Description
Abstract
Implement a simple 2D predator-prey simulation using derived classes and virtual functions.
Outcomes
After successfully completing this assignment, you should be able to:–
Design an abstract base class and several derived classes from the base class.
Design one or more virtual functions in the base class and provide concrete implementations
of them in the derived classes.
Enumerate the objects and invoke a method on each one.
Before Starting
Read Chapters 14 and 15 of Absolute C++, which introduce inheritance and polymorphism, respectively. This assignment is adapted from Programming Project 3 of Chapter 15. Depending upon
your approach to this assignment, you may also find the following useful:– §7.3 about vectors and
§17.3 about iterators.
Teams: You may optionally work in two-person teams. To register your team in Canvas,
please send an e-mail to cs2303-staff@cs.wpi.edu. Your team should make one joint
submission, and the names of both team members must be on each file.
Existing teams from Programming Assignment #5 will be carried over to this assignment. If you wish to dissolve or change teams, please send e-mail to the same address.
This Assignment
This program involves a simulation of a grid of n-by-n squares, some of which may be occupied by
organisms. There are two kinds of organisms — doodlebugs (the predators) and ants (the prey). Only one
organism may occupy a cell at a time. Time is simulated in steps. Each organism attempts to perform some action every step. No action may cause an organism to move off the edges of the grid.
Ants behave as follows:–
Move. For every step, each ant enumerates its adjacent cells — up, down, left, or right — and
randomly selects an unoccupied one that is on the grid. If all adjacent cells are occupied or
off the edges of the grid, the ant does not move but rather remains in its current location. 0F
1
Breed. If an ant survives for at least three time steps, at the end of the third time step (i.e., after moving) the ant gives birth to a new ant in an adjacent cell (i.e., up, down, left, or right). If
1 You will have to establish a systematic way of ordering the actions of the ants. Obviously, a previous ant could
move into the only possible space available to another ant, thereby preventing the second one from moving.
Project 6 (50 points)
CS-2303, System Programming
more than one empty cell is available, it chooses one at random. If no empty cell is available,
no birth occurs.1F
2 Once an offspring is produced, an ant cannot produce another offspring
until it has survived three additional steps.2F
3
Doodlebugs behave as follows:–
Move. For every time step, each doodlebug moves to an adjacent cell containing an ant and
eats that ant. If more than one adjacent cell contains an ant, one is chosen at random. The
ant that was eaten is removed from the grid. If no adjacent cell (i.e., up, down, left, or right)
contains an ant, the doodlebug moves according to the same rules as ants. Note that a doodlebug cannot eat another doodlebug.
Starvation. If a doodlebug has not eaten an ant within three time steps, at the end of the third
time step, it dies of starvation and is removed from the grid.
Breed. If a doodlebug survives for at least eight time steps, at the end of the eighth time step
it spawns off a new doodlebug in the same manner as an ant. If no adjacent cell is empty, no
breeding occurs. Once an offspring is produced, a doodlebug cannot produce another offspring until it has survived eight additional steps. Starvation takes precedence over breeding;
that is, a starving doodlebug cannot breed.
During each time step, the doodlebugs act before the ants. That is, a doodlebug may eat an ant that
was about to move and possibly to breed; as a result, that ant is dead and can no longer do either.
If an organism (i.e., an ant or a doodlebug) is eligible to breed but prevented from doing so by virtue
of no empty adjacent cells, it remains eligible to breed on the next step.
This Assignment
Write a program to implement this simulation and draw the world using the ordinary characters ‘o’
and ‘x’ representing ants and doodlebugs, respectively. Create an abstract class called Organism that
encapsulates basic data common to ants and doodlebugs. This class should have a virtual function
called move() that is defined in the derived classes Ant and Doodlebug. You will also need a representation of the grid itself, and each cell of the grid should contain the null pointer (if empty) or a
pointer to an Organism.
Program Arguments
The command line to run your program should resemble the following, where each of the arguments is an integer, and where any of the arguments (plus the following ones) may be defaulted:–
./PA6 gridSize #doodlebugs #ants #time_steps seed pause
1. gridSize — an integer representing the number of cells along one dimension of the grid (defaulting to 20)
2. #doodlebugs — an integer indicating the number of doodlebugs (default 5)
3. #ants — an integer indicating the number of ants (default 100)
4. #time_steps — the number of time steps to play (default 1000)
2 This would be highly unusual, because the cell from which the ant moved would now be vacant.
3 Obviously, if the ant cannot move, it also cannot breed, because there is no empty adjacent cell into which could be
occupied by the newly born ant.
