@yoonha
on
Virtual Shopping Interface
1h 6m 34s logged
Today I worked on making the website be able to have multiple products in one line. It took a long time to get the alignment perfectly, and to ensure the website doesn’t look awkward because some buttons are located at a higher place than other buttons and to ensure that the products are displayed with even gaps in between.
44m logged
I made the basic structure of the code (detecting whether it’s a valid input, calculating value in base-10 of the input, finding how much that is in the new base, etc.) and am now able to test-run the code. I’d need a lot of debugging work now…
This is a game where the user sees a list of numbers (1~9) and operators (+, -, *, and /) to assemble an equation that will equal the answer presented on the screen. What makes the game quite challenging is that numbers can be combined to make other numbers, so a 2 and a 4 can be used to create numbers like 24 and 42. There is therefore a lot of possible combinations, and that’s why I believe the game is a great challenge for mathematics lovers (like me!). I can envision a “duel” where two players compete to solve questions faster than others.
The challenging part was using the String from the user’s entered equation and using that to calculate the answers. This is because there were many cases where answers should not be accepted (for example not using all the numbers), and tracking a numerical answer is difficult when the original input is in Strings. I was able to calmly visualise how the code should handle them and successfully worked to implement the method. It was indeed challenging because the code used a lot more than a hundred lines, which is more than what I wrote in a lot of my previous works!
46m 3s logged
Today I finished working on implementing a difficulty system. It took a long time because I had to change standard arrays into ArrayLists and there were numerous IndexOutOfBounds issues. But while checking for errors I also caught an unrelated missing return statement that just so happened to never be reached while I was playtesting, so that’s nice. I am now planning to ship it soon!
@yoonha
on
Personal Website Project
I made a personal website for the first time! It was an enchanting experience for me because this is the first time I (formally) coded in a language other than Java. A great deal of the challenge was learning how to write in other languages (since coding customs and conventions are different in other languages) and knowing how to make a website publicly available (I’m still very new to Github, after all). Even though it looks simple for now, I plan to learn more coding and come back with a better and improved website! Thanks Stardance for motivating me :)
20m logged
Today I spent most of the time fixing errors. It’s now ready to be played and I will ship it shortly.
I have to admit, this game is very challenging. I plan to introduce a difficulty setting, in a later version.
@yoonha
on
Personal Website Project
1h 25m 56s logged
I continued working on the personal website project, adding sections, adding text, adding links, formatting text (bullet points, bold, italics, etc.), and so on. All I need to do right now is to deploy it.
Special thanks to the Rural Coders Society for the Code Without Borders event where I got to know more about Website Design languages
51m 38s logged
Today I started debugging the programme. The compilation errors were very easy to solve, especially with the densely-populated progress messages. It was eventually realised that this was an error due to wrong variables taking the place. However, I noticed a critical logic error when the code compiled, giving out incomprehensible answers. I suspected that this was a problem in calculating the answer because all the invalid answers were correctly flagged. I eventually noticed that this was because I didn’t reset the numbers whenever the operator was keyed in…
But even then I still have no idea why it’s producing nonsense. For some reason it thinks 568*9+2 = 9.0, even though I’m very sure my implementation is already correct. I feel like giving up because I can’t debug since AI is also spitting out nonsense right now.
36m 9s logged
Today I finished coding the answerVerify method. While coding the method, though, I thought of rounding the answer so the answer doesn’t fill the entire line and allow the user’s equation’s answer to be off by a small amount. What I didn’t notice before was that that meant my answers variable should be a double, not an int. I had to go and change a lot of parts where an int was used rather than a double, and that took a good amount of time. Now, I am able to run the code, but I’d need to fix these OutOfBoundsErrors (I’m not frustrated because I didn’t expect it, but I can’t identify where it is)… that will take time. I will use the “loading message” method I described before to locate the error, since these error messages are impossible to interpret (at least for me) unless you use AI. (image caption: OK, the error is between 2% and 3%)
22m 25s logged
Today, I finished the questionGenerator() method, and now I am on my way to make the answerVerify() method which checks if the answer the user entered is valid and correct. But even right now, this game is starting to have a lot of lines (it’s one of the most I wrote for a single project), and personally I find it hard to keep track of what it does. I feel that that would become a genuine struggle when I test the game in the future. There would be simply too many lines to correctly pinpoint the problem. It is night time right now, so I will find the error tomorrow. I plan to have loading messages printed to the console for every step to see where the code is experiencing a problem (e.g. “values generated!”, “equation assembled!”, etc.). This means the code compiled correctly up to the last loading message and that’s where the error might be.
