I’ve said it before, but I think i got it… I was frustrated that i kept winning against the computer if the computer played first. Like it was worse when it had the better position. I finally found my mistake in the loop.
In the first iteration, it didn’t test the board for an end-of-game, it placed a ‘temporary’ piece in each box and then tested for end-of-game. This worked fine for 1, 2, or 3 open boxes, but more than that, it started returning off limb boxes. So if there were 4 boxes open, it would place a piece in the first box, then check for wins, then ask for the max if it was currently player 2 or the min if it was player 1. This made sense in the flow, but from the perspective of the temporary board, it was now player 2’s turn, so i needed to be looking for mins not maxes. This is hard to explain, but i kept messing it up as i was drawing it out and then finally saw it.
Anyway, i spent a lot of the day starting my algorithm over again but with better tests. While it feels like a wasted day because I ended up with the exact same algorithm, i trust my tests a lot more now–they are a lot more organized, and i think they are working.
I’m finishing this thing tomorrow. Everything works. It’s done. It still needs clean up… And i messed some stuff up while cleaning it up this weekend, so I have to fix it now too.
Rex:
Picture this image: There’s 2 & a half year old holding both his arms in a “Y” shape over his head, grinning ear-to-ear, and gazing upward while spinning around & around in a relatively dense white cloud, crying “Ny-dra-gen! It’s Ny-dra-gen!”. Music to a ChemE’s ears for sure…
Every weekend, Rex & I go on a date to get “soup and ice cream”–sometimes Leo comes too. Rex gets excited for this event and even asked for “soup & ice cream” mid week last week.
The soup is ramen from a restaurant called Jinya–it is amazing! The ice cream that we get is by a place called Creamistry. Their ice cream is actually high quality, and so I’ve forgiven this misleading name–there is no actual chemistry involved in their gimmick, which is to use liquid N2 (an inert molecule) to simply achieve a phase change of the cream from liquid to solid. Anyway…
Each week, as the N2 is opened and allowed to pour out of the tap, I wonder if the employees are knowledgeable about the hazards of N2, but only until a cloud spills over the bowl and finally over the counter where it is within reach for a curious 2.5 year old. Next week, I will try to get a video of this.
Leo:
Leo is in a phase of his own right now. Definitely in a developmental leap at the moment. He is only happy if I am holding him and sometimes for the span of two to three minutes of play time on the floor with Rex–provided I am within view and don’t leave. The moment I walk away, cry!! Then he tries to find me, and when he does, he now ‘run-crawls’ where his limbs can’t quite crawl as fast as he wants to go, and so he tumbles over. The poor baby; he’s in a delicate stage right now and I’m not always as patient with him as I should be–sometimes I just want to have two arms to put away the dishes or use a knife to make him a snack.