5. seed — an integer indicating the seed for the random number generator, with zero meaning to
use the current time as the seed (default 1)
6. pause — an indication as to whether to pause. Blank or zero means do not pause. A nonnegative value n means pause and print the grid after each nth step. Wait for one character input
before continuing.
You may represent your grid in any way that you choose. For example, it may be two-dimension array similar to the ones we created for the Game of Life, or it may be an array of pointers to vectors,
or it may be some other two dimensional data structure that is easy to access by indexes in the x and
y directions. Each element of the grid should be an Organism * — i.e., a pointer to an object of
type Organism.
Before the start, the specified number of Ants and Doodlebugs should be placed on the board at
random locations.
Termination
The simulation should terminate after the number of steps specified on the command line or when
all of the ants or doodlebugs are gone. After termination, print to cout a summary of the simulation, including
the original command line as represented by argv,
the number of steps simulated,
the total number of ants during the course of the simulation and the number remaining,3F
4
the total number of doodlebugs in the course of the simulation and the number remaining, and
a picture of the final grid.
Deliverables
You should create this project as a “makefile project with existing code” in Eclipse CDT as described in Lab #2.4F
5 When you are ready to submit, clean the project and then Export it to a zip file,
also as described in Lab #2. The zip file should be named PA6_username or PA6_teamName,
where username is replaced by your WPI login identifier, and where teamName is the name of
the team as assigned in Canvas. The zip file should contain the following:–
All of the C++ files of your project, including your .cpp and .h files of your base and derived
classes, plus at least one .cpp file for your main() function and simulation control.
A makefile. The target name should be PA6. The makefile must be such that the graders
can use it to build your project outside of Eclipse.5F
6
The output of at least two different test cases.
You must also submit a document called README.txt, README.pdf, README.doc, or README.docx summarizing your program and its principal classes and methods, how to run it, and detailing any problems that you had. If you borrowed any part of the algorithm or any test case for this
assignment, be sure to cite your sources. Your README file should not be part of the zip file.
4 By “total number” in these two bullets, we mean the number of ants or doodlebugs at the start of the simulation
plus the number of successful births.
5 The easiest way to do this is to replace the Lab 2 files with your own and then edit the Lab 2 makefile to refer to
the names of the .c and .h files of this project.
6 This happens automatically if you create the project and export it exactly as specified in Lab 2. However, it is worth
checking to make sure.
Before submitting your assignment, execute make clean to get rid of extraneous files, including
Debug directories. Submit to Canvas under this assignment, which is named PA6 — Polymorphism. Programs submitted after 6:00 pm on due date (March 2, 2017) will be tagged as late. Since this is the
end of the term, no there can be no forgiveness for late assignments.
Grading
This assignment is worth fifty (50) points. Your program must compile without errors in order to receive any
credit.
The abstract organism class – 5 points:–
Correct definition of class and virtual methods – 5 points
The ant subclass – 9 points:–
Correct definition of subclass – 3 points
Correct implementation of move() function – 3 points
Correct implementation of breeding – 3 points
The doodlebug subclass – 12 points:–
Correct definition of subclass – 3 points
Correct implementation of move() function – 3 points
Correct implementation of breeding – 3 points
Correct implementation of eating – 3 points
Simulation framework – 15 points:–
Grid implementation – 5 points
Primary simulation loop invoking the move() methods of organisms – 5 points
Processing command line arguments and setting up initial configuration – 3
Satisfactory output of steps of the simulation – 2 points
Satisfactory README file explaining your class and your testing and showing the output of all
test cases – 5 points
Satisfactory execution of graders’ test cases – 4 points
Penalty of ten points if your project is not clean before creating the zip file or for submitting
your programs in something other than a zip file.
If the graders cannot build your program by executing make in a Linux command shell, your
grade will be zero. There will not be an opportunity to fix it before the end of the term.
It is therefore in your interest to be doubly sure that your program compiles correctly.
The best way to do this is to build and run it exactly as the graders will — i.e., download
the image as submitted to Canvas, unzip it to an empty directory outside your normal directory hierarchy, type the make command, and then run the program with a suitable
command line, preferably one that you reported in your README file.
