INSTRUCTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Last updated: 11 Oct 2011

OTHELLO.P
A Pop11 implementation of the strategy board game Othello

In this directory

Type:

    pop11

or, if necessary,

    poplog pop11

then

    load othello.p

Then just follow instructions.

NB: the option to play the game in "text only" mode has been
removed. You now have to play in graphical mode.

However, the code for text only display has been left.

BEYOND OTHELLO

This program could be the basis of several different programming
challenges.

1. Restore the option to play in text only mode.
2. Add some textual commentary to be printed out after each move,
   e.g. describing threats and opportunities.
3. Instead of giving the program so much competence, make it
   learn from experience, getting better by playing.
4. Extend it so that what it has learnt can be stored in a file,
   so that it does not have to be re-learnt each time.
5. Set the program to play itself repeatedly, continually using
   what was learnt before, and see how competent it can become
   as a result of such self-teaching.
6. Use the key ideas to implement a different game, e.g. Go-Moku
   or Connect-4.
   (There is a pop11 Connect-4 produced by another student, which
   will be made available later.

If you wish to keep records of moves the game can run in the editor
by typing this command in the poplog editor (Ved or XVed)

    load othello.p

Then with the cursor on that line
    ESC d

=====================================================================

My thanks to Neil Massey for permission to use this.
It was his MSc Programming project in 1999
(Cognitive Science Conversion MSc, University of Birmingham.)

This Pop11 Othello package is available from
    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/examples/pop-othello.zip

The game code files (and this file) can be browsed in

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/examples/othello/

For more about thinky programming, and teaching materials to support
it, see

    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/examples#thinky


Aaron Sloman
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs
Email: a.sloman@cs.bham.ac.uk
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