• Sun's Java Homepage
• The Java Language Specification (Bathroom reading material!)
• Escape character reference (and related String/char info)
• Float/Double spec link, i.e. why doesn't 5.0/0 throw a divide by zero error?
• Helpful Java Tools (Ant, JUnit, and Clover)
• Jakarta Ant: automates building and running code tests.
• JUnit: popular framework for writing unit tests.
• Clover: shows code coverage.
• GlassFish: a web container designed to hose all of Java Enterprise Edition (JEE)
• JBoss: another option for doing what GlassFish does
• Link to the page Jayson showed with example reports (ProteomeCommons.org's Tranche Dev build)
• IO Examples (File IO Included)
• Buffered IO Examples
• TextTwist File Reading/Writing Code
• Playing with JDBC
• Download HSQLDB
• core.Database.java
• Specifications of Interest
• HTTP Specification
• Streaming API for XML (STaX)
• Simple API for XML (SAX)
• Tutorials
• Java XML/WebServices Tutorials

TextTwist Challenge (Link to Game)

Our first challenge will be to use the scrabble dictionary to efficiently play the TextTwist game offered by Yahoo! This challenge will have two parts: correctly unscrambling anagrams and efficiently unscramble thousands of words. Formal rules.

1. Correctly unscramble the following names to a single word: "Al Kaline", "Al Green", "Eric Clapton", "Liam Brady", "Lou Reed", "Tom Cruise"
2. Score at least 10k on TextTwist and send Jayson a screenshot.
3. Correctly unscramble the list of words Jayson provides in a file (will provide later in the week)
• Whitespace might be included with the words. Be sure to remove it.
• Capitalization might be used with the words. Be sure to handle it.

The fastest code to correctly unscramble the list of words that Jayson provides wins the challenge. Remember that you can use buffered file I/O, multiple threads, and the profiler to speed up your code.

Files you'll need

• Enable 2k Word List
• Dictionary.java: Loads words from a file and gives you an array of Strings.
• Main.java: template for the main code.

Wednesday TextTwist Challenge Scrambled Words

The scrambled words are in the file linked below. Each word is delimited by a comma and no new-line spaces are provided.

• scrambled-words.txt
• If you are interested, here is the code that was used to make the above.

Provide your results in a file that has one line for each scrambled word. On that line specify the scrambled word followed by a comma and any words that can be made from using all letters. If more than one word is possible, delimit possible words with a comma. For example:

folo,fool,loof
otps,opts,stop,pots

Rock-Paper-Scissors Challenge

Prepare yourself for an intense battle of wit. Not only are we learning Java, but we're practicing for the Rock-Paper-Scissors world championships. In this challenge you must create up to two players for a Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament.

Download the ZIP file below to get started.

• The Rock, Paper, Scissors Packages
• Tuesday's Players: RockPaperScissorsPlayers.jar (only .class files, no source!)
• Wednesday's Players: WednesdaysRockPaperScissors.jar (only .class files, no source!)

Make a sub-class of Player that plays our your ideal strategy for Rock-Paper-Scissors. Send in this player to Jayson, and he'll add it to the grand tournament that everyone is playing in.

Remember. Rock beats scissors. Paper beats rock. Scissors beats paper.

Tuesday's Rock-Paper-Scissors Player Standings

Regular player standings without including Jayson's learning player.

*** Statistics after playing 10000 tournaments ***
BadMoe: 4939 wins or 49.39%
RickPlayer: 1785 wins or 17.85%
FooPlayer: 1379 wins or 13.79%
RandomForTheWin: 1114 wins or 11.14%
PlayerThomas: 678 wins or 6.78%
BeatRepeaters: 72 wins or 0.72%
RockForTheWin: 21 wins or 0.21%
PaperForTheWin: 14 wins or 0.14%
ScissorsForTheWin: 7 wins or 0.07%

*** Tables of Wins/Loses/Ties versus a particular opponent ***
                   BadMoe             BeatRepeaters      FooPlayer          PaperForTheWin     PlayerThomas       RandomForTheWin    RickPlayer         RockForTheWin      ScissorsForTheWin  
BadMoe             0/0/0              2699/96/152        2797/1250/406      2004/0/0           3962/242/444       1549/1645/551      4534/806/472       2063/0/0           2027/0/0           
BeatRepeaters      96/2699/152        0/0/0              254/1556/242       1246/107/51        68/1771/268        768/800/252        95/2184/194        1198/86/49         1228/94/64         
FooPlayer          1250/2797/406      1556/254/242       0/0/0              1498/0/0           618/1592/514       1065/1125/371      872/1713/691       1517/0/0           1553/0/0           
PaperForTheWin     0/2004/0           107/1246/51        0/1498/0           0/0/0              0/1549/0           630/547/220        0/1748/0           1170/0/0           0/1250/0           
PlayerThomas       242/3962/444       1771/68/268        1592/618/514       1549/0/0           0/0/0              1149/1142/338      328/2471/593       1604/0/0           1558/0/0           
RandomForTheWin    1645/1549/551      800/768/252        1125/1065/371      547/630/220        1142/1149/338      0/0/0              1235/1260/433      581/600/209        663/583/204        
RickPlayer         806/4534/472       2184/95/194        1713/872/691       1748/0/0           2471/328/593       1260/1235/433      0/0/0              1704/0/0           1690/0/0           
RockForTheWin      0/2063/0           86/1198/49         0/1517/0           0/1170/0           0/1604/0           600/581/209        0/1704/0           0/0/0              1138/0/0           
ScissorsForTheWin  0/2027/0           94/1228/64         0/1553/0           1250/0/0           0/1558/0           583/663/204        0/1690/0           0/1138/0           0/0/0              

With Jayson's learning player. Ack, dynamic strategy is still dominating!

