Author: Gerd Isenberg
Date: 03:12:03 08/01/04
Go up one level in this thread
On August 01, 2004 at 01:07:10, Uri Blass wrote:
>My code until today used a lot of global varaibles and I decided based on advice
>of Dann Corbit to use a class for time management.
>
>I have a many varaibles in class for time management and
>I hesitate which parameters to give to the functions.
>
>I will give an example:
>
>I want to have a procedure to update the remaining number of moves to the time
>control in the beginning of every search(this varaible is used for other
>varaibles like the target time.
>
>The procedure is using the following varaibles:
>1)num_moves_1(number of moves in the first time control)
>2)num_moves_2(number of moves in the second time control)
>3)num_moves_3(number of moves in the third time control)
>4)hply(history ply of the game)
>
>I think to call the procedure not inside the class so it cannot get directly
>num_moves_1 or num_moves_2 or num_moves_3
>
>I can write seperate functions to return num_moves_1 inside the class and use
>these functions outside of the class but I am not sure if it is a good idea(no
>experience in C++).
>
>Another possibility is not to give the functions the parameters of
>num_moves_1,num_moves_2,num_moves_3 because their value is known inside the
>class so it is not needed.
>
>What do you suggest?
>
>Uri
Hi Uri,
yes, putting time control variables and services into a struct/class is a good
idea.
Basically you hide your n num_moves and n times_to_num_moves, which got
initialized at construction time or via some setters with appropriate
parameters.
I suggest not to keep track of elapsed time and history of the game inside this
class, but to have a memberfunction with hply and elapsed time parameter to get
the average and maximum thinking time (or some vector of suggested times for
different cases incapsulated in some other class) for the next move.
For most programs it is fine to have a single object for that, therefore you can
choose static class variables as well as static members (dynamic size is 0) -
and you don't need to construct such a singleton object as either a global, or
via new on the heap or as a local variable on the stack, it acts more like a
namespace:
// static class
class CTimeControl
{
enum {MAX_CONTROLS = 4};
enum MODES {BLITZ, TOURNAMENT1, ...};
protected:
static MODES m_Mode;
static int m_Num_moves[MAX_CONTROLS];
static int m_Times_to_num_moves, [MAX_CONTROLS];
...
public: // interface
static void setBlitz(...);
static int setTournament(int nControls,.. );
static MODES getMode(...);
...
static int getAverageTimeForNextMove(int nMovesPlays, Time ellapsed);
static int getMaxTimeForNextMove(int nMovesPlays, Time ellapsed);
...
};
// with explicit implementation and initialization of
// the static data members in some c++ file
int CTimeControl::m_Mode = CTimeControl::BLITZ;
int CTimeControl::m_Num_moves[MAX_CONTROLS] = {40,20,20,20};
int CTimeControl::m_Times_to_num_moves[MAX_CONTROLS]= {60*120,60*60,30*60,5*60};
A statefull game object (or a sub-object of it) keeps track of moves played and
time ellapsed. It is also responsible to control the associated search.
Of course there are many other solutions, but it may be a simple way to start
and to delegate the getTimeForMove to some central instance.
Gerd
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