CPSC 503 Operating Systems

Summer 2015

Project 1 A game of Hex

Objectives:
1. Work with multiple processes
2. Become familiar with Inter-Process Communication
3. Gain experience with an industry standard OS
Due: Monday June 8, 2015. 11:59:59 PM (EST)
These will be individual projects. The main purpose of this programming assignment, i.e.
Project 1, is to become familiar with the programming of Inter-Process Communication.
For Project 1, you may choose any programming language, such as .NET, Visual C++,
Java, C, etc. However, keep in mind that the first programming assignment (Project 1)
includes Graphical User Interface. Therefore, the students are encouraged to choose the
programming language that supports GUI, and runs on Windows. Also, the other OS that
support GUI desktop, e.g. Gnome and KDE for Linux, are possible. Finally, your final
program should be compiled and run on GAs computer. To do that, you need to provide
all materials as well as source code, such as run time module, integrated development
environment (Visual Studio, .NET or C#), and any other program to run your program.
You are to implement a game of Hex. Your implementation should consist of three
processes. Each process must have a visible window as it runs. The main process is the
manager. It should start the other two (player) processes and manage the game. It is
responsible for evaluating the game and declaring a winner or a tie. The player processes
may be two copies of the same program. Use whatever mechanism you wish to
coordinate among the manager and the player processes. You must include enough
information in the displays of the player processes to convince the TA that the two
processes are making the moves.
Hex is a 2-player game. In this case the
two players are the child processes. You
will simulate a 6x6 hex board. Here is a
sample board.
The rules of Hex are deceptively simple:
The players take turns placing opposite
colored markers on empty hexagons on
the board. The players attempt to
connect opposite sides of the board with
a continuous line of pieces. (The line
does not have to be horizontal or diagonal it can twist and turn as it crosses the board.
The first player must connect the (more or less) vertical sides, and the second player must
connect the horizontal sides. The first player to connect his two sides of the board is the

winner. For more information, see http://vanshel.com/Hexy/ . You can get a lot of
information from internet about this game and sample programs.
You must show a game board on the manager process window so that the user can see the
status of the game. The board does not have to be this elaborate.
The manager process will tell one of the player processes to make a move. Once the
move is made and communicated back to the manager, the manager will update its
display, decide if there is a winner, and if not, will wait for the user to click a button on
the manager display before the next move is made. (Deciding if there is a winner may
end up being one of the more interesting challenges of this lab.) It will then ask the other
player to make a move. The player processes do not have to have a strategy - they can
just move at random. It will probably be more interesting if you try to make a players
next move somewhere close to its last move, although I believe it has been proved that
the game can never end in a draw.
If the parent process detects a winner, it should display a message in its window about the
outcome of the game and give the user an option to play again or terminate the game. If
the user elects to terminate the game then the parent should end the game in an orderly
way: i.e., the child processes should be stopped first and then the parent process can
terminate. Again, this should be done in such a manner that the TA could see that each
child (or both) has ended before the parent ends. If the user elects to play again then the
players will have to be able to reinitialize the game and to realize that they are being told
to do so. Three different types of game mode are possible: Computer vs. Human,
Computer vs. Computer, and Human vs. Human. You must provide Computer vs. Human
mode. The other two modes, i.e., Computer vs. Computer or Human vs. Human are
optional.
Note that the game itself is not the point of this lab. If you need to make assumptions, do
so. When in doubt, ask the professor or the GA.
Write-up
You should submit a write-up as well as your program. Your write-up should include any
known bugs, limitations, and assumptions in your program. This write-up should be in
text-format and titled as README. It should be submitted along with your code. GA
will use the README file to compile (or install) and run your program. If the GA has
trouble with your program then he will contact you to makeup it.
Submission
You will submit your program using Canvas Assignment
(https://bridgeport.instructure.com/login ). If you have any trouble to use Canvas, you can
contact GA or instructor.

You should zip your source files and write-up (README) into a single file and submit it.
Be sure that you include everything necessary to unzip this file on another machine and
compile and run it. This might include forms, modules, classes, configuration file, etc.
DO NOT include the executable file itself, we will recompile it. The name of your
submitted zip file should be your UB account_ID_Project1. For example,
jelee_000000_Project1.zip.
Make sure your name and UB ID are listed in both your write-up and source code. You
may resubmit your program at any time. However, please do not ask the GA to grade
your program and then resubmit it. The submission time of the latest submission will be
used for determining whether the assignment is on time or not. Late submissions will be
accepted at a penalty of 10 points per day. In other words, it may pay you to do this
project early on the off chance that something prohibits your submitting it in a timely
way. If your program is not working by the deadline, submit it anyway and review it
together with GA for partial credit. Do not take a zero on any lab just because the
program isnt working yet. If you have trouble getting started, ask the professor or the
GA.
Grading
15 Multiple processes started successfully
20 GUI interface for each process working as required
30 Successful process control and communication
10 Legal moves only
10 Play next game with same processes
10 Termination of processes before exit
05 Comments in code + Write-up
Bonus +3 for each optional game mode
To receive full credit for comments in the code you should have headers at the start of
every module, subroutine, or function explaining the inputs, outputs and function of the
module. You should have a comment on every data item explaining what it is about.
(Almost) every line of code should have a comment explaining what is going on. A
comment such as /* add 1 to counter */ will not be sufficient. The comment should
explain what is being counted.