*** Statistics after playing 10000 tournaments ***
LearningRockPaperScissors: 7417 wins or 74.17%
RandomForTheWin: 1005 wins or 10.05%
BadMoe: 862 wins or 8.62%
RickPlayer: 310 wins or 3.1%
FooPlayer: 244 wins or 2.44%
PlayerThomas: 121 wins or 1.21%
BeatRepeaters: 31 wins or 0.31%
PaperForTheWin: 8 wins or 0.08%
ScissorsForTheWin: 8 wins or 0.08%
RockForTheWin: 4 wins or 0.04%

*** Tables of Wins/Loses/Ties versus a particular opponent ***
                           BadMoe                     BeatRepeaters              FooPlayer                  LearningRockPaperScissors  PaperForTheWin             PlayerThomas               RandomForTheWin            RickPlayer                 RockForTheWin              ScissorsForTheWin          
BadMoe                     0/0/0                      1878/79/95                 1638/577/255               261/6099/215               1453/0/0                   2188/106/331               1167/1143/410              2185/350/296               1430/0/0                   1431/0/0                   
BeatRepeaters              79/1878/95                 0/0/0                      207/1228/180               113/2474/103               1154/48/13                 70/1439/172                728/684/229                61/1596/142                1207/66/22                 1142/51/17                 
FooPlayer                  577/1638/255               1228/207/180               0/0/0                      29/4213/21                 1334/0/0                   453/1128/272               811/887/290                630/921/485                1284/0/0                   1311/0/0                   
LearningRockPaperScissors  6099/261/215               2474/113/103               4213/29/21                 0/0/0                      1669/0/0                   4124/9/2                   1604/1544/522              4678/141/111               1709/0/0                   1669/1/0                   
PaperForTheWin             0/1453/0                   48/1154/13                 0/1334/0                   0/1669/0                   0/0/0                      0/1350/0                   533/515/160                0/1349/0                   1159/0/0                   0/1092/0                   
PlayerThomas               106/2188/331               1439/70/172                1128/453/272               9/4124/2                   1350/0/0                   0/0/0                      905/870/278                252/1473/390               1220/0/0                   1270/0/0                   
RandomForTheWin            1143/1167/410              684/728/229                887/811/290                1544/1604/522              515/533/160                870/905/278                0/0/0                      960/941/311                532/553/193                616/505/196                
RickPlayer                 350/2185/296               1596/61/142                921/630/485                141/4678/111               1349/0/0                   1473/252/390               941/960/311                0/0/0                      1353/0/0                   1296/0/0                   
RockForTheWin              0/1430/0                   66/1207/22                 0/1284/0                   0/1709/0                   0/1159/0                   0/1220/0                   553/532/193                0/1353/0                   0/0/0                      1143/0/0                   
ScissorsForTheWin          0/1431/0                   51/1142/17                 0/1311/0                   1/1669/0                   1092/0/0                   0/1270/0                   505/616/196                0/1296/0                   0/1143/0                   0/0/0                      

Scrambling Code

This is the code that I used to scramble words. You don't need to run this code! It is only intended so that you can have an example of file input/output and so that you can see that I'm not using any fancy tricks.

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;

/**
 * This is the code that makes the random file with scrambled string values.
 */
public class MakeRandomList {
    
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        ArrayList chars = new ArrayList();
        
        // the output file
        FileWriter fw = new FileWriter("C:/scrambled-words.txt");
        
        
        // read all of the words
        InputStream is = Dictionary.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("WORD.LST");
        InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(is);
        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
        for (String s= br.readLine(); s != null; s = br.readLine()) {
            // randomly keep a word
            if (Math.random() < 0.3) continue;
            
            // sramble
            char[] ca = s.trim().toCharArray();
            for (char c : ca) {
                chars.add(c);
            }
            
            // optionally capitalize
            if (Math.random() > 0.5) {
                char c = chars.remove((int)(Math.random()*chars.size()));
                chars.add(Character.toUpperCase(c));
            }
            
            // optionally add some white space
            if (Math.random() > 0.8) {
                chars.add(' ');
            }
            
            // scramble
            Collections.shuffle(chars);
            
            // print out the word
            String output = "";
            for (char c : chars) {
                output += c;
            }
            fw.write(output+",");
            System.out.print(output+",");
            
            // clear/recycle the buffer
            chars.clear();
        }
        br.close();
        isr.close();
        is.close();
        
        // close the file writer
        fw.flush();
        fw.close();
    }
}