Java Course Project Demo

SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

11712019 YU Tiancheng

What Are Used in This Project

The Java Development Kit (JDK) 8+

The Java Swing GUI Library

Project Structure

xyz.chengzi.halma: The parent package of the project

controller: Interact between views and models to handle
user input and update data structures
listener: Trigger when event (e.g. player clicks) happens
model: Hold data structures and handle game logics
view: Render the GUI interfaces and display on screen

Note: Despite of the naming, the project does NOT strictly follow the MVC design pattern for simplicity.

Intelligent Computer Players

Random moves?

Randomly choose a piece, and randomly move to one of the available square...

Alpha-beta search

Reference: https://github.com/aimacode/aima-java

Monte-Carlo tree search

......

Save / Load Games

Simplest Method

Implement the java.io.Serializableinterface in the model classes
When saving, dump the object to file using ObjectOutputStream
Upon loading, load the object from file using ObjectInputStream

More elegant ways

Store the data in yamlor json format
Or use databases like SQLite or MySQL

Online Multi-player

WebSocket is an easy way to communicate between client and server

It also works in browser!

Recommended framework:

https://javalin.io

How The Swing Works?

Multi-threading in Swing

After program started
Main Thread: Generated by JVM executing main() method
AWT-Windows: Listen to UI events from AWT windows
AWT-Shutdown: Handle termination of AWT windows
AWT-EventQueue-0: Event dispatching thread, manage event processing
DestroyJavaVM: Cleanup work for JVM after program exits

Why we need multi-threading?

Avoid user interface not responding when program is busy

Reference: Lecture 5 Multi-threaded Swing

Why Multi-threading in Swing?

Terrible UI programs:

No response after clicking buttons

Good UI programs:

User can perform other operations with background tasks running

What’s More? (Multi-threading)

When to opt for multi-threading?

Processing content which may require long waiting
Loading and decoding the saved game
Waiting for network in client or server
Calculating AI moves
Playing background music or sound effects

How to use multi-threading?

SwingWorker< T, V >
SwingUtilitiesalso provides helper functions
......