[Melbourne-pm] Timer::HiRes and alarms? (Was: AI Contest)

Nathan Bailey nathan.bailey at monash.edu
Thu Nov 4 20:20:21 PDT 2010


So the contest requires each turn to be submitted within one second. So
logically, one would endeavour to use Time::HiRes and an alarm to make sure
that you submit a turn no matter what happens, but I seem to have the syntax
for Timer::HiRes/alarm's wrong. I would expect that this:
   eval {
      local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { warn "Alarm initiated\n"; print "go\n"; };
      setitimer(ITIMER_REAL, 0.9);
      while(1) { ; }
   };
   if ($@) {
      warn "Alarm happened?";
      die $@;
   }
would:
 a) initiate an alarm event 900ms after the setitimer statement is run
 b) submit an end turn command ('go') to stdout/the server = successful turn
completion
 b) make the $@ block run when it does time out (as it will, with our
while(1))

So the above code should successfully submit empty turns every turn.

'Alarm initiated' does get printed, but 'go' doesn't seem to go to the
server. Am I using alarm wrong or is this a contest-specific issue?

thanks for your help :-)
Nathan

On 4 November 2010 19:19, Toby Corkindale <
toby.corkindale at strategicdata.com.au> wrote:

> On 03/11/10 14:56, Toby Corkindale wrote:
>
>> On 03/11/10 12:47, Toby Corkindale wrote:
>>
>>> Google is running an AI challenge - write bots to fight a (simple) game.
>>> http://ai-contest.com/
>>>
>>> It supports Perl! (Albeit, only version 5.8.8! aaargh! Why so many
>>> versions behind?)
>>>
>>> I thought some of you might be interested in giving it a go.. Maybe we
>>> could have a mini-scoreboard just for Melbourne Perlmongers?
>>>
>>> I've signed up as "wintrmute".
>>>
>>
>> Also, if you're having trouble finding the Perl starter package.. I've
>> combined a couple of the existing resources and put them into this Git
>> repo to make it easier for you to get started.
>>
>> https://github.com/TJC/planetwars
>>
>
> So far it's just Justin (tardisx) from the Adelaide Perlmongers and I
> (wintrmute) holding up the Aussie flag in the Perl rankings.. We're being
> overrun by Russians and Ukrainians though!
> Won't anyone else come in to help us?
>
> http://ai-contest.com/language_profile.php?lang=Perl
>
> Toby
> _______________________________________________
> Melbourne-pm mailing list
> Melbourne-pm at pm.org
> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/melbourne-pm
>
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