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#  The Game Of Programming!  #
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This is a game that can be beaten by writing scripts in any programming language (that can read and write text files).

Video tutorial on how to get started is contained on the first page of the wiki: http://wiki.github.com/Malt/the-game-of-programming


OBJECTIVE

Mow all of the lawn with the fewest number of back-overs by writing a script that does it for you.
-back-overs are when the lawnmower (the orange square) goes over an already-cut piece of lawn
-back-overs are counted in the counter on the screen in the top-left of the game window.


HOW_TO_RUN

The Game Of Programming is written in Ruby-Processing (http://github.com/jashkenas/ruby-processing/tree/master), so you must first install both ruby, and ruby-processing in order to get it working.


HOW_TO_PLAY

The main interface of the game are the two files to_script.txt and to_game.txt.  to_script.txt is what your script should read in order to gain information about what is going on in the level, and to_game.txt is the text file that your script should write instructions to.

Instructions should be in the following form:
-each command should be alone, and on its own, new line.
-the instruction is read by the program when the file is saved.

example:
+----------+
|n         |
|w         | <-- each command is on its own line
|e         |
|w         | <-- file does not end with a newline character!
+----------+

Data from game (in to_script.txt) is in the following form:
-when the game starts up, data will be written to to_script.txt for your script to use when solving the problem. Start up the game and open to_script.txt in a text editor to see what kind of data you get to work with.
-when the game is ready to receive data after it has been given a command, it will write an acknowledgement to to_script.txt

example:
+----------+
|WWOOO     |
|WWWWO     |
|OWWOW     |
|WWWWW     |
|          |
|ack       |
+----------+

Now all you have to do is start up the game, then start up your script, and you're ready to go!

Good Luck!



RANDOM_QUIRKS_AND_THINGS_TO_BE_AWARE_OF

-The text box in the game will run ruby commands when you hit 'enter'. It has no real purpose other than being fun to play with. 
-