class Nim

• This class is designed to represent the "board" and "game state" for a game of Nim. The game board will be represented as an array of int, where each array index represents a pile of matches and the number stored at each index represents the number of matchsticks in that pile.

Instance variables

• int piles[]: an array that represent the piles of matchsticks
• int player: represents the current player (the player about to make a move). Valid values for player can be either 0 or 1.

Methods

• protected void populateEmptyBoard(int minMatches, int maxMatches)

  • Randomly generates a board
  • The minMatches parameter represents the minimum number of matches that can populate any given pile
  • The maxMatches parameter represents the maximum number of matches that can populate any given pile

• public boolean isValidMove(int whichPile, int numMatches):

  • Returns true if the move is valid (a correctly specified pile has at least as many matches as requested), and false otherwise.
  • whichPile specifies which pile to remove matches from (0-indexed)
  • numMatches specifies how many matches to move

• public void makeMove(int whichPile, int numMatches):

  • Removes the specified number of matches from the specified pile (without checking the legality)
  • whichPile The pile to remove matches from
  • numMatches How many matches to remove

• public boolean isGameOver():

  • Returns true if the game is over (i.e., no more matches in any piles).

• public String toString():

  • A string representation of the current game. The String contains the current player, as well as a row for each pile of matches. A pile is represented by a numeric index and a series of vertical bars, one per match.

Procedure

The game operates as follows.

• 1. Set up the game.
• 2. Choose the starting player.
• 3. Start the game.
  • a. Ask the current player `promptMovePile`
  • b. Ask the current player `promptMoveNum`
  • c. Determine if this is a `validMove`
  • d. If yes, update board
  • e. If no, go back to a.
  • f. Flip the player.
  • g. Are we `done`?
  • i. If no, go to a.
• 4. Flip the player again
• 5. Tell the current player that they won