nimgame

"""Play the Game of Nim, interactively or using the API

About

This package implements the game called Nim. The game can be played interactively in the CLI, or in a web browser. You can install this package and play the game. Easy::

pip install nimgame nimgame

You can actually TryIt_, before installing anything.

Those, who are more of the developer types, can use the API, after installing the package. The game can then be embedded in other applications and played from any other kind of a GUI.

For mathematicians/statisticians, it can also be used for creating statistics by running multiple games. If you know combinatorial game theory_ terms like sequential game, perfect information, impartial game, Sprague–Grundy theorem, this API can be useful for you.

Game Rules

For the general description of the Nim and similar games, see the Wikipedia page_.

The game is played with coins arranged in heaps. There may be any number of heaps and any number of coins in a heap.

Two palyers play the game. The computer can be a player. Players take turns. In each turn, a player takes coins from one (only 1) heap. There is no upper limit of taken coins (but the heap size). At least 1 coin must be taken.

There are 2 types of the game:

• the "normal" game is where the player, who takes the last coin, wins
• the "misère_" game is where the player, who has to take the last coin, loses

API Usage

First, the heaps are to be set up. The starting heaps then can be analysed and the starting player selected. If it is the Computer, it automatically does the 1\ :sup:st move. Then the Player is to do the next move, then the Computer moves, and so on. When no more coins left, the game ends.

.. code:: python

import nimgame
nim = nimgame.Nim(error_rate=10)  # Make the Computer do 10% errors
nim.setup_heaps()  # Create heaps randomly
nim.set_start(myturn=True)  # Indicate that the Player wants to start
nim.do_move(nim.Move('b', 4))  # From heap 'B', remove 4 coins
...
if nim.game_end():
    exit(0)

.. _TryIt: http://donno.yet.com .. _Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nim .. _misère: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mis%C3%A8re#Mis%C3%A8re_game .. _combinatorial game theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combinatorial_game_theory .. _sequential game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_game .. _perfect information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_information .. _impartial game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impartial_game .. _Sprague–Grundy theorem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprague%E2%80%93Grundy_theorem