-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [PLUG-Devel] Ann: PLUG Devel Meeting, Thursday, October 4th Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:08:40 -0700 From: Alan Dayley Reply-To: List for Linux development and software engineering discussions. To: List for Linux development and software engineering discussions. hat: PLUG Developer Meeting When: Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 7:00 PM Where: Adtron Corporation Adtron Corporation 4415 E. Cotton Center Blvd., Suite 100 Phoenix, AZ 85040 (Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=4415+E.+Cotton+Center+Blvd.+Phoenix+AZ+85040&ie=UTF8&ll=33.402803,-111.986496&spn=0.008473,0.015535&t=h&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1) The building in question is actually south east of the green arrow marker. It is the mostly square building directly south of the traffic circle in the road. Topic: Exploration of Robocode There are many ways to make learning how to program or leaning a programming language interesting. One of them is to make a participatory game out of it. And robots are cool, so why not use robots. And simulated robots take up less space in the classroom so use those! We will follow this rough agenda: - Demo a full rumble using sample robots - Demo a few selected sample robots in battle - Look at the code for the selected robots - Make our own robot from a sample or from scratch - Battle! For clarity's sake, note that I don't have too much experience with this program and environment. However, I figure we can dive in and learn together. Or someone attending can take over. In any case this will be a fully interactive session. Let's have some fun with it! Background: CRobots[1] appears to have been the first of this kind of game. It has a robot compiler that supports a C-like language for programming your robot. I have fond memories of running this one on the DOS machines in the computer store where I worked in high school (early 1980's). But, there is a better one for modern use. Robocode[2] was maybe developed by and was certainly supported at one time by IBM. It uses Java to program the robot. You create a Java class that defines the behavior of the robot. The arena runs in Java (of course) and is fully 2D and color graphics animated. Projectiles, explosions, movement of each robot and sound, if you want it. It makes for a more enjoyable spectator experience. More information and a tutorial are available[3]. Robocode is released under the Common Public License[4] Alan [1]http://crobots.deepthought.it/home.php - This is what I thought was the best of many CRobots pages. (Download link in footer of the page.) [2]http://robocode.sourceforge.net/ - No longer supported directly by IBM, the project continues. [3]http://robocoderepository.com/ [4]http://www.opensource.org/licenses/cpl1.0.php ------------- Wireless and wired Internet access are available. We have a candy machine and soda machines that will take your money for refreshment. You are welcome to bring your own food. No alcohol please. Alan