[Java-sig] Where to go past "hello world"?

[joel lopez]

I'd like to suggest these assignments from a class I took.  They start off
easy and then get harder.
Only assignments 1 - 4 use java.  Assigment 4 is a version of minesweeper
called spam sweeper.

http://www.cs.hmc.edu/courses/2006/spring/cs60/assignments/hwindex.html

Joel


On 11/20/06, Emerson, Tom <Tom.Emerson at wbconsultant.com> wrote:
>
> Does anyone have a specific goal in mind?  Any particular problem you
> need solved where "Java" fits the bill as the language in which it
> should be implemented?
>
> If not, I'd like to suggest a (relatively) simple game (compared to
> top-of-the-line/state-of-the-art blockbusters out there ;) )
>
> The game I have in mind, or rather, the class of games, would be
> "Hamurabi".  For those not familiar with 101 basic games, the premise is
> simple: you're the ruler of the kingdom of Hamurabi; each year your
> administrative staff comes to you for advice -- how many acres of land
> to plant, how much to tax to levy, how much to spend on healthcare, and
> so on.  After retrieving your inputs, the game calculates "a cycle" (one
> year) and tells you how many people were born, died (of starvation
> and/or disease), immigrated/emigrated; how much (surplus) gain was
> stored vs. how much spoiled (or eaten by rats), or if demand exceeded
> supply.  Your "score" is the population and/or treasury balance.
>
> You'll notice I said "class of games" -- there are other very similar
> games out there: lemonade stand, coffee tycoon, (in fact, all the
> "tycoon" games to some extent) that all work off the same premise: you
> make decisions about raw materials (lemons, coffee, acres to plant), how
> much to charge (selling price, tax), and the game goes through some
> "magic calculation" to determine profit/loss (population,
> taxes/treasury).  For the Hamurabi game in particular, knowing the
> internal values (i.e. x bushels of grain supports y people, spoils at a
> rate of z%, etc.) allows you to back-calculate the optimum number to
> plant to feed your people, tax accordingly, and grow your
> income/treasury.  Of course, knowing these values in such great detail
> makes the game less enjoyable (there's no suspense to the outcome) so
> later versions and variations add more variables and/or randomness to
> the factors (or in the sim-whatever and whatever-tycoon games, forces
> you to make decisions "in real time") so that "as a human", you couldn't
> possibly calculate the "optimum" values for every setting or scenario.
>
> What makes this worthwhile as a study goal is that it doesn't have to
> have "fancy graphics", "3-d interface", and so on -- just a way to get
> inputs and a way to display the results (it is a console/terminal based
> program to begin with...)  And although the original was in "BASIC",
> being that it is a "simulation", it lends itself well to being done
> "with objects" (raw material object, storage object, etc.) without
> concern for what those objects are (lemons vs. coffee beans)
>
> Hmmm... I've gone on a little longer than I intended -- what I really
> wanted to know was: is there interest among the group as a whole to
> consider this, or should I make this my own personal goal?  (i.e., a
> "Hamurabi engine" in Java)
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