64 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
64 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
# SWARM challenge
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## The plan:
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* Reproduce the maps on the website
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* Create an assembler to generate bytecode. Add special instructions to define tweakable params and optional code blocks?
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* Create an antfarm: a high-performance program that can score ant programs inside those maps
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* Create a highly modular and customizable ant program
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* Create a program that makes small random changes to ant programs
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* BREED SUPERANTS
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Contents of this repo:
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* `/reference` contains reference materials describing and defining the challenge
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* `/maps` contains scripts to generate and view maps (nodejs)
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* `/asm` Assembles antssembly into my custom antbytecode
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* `/farm` This runs the **ALIEN ANT FARM**
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## Reference
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The reference folder contains
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* A sample ant program
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* The reference found on the website
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* A wget download of the relevant SPA
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## Maps
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As mentioned in the reference, there are 12 map generator functions.
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* chambers
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* bridge
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* gauntlet
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* islands
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* open
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* brush
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* prairie
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* field
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* pockets
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* fortress
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* maze
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* spiral
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When looking in the browser, the generated maps have names like 'chambers-3lc8x4' or 'bridge-1u7xlw' where the string after the dash is the seed used, encoded in base36.
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* `nodejs maps.js generate -n 120 -o mymaps.maps` generates 120 maps and stores them in mymaps.maps
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* `nodejs maps.js view bridge-1u7xlw` renders the indicated map to ascii
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## Asm
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The assembler is not copied from the challenge, but a new implementation.
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It has a couple of deviations from the spec:
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* Literals can only be 0-255, non negative. This is done to simplify the bytecode somewhat. I do not believe i will need literals outside this range (famous last words). This is only the literals in the assembly. The actual registers are full 32bit.
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* Constants, tags and aliases all end up in the same pool, and are case insensitive
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* JMP main is always prepended to every program
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The bytecode is quite simple. Every instruction is 4 bytes. The first byte is the instruction number, the other 3 are single-byte arguments.
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Jump instructions are a special case. They need to specify a target instruction offset, and the conditional jumps also take two normal arguments. This does not fit into 4 bytes. To accommodate this, our cpu introduces a 9th register called JR and 2 'hidden instructions' called SJR and MJR. Any jump instruction is assembled into 2 bytecode instructions: first SJR or MJR and then the original instruction. SJR (Set JR) uses all 3 argument bytes as a single unsigned little endian int to describe the offset. MJR (Move JR) copies the value from a register into JR. The jump instructions simply use JR as the destination address
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## FARM
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Some would say this is where the magic happens.
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This is a program that reads the maps file (generated by the maps script), and an apm file (ant program, generated by the assembler) and starts breeding ants!
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