Arimaa Forum - Print Page


    
      
        Arimaa Forum
        (http://arimaa.com/arimaa/forum/cgi/YaBB.cgi)
      

        Arimaa >> Bot Development >> I want to program a bot
        
(Message started by: supersamu on May 17^th, 2012, 1:37pm)

Title: I want to program a bot
Post by supersamu on May 17^th, 2012, 1:37pm

Hello,

I play with the thought of programming my own bot. The one (and also very big) problem is, that i never learnt a programming language. I tried a long time ago, but i wasn´t persistent enough.
Do you think i have a chance to program a bot on my own within this year that can make legal moves (and maybe beat ArimaaScoreP1 8) ) ? Which programming language(s) should/could i use?
I will finish school in 3 weeks, so time is not a problem.

Thanks for your help

Title: Re: I want to program a bot
Post by browni3141 on May 17^th, 2012, 3:33pm

I found C++ syntax very easy and logical. In order to program a bot to make legal moves you will probably only need to know the basics of a language. I learned the basics of C++ in a month or so during school. Depending on your ability it could be faster or slower.
For some reason many people consider C/C++ difficult, so maybe Python would be better. To make legal moves pretty much all you need is to implement AEI and generate a full or partial move list (or even just one move). A very basic eval function to chose a move would be nice if you want your bot to do more than make random legal moves. Implementing a search would be a little bit more difficult, but if you can do it you should easily beat the weaker bots.
This is nothing too complex (mostly time consuming), so the language choice probably doesn't matter too much. If you chose C++ I'd be willing to help you with it if you want me too.
This site has a C++ tutorial and a forum where you can get help:
http://www.cplusplus.com
You will also need a compiler, and you will want an IDE.
Code::Blocks is a good IDE that you can download for free. When you google and go to their website make sure you chose the download that includes the compiler.
If you want to learn Python it's pretty easy to find resources for that also. Just don't try learning multiple languages at the same time. You will get confused ;).
C++ is probably better than Python for programming a bot, but there's no reason you couldn't do it.