Software by Z0
I have studied basic Chinese language – speaking, reading, writing – and I have finally realized the complexity in writing. Personally, my fluency in Chinese would track proportionally with my written vocabulary. If I can write it, I could use it. So I thought writing demonstrates mastery of the language. I am aware of the […]
Basic wall elements are ready. In previous code, each wall tile was a separate object, meaning 144 identical objects. Apple guidelines suggest to keep UI objects to around 100, for good performance. Add in the actual tiles, text fields, infrastructure, etc. for each player, and I was up to about 300 objects. To top it […]
Most of the UI controls are settled. The actual tiles are custom vector graphics and will require some code tweaks to fit with the magical live resizing environment.
Eh, depends on how you’re counting, but I’m finally rewriting MJ the way a fine Mac app should be. You’ll have to trust me that there is so much behind the scenes just before the first MJ window appears. It is a fresh slate ready for the table elements. The app’s graphics will be much […]
In MJ, resizing the main window had a significant bug which left ugly graphics artifacts. The solution involved refactoring about 2k lines of code, but now the code is much better organized and should be slightly more efficient. However, clearing away the bugs meant that a design flaw has surfaced – MJ has too many […]
The latest MJ build (036) includes several bug fixes which seemed to occur only on older OS X systems. Also, Preferences are operational, along with the Tool Tips and Practice modes. Window resizing on older systems is still unreliable; I am investigating. In the archives list, I removed the older beta releases since they have […]
The latest MJ build (035) adds skill level 4, which represents the four main elements to a proficient gai wuh (雞和) player. The AI will race to win without worrying about defensive play. Unfortunately, the odds are against you since it is like three against one without any collusion. May good fortune and skill favor […]
Chinese culture says that the New Year is celebrated with chicken. The latest MJ build (034) adds another skill level where the AI is almost a “gai wuh” (chicken) player. On a minor note, I find interesting how, even at level 1, the AI is lucky enough to prevent you from winning thirteen consecutive hands, […]
The latest build of MJ (033) improves the AI – I use the term loosely as a shortcut meaning the computer’s algorithms, apologies to the AI community. The AI now understands another level of calculating a tile’s potential value. This feels much like teaching a child how to play and fun to watch the results.
MJ’s AI is now operational. Previous betas were minimally playable in that the AI knows how to claim with greedy strategy and would discard by selecting a random tile. With build 032, I have finally rewritten the Discard Skill Level 1, which understands that honor tiles are much harder to meld than suit tiles (3-7). […]
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