } sub print_board ($board) { my $template = ' %2d %2d %2d %2d %2d %2d %2d %d %2d %2d %2d %2d %2d %2d '; printf $template, $board->@[12, 11, 10, 9, 8 , 7, 13, 6, 0 .. 5]; return; } sub is_game_over ($board) { # game over if the player's side is empty return 1 if none { $_ } $board->@[0 .. 5]; # game over if the computers' side is empty return 1 if none { $_ } $board->@[7 .. 12]; # not game over return 0; }