Lecture notes for the Introduction to Computer Science I by James Tam

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CPSC 231: Assignment 7 (Worth 5%)

Grading Scales

Ranges	Letter
23 - 24	A+
21 - 22	A
19 - 20	A-
17 - 18	B+
15 - 16	B
13 - 14	B-
11 - 12	C+
9   - 10	C
6   - 8	C-
3   - 5	D+
2	D
1	D-
0	F

Outline for designing your program

 

New concepts to be applied for this assignment

• Two dimensional arrays
• Problem solving with a larger and more challenging problem

 

Assignment description

You are write the code for the "Squirt the weed" game.  The game will model a garden in which weeds randomly sprout up and the player must 'squirt' a location before a weed grows there.  (That is, the player must predict where weeds may sprout up in the future).  The 'garden' will be implemented as a two dimensional character array.  Time passes in the game in the form of turns.  During each turn the game will display the state of the garden from the previous turn.  The player will be prompted for the row and column coordinates of the square that he or she wishes to squirt.  Each turn the player can only squirt one square.   In the full game there will be a maximum of 8 weeds under the soil that sprout up each turn.  At the start of the turn the weeds will retract (i.e., the square is cleared) and the program will randomly determine the new location for each weed to appear.  If the player correctly predicted where a weed sprouts, the weed has been 'squirted' and won't re-grow the next turn (the maximum number of weeds that sprout up the next turn will be reduced by one).   The game continues on a turn-by-turn basis until: 1) Fifty turns have elapsed 2) The player quits the game 3) The player has 'won' the game - he or she has successfully predicted where all the weeds will sprout (the player has squirted all eight weeds)

Grading

(Bare bones) basic assignment (worth 6 marks)

• Declares a two-dimensional character array to model the garden.
• The garden initializes the array to empty values.  There will be a single weed at (1,1) which is represented by the 'W' character.
• Displays an introduction with instructions about how the game works.
• Program runs until 50 turns have elapsed.
• Each turn the program will display the contents of the garden.  Each array element will bounded above, below, left and right by lines.  Rows and columns are numbered.  For this version of the game, the contents of the garden will not change from turn to turn.  The weed always appear in the same location, the other locations will always be empty.
• Displays a sign off exit message to indicate to the player that he or she has exited the game
• The program will always be in 'debug' mode.  When the program is in debug mode it will display the (row, column) coordinates of the weed's next location.  In this case the location of the weed is fixed (1,1).  In the versions of the game when the weed's location is randomly generated, the randomly generated row, column values should be displayed instead.  For the versions of the program that generate multiple weeds, the locations of all the weeds should be shown when debug mode is invoked.  (JT's note: implementing debug mode is mandatory because it provides a useful shortcut for checking if the features of your program are working e.g., playing the game from beginning to end in order determine if you've correctly implemented the win game feature is simply too time consuming for both you and your TA).

Extra features:

Once you complete all the features of the basic assignment you can complete the extra features for additional credit (make sure you backup your work first and don't touch the working back up, modify a copy instead!)   Unless there are technical considerations you can complete these extra features in whatever order or combination that you desire.  (For example: It's makes no sense to let the player win the game if he or she can't even select a square to squirt).

Submission requirements

In addition to having fulfill the generic assignment requirements, the requirements specific to this assignment include:

1. Include a README file in your submission:  For this assignment your README file must include your contact information: your name, university identification number and UNIX login name so that your marker knows whose assignment that he or she is marking.   For this assignment you should also list the features that you implemented.

2. Assignments (source code/'dot-p' file and the README file) must be electronically submitted.  In addition a paper print out of the source code and README must be handed into the assignment drop box (located on the second floor of the Math Sciences building) for the tutorial that you are registered in.  Electronically submitting the assignment allows your marker to run the code in order to quickly determine what features were implemented.  Providing a paper printout makes it easier for your marker to read and flip through your source code.  Unless you are told otherwise you are to email your source code and readme file to your TA and to me.  Make sure that include the following information in the subject line: "CPSC 231 Assignment X" where 'X' stands for the assignment number that you are submitting e.g., "CPSC 231 Assignment 3".

3. As a reminder, you are not allowed to work in groups for this class.   Copying the work of another student will be regarded as academic misconduct (cheating).  For additional details about what is and is not okay for this class please refer to the following link.

To help make sure that you haven't missed anything here is a checklist of items to be used in marking.  A sample executable 'weed' can be found in UNIX under the directory: /home/231/tamj/assignments/assignment7. 

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