Really need help with this blackjack program I'm trying to make (I'm a nub ;_;)

[Dllsys32]

OK so i'm in Gr.10 and this is my first year of turing and we just got a huge assignment on making a blackjack program. I'm making the flowchart for it right now using the rules of blackjack with the doubledown and stuff but I am really having trouble starting it off.

Some stuff I need help with ;

how many variables will I need? (I'm guessing one for every card plus your current score, one for the dealer's cards and the dealer (when he is allowed to hit and so on), one for when you surrender, doubledown, stand or hit and some other's)
How do I get pictures into the program?
How will I use the randint statement?
How will I get a variable to be represented by a card on screen?

I have so many other questions but I just want to know if someone can help me with these few questions as random as they are. I'm not asking anyone to do my homework or something like that but I really need help.

[Tony]

You could always add more variables as needed, don't limit yourself to a set number.

Though it will probably make your life much easier to represent the cards involved as elements of an array. This way you can access cards as card[1], card[2], card[x]

For pictures you use the Pic. module

randint assigns a random value to a variable, although it's depressiated and the prefered method is

code:

value := Rand.Int(low,high)

If you know the value of the card, you can then load a picture by the same name and use that on screen.

Otherwise check out the Turing Walkthrough, Tutorials, and continue asking specific questions. You're doing well so far, welcome

[Dllsys32]

if answer = "yes" then
put "Let's Begin!"

elsif answer = "no" then
put "hope to play with you soon!"
end if

I read the if elsif and else tutorial over on the tutorial board and I thought that this would work (just started an already an error) and it says "Operands of comparison must be of the same type". What does that mean?

Also thank you for the help I'm going to check out the walkthrough and array tutorial now.

[ericfourfour]

That means answer is not a string.

One (rhetorical) question, how many times will you be in a situation that needs a "yes" or "no" answer, or a "true" or "false" answer? Many times obviously. Because of this I recommend making a function to deal with this situation. I'll get you started:

Turing:

fcn getChoice (trueChoice, falseChoice : string) : boolean     %(get input make sure it is valid)     result %(if the user entered the true choice make it return true, if the user entered the false choice make it return false) end fcn

When complete, you can use that function like this:

Turing:

f getChoice ("yes", "no") then put "Let's Begin!" else put "hope to play with you soon!" end if

[Clayton]

it means that answer is not the same type as your comparison, in this case, answer is not a string, like the comparison is.

[Dllsys32]

Thank you ericfourfour and freakman for your help on that problem.

Unfortunately ericfourfour I have no clue what "fcn" is I don't really have that great of a teacher, also we haven't learned arrays yet so I don't think I will use them.

Also I how do you get it to go to a new page (make the same one blank again only this time with 2 cards for you 2 for the computer one facing up other facing down and a put statement)?

[Dllsys32]

One last thing (sorry for the double post) if I wanted to use array how would I make it so it would be a random element?

[ericfourfour]

Blackjack can be made without arrays. It will just be overly difficult to do. I recommend looking up the arrays tutorial. Functions ("fcn" or "function") are also a very important concept and looking into them will greatly benefit you.

[Dllsys32]

Well I looked at the tutorials just in case you said that and was hoping you can answer that question (thank you in advance).

(How come you appear offline?)

[ericfourfour]

Dllsys32 @ Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:04 pm wrote:

One last thing (sorry for the double post) if I wanted to use array how would I make it so it would be a random element?

Do you mean you want to select a random element? If that is the case combine your knowledge of selecting an array's element and getting a random number.

[Piro24]

I'm in my first year of Turing as well and I was actually just thinking of making a blackJack game myself. I started but I found it way too hard (or I was lazy - or a mix).

What I thought of for my game was to make a 2d array which held all of the cards and you could choose from randomly.

Ex. 1 - 13 is value of card, 1-4 is suit...

code:

var cards : array 1 .. 13, 1 .. 4 of int var num, suit : int := 0 for i : 1 .. 13   %1 represents an 'available card'     for j : 1 .. 4         cards (i, j) := 1     end for end for randint (num, 1, 13) %randomly picks a card randint (suit, 1, 4) if cards (num, suit) = 1 then % if it's available then     cards (num, suit) := 0 %make it 'unavailable' to draw again end if

You should make the random card chooser and eliminator a function you can repeat. Since suit has no relavence in Blackjack, you could add another variable (to make things easier to understand) like 'cardValue'. It would be = to your randint (num). 1 being an ace...13 a king.

If you want to draw cards, I thought make you could make a case in a for loop

like

code:

for i : 1 .. 4     if suit = i then         case card of             label 1 :                 Pic.Draw ("Ace" + i + ".JPG")             label 2 :                 Pic.Draw ("Two" + i + ".JPG")             end if     end case end for

You would just have to name your pictures to like "Two3". Two representing the value, 3 representing the suit. Those are just really basic basic concepts I thought 'might' work...But again I'm new as hell to Turing or programming for that matter, so I doubt this holds much validity...But I gave it a shot.

[Clayton]

Turing:

var cards : array 1 .. 13, 1 .. 4 of int var num, suit : int := 0 for i : 1 .. 13   %1 represents an 'available card'     for j : 1 .. 4         cards (i, j) := 1     end for end for randint (num, 1, 13) %randomly picks a card randint (suit, 1, 4) if cards (num, suit) = 1 then % if it's available then     cards (num, suit) := 0 %make it 'unavailable' to draw again end if

your 2D array would be better suited to using booleans instead of integers (as you only have two options, available and unavailable)

Turing:

var cards : array 1 .. 13, 1 .. 4 of boolean for i : 1 .. 13     for j : 1 .. 4         cards (i, j) := true     end for end for cards (Rand.Int (1, 13), Rand.Int (1, 4)) := false %card has been picked randomly

or even better, you can make that a record of cards:

Turing:

var cards : array 1 .. 52 of     record :         value : int         suit : int         picked : boolean     end record for i : 1 .. 4     for j : 1 .. 13         cards(i * j).value := j         cards(i * j).suit := i         cards(i * j).picked := false     end for end for cards(Rand.Int(1, 52)).picked := true

[/syntax]

and work from there

[Dllsys32]

You guys are amazing thank you for your help! (I have more questions but I am going to school now)

[Piro24]

Just out of curiosity, what's the benefit of using boolean anyways?

[ericfourfour]

A boolean is a variable that is either true or false, 1 or 0. It only occupies 1 bit and is therefore more efficient to use. If you have ever used an if statement, you would have realized that it code only executes if the condition is true.

Try this:

Turing:

if true then     put "This will appear on the screen." end if if false then     put "Obviously, this will not appear on the screen." end if

Now apply that knowledge to boolean variables. Since they contain either true or false you can use them in if statements:

Turing:

var somethingChanged : boolean if somethingChanged then end if %Instead of: if somethingChanged = true then end if

Boolean variables also increase the readability of your code:

Turing:

fcn collision (object1, object2 : ObjectType) : boolean     result %collision conditions end collision if collision (object1, object2) then end if

As compared to integers, setting there value based on a condition is a lot easier and shorter as well:

Turing:

var oldSpeed, newSpeed : real var speedChanged : boolean ... speedChanged = oldSpeed not= newSpeed %As compared to: var oldSpeed, newSpeed : real var speedChanged : int ... if oldSpeed not= newSpeed then     speedChanged := 1 else     speedChanged := 0 end if

You can look into zylum's tutorial on Bitwise Operators for more information about how this works on a machine level.