56m logged
I completed the game introduction that loads when the user first loads the game, so they will know how to play it. The questionGenerator method is quite a challenge because I’d need to ensure there are the correct number of values. One too few, there might be an awkward plus on the end. One too many, it looks like a 1259 when it is supposed to be 12 and 59 (or even 1 and 259, for that matter). I had to pay special attention to ensure there are no off-by-one errors. In the future, I would need to work on a method that evaluates whether the user entered a valid formula. I feel that would be hard because converting Strings to operations will be difficult, but I’m thinking of a solution that scans each character of the answer and conduct operations accordingly.
30m logged
I implemented a difficulty setting, and adjusted what each difficulty setting does to make sure it’s still a challenge. I also added an error handling logic in case the user entered something other than a integer value when it comes to capturing the player’s reply to determine which column the player wants to put their card in.
I made a game using the Java programming language where the player competes against a bot named Intellisense. The game revolves around deploying a card one by one in columns, and at the end of the game, whichever side that has the greater sum of cards in a column wins the points assigned to that column. The side that has more points wins.
A good chunk of the work was dedicated to developing Intellisense’s logic, which revolves around assessing each column and using an internal rating system as to how good of a change would be created, should the card be deployed in the column. There were a lot of logical reasonings for why Intellisense should or should not deploy a card in a specific column, and I needed to consider the reasoning behind every decision and rating value. Adding lines of code to each reasoning and establishing a fair rating algorithm to make Intellisense truly intelligible was the main difficulty.
You can try the game by accessing the Programiz link I attached, or copy-and-paste the code on Github and load it on any Java compiler. Beware, Intellisense is quite smart!
30m logged
I implemented a difficulty setting, and adjusted what each difficulty setting does to make sure it’s still a challenge. I also added an error handling logic in case the user entered something other than a integer value when it comes to capturing the player’s reply to determine which column the player wants to put their card in.
36m logged
Today, I continued to develop Intellisense (the bot)’s logic, and polish the game a bit more. Intellisense asks herself, “What if I placed my card here?” and then assigns a score based on how a card placed in that column affects the result. She will then deploy the card on the column that has the highest score value. I also polished the game experience by making the explanation of the game better when it first loads, as well as detailed explanations as to which side (player or Intellisense) won. Personally, I find that Intellisense plays too well. She beat me in all three play-test sessions! I’m thinking of asking other people to play-test as well to see if it’s actually just me playing horribly. But that in turn inspired me to have a difficulty setting: an easy mode would mean the player has a slightly better deck of cards than Intellisense. However, I still have another problem that I need to solve: error handling. When the user enters something other than an integer, the game would crash. At the moment, I cannot precisely recall how to handle these kinds of errors, so I would need to do some research and ask my friends.
38m 20s logged
Today I worked on the code a lot more than before. This session, I focused on getting the bot to think (it used Math.random() as a temporary measure) using a before/after rating system. This means the bot would assess how much of a difference would a move at a certain column have on the game’s result. I also added a brief introduction at the start and completed in creating the game ending result announcement. I made the number of columns in the game customisable so the user can come up with their own custom rules (I haven’t tested it with different values yet, because I was busy completing the game logic). One challenge I have right now is that the bot constantly plays one specific move. I would need to improve its thinking process, because admittedly it is currently quite simple. Next session, I will take a look at whether the custom columns logic works without error as well as improving the bot’s thinking process!
38m logged
I thought of a game I wanted to develop for a long time and have started the process of making it into real life! For now I started working on the structure of the game, mainly on the initial set-up of the game and the turn logic. It’s still largely in-progress and later I will find out how to make the bot use mini-max to stay competent against the human player. Attached is a simple diagram explaining the game.
