Chris Erlendson
cke2106
5 April 2012
Project 2: Isolation
COMS W4701 * Artificial Intelligence

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--- Development Information ---

-Programming Language: Java 
-Language Version: 1.6
-Development Environment: Eclipse

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--- Instructions to compile  ---

1. From the parent directory, make the default target to compile the program.
    ~/.../nbh2113_assignment3_isolation$ make
2. From the parent directory, make the play target to run the program.
    ~/.../nbh2113_assignment3_isolation$ make play
3. While running the program, type two integers in any format to enter a move.
    (1 3)
    (1, 3)
    1 3
    1 asdsd 3
4. Press Ctrl + c, enter (0 0), or any other invalid move  to exit the program.


1. Unzip all files from cke2106_Project3_Java.zip

2. Run "make"

3. Run "make play"

4. Enter the appropriate player symbol ('x' or 'o' without quotes)

5. If you are player x, enter the row and then the column afterwards to make a 
move. Example:

Enter row:
> 3
Enter col:
> 3

6. Otherwise, wait for the computer to make a move and continue from there

7. Play until someone wins!


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--- Program Descripton ---

	This program implements the Minimax search with alpha-beta pruning.
My "goodness" evaluation function searched how much empty space was immediately
surrounding the given player on a given board. The program was only able to
give return a move in the alloted time (one minute, in our case) if I limited
the depth limit to 6 moves. Otherwise, it would take over 2 minutes at a time.
I also limited the "breadth" of moves the program could investigate, or the 
reach; basically the computer could really only move at most 4 squares away;
this improved efficiency drastically when experimenting with depth limits.

Files:

Makefile
	- make 		# for compiling
	- make play	# for executing the game
	- clean		# for removing the generated .class files

Board.java
	- This implements the Board structure and all of the game functions.
	Most importantly it has BESTMOVE, which implements the Minimax and
	alpha-beta pruning algorithms

Pair.java
	- This implements the Pair class which is only used for returning
	the evaluation (or "score") of a Board and the Board itself in 
	BESTMOVE.

TimerBoard.java
	- this implements timer functionality for ensuring that the program
	does not take more than one minute to come to a decision during
	BESTMOVE.