Cracker Barrel Program (triangle solitare)

Hi all. I have a project on making a Matlab program to solve this game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILKXEnX_YGM using only for loops and while loops and simple commands. Does anyone have any advice on how to start this? perhaps by setting up a matrix of one's, asking the user which peg is removed. that peg will then be zero. but where do i go from there? Thanks!

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/8626-how-do-i-get-help-on-homework-questions-on-matlab-answers

[Larry]

sorry, my intentions weren't to "cheat". i was simply looking for advice. Are there any sources that you would really recommend to construct a basic program like this? I find it very hard to translate my thoughts into programming. im not to fond of the textbook given to us in school.

[Image Analyst]

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/8026-best-way-s-to-master-matlab

[John D'Errico]

Note that nobody said you were intending to cheat. But if you want help, it helps if you show that you are making a start on your problem.

Really the best way to learn is to play around. Don't worry so much about a book. TRY THINGS. Get your hands dirty. Test your ideas out on the command line. See what works and what does not. You will learn quickly this way.

[Larry]

Well since the question was flagged due to the fact that it is my final project, I assume someone thinks I'm trying to cheat. This is the sole reason why I haven't posted what I have thus far. I don't want anyone to work off of my progress (greedy as that sounds). And thanks for the advice. I just feel like a book would help me see some examples that I could learn from.

[Image Analyst]

Try using GUIDE to set up an axes control using fill() to create the triangle, and rectangle() to create the colored spots/pegs/holes at know, specified locations. Then when a turn starts they click a starting location and an ending location - use ginput(2) for this. This will give you the x,y locations of where they clicked and you can compare that to a list of known hole locations. Have an array that keeps track of where the pegs are so you can determine if a specified move is allowable or not. If it's a legal move, move the peg by drawing a new circle with rectangle (be sure to save it's handles so you can delete the peg later when it's jumped), and delete the jumped one with delete. Then use rectangle() to put up solid circles where the pegs still remain. Somewhat challenging for a beginner, but you should be able to get it done in 2 or 3 hours I would think.