Dice

Please follow TDD when implementing this code.

Please note: this code requires no frontend, there is no html, no gui. Make sure you can visualise the classes and objects in your head.

Perfectly normal dice

You’ve all seen dice before. A die (singular for dice) usually has 6 sides. Sometimes a Die can have a different number of sides. Eg you can get an 8 sided die, or a 20 sided die. Dice can be rolled, if you roll a 6 sided die then you will get an integer result between 1 and 6 inclusive (1,2,3,4,5 or 6). If you roll an 8 sided die then you will get an integer result between 1 and 8 inclusive ((1,2,3,4,5,6,7 or 8)

A die has a value (eg if 1 dot is showing then the value is 1). When a die is rolled then it’s value randomly changes. A six sided die has a 1⁄6 chance of landing on any of the sides.

Create a class called Die. It should have an attribute named sides. sides has to be an integer that is greater than 1. Give your class a function called roll. Roll should update an attribute named value.

eg:

// JavaScript

let die6 = new Die(6)
die6.roll()

let die20 = new Die(20)
die20.roll()

console.log(die6.value) // this would print a number between 1 and 6 inclusive
console.log(die20.value) // this would print a number between 1 and 20 inclusive

# Python

die6 = Die(6)
die6.roll()

die20 = new Die(20)
die20.roll()

print(die6.value) // this would print a number between 1 and 6 inclusive
print(die20.value) // this would print a number between 1 and 20 inclusive

// Java
Die die6 = new Die(6)
die6.roll()

Die die20 = new Die(20)
die20.roll()

System.out.print(die6.value) // this would print a number between 1 and 6 inclusive
System.out.print(die20.value) // this would print a number between 1 and 20 inclusive

Weighted Dice

Please extend your program with the following functionality.

Sometimes when dice are manufactured or altered so they are less than perfectly fair. These are called weighted or loaded dice.

For example we might have a weighted 6 sided die with the following probabilities of hitting various values:

Value Chance of landing on value
1 1⁄7
2 1⁄7
3 1⁄7
4 1⁄7
5 1⁄7
6 2⁄7

If we roll this die 700 times then chances are we’ll get 200 6s, and 100 of each of the other values.

Extend the constructor of your class so that it has an optional parameter called probabilities. This would be an array of integers. The length of the array should be equal to the number of sides. If probabilities is left blank then the constructed Die instance should be fair.

// JavaScript

// looking at the data from the table above. this is how we would construct the weighted die

let dieDodgy6 = new Die(6,[1,1,1,1,1,2])

// we can create a perfectly fair die like this

let die6 = new Die(6,[1,1,1,1,1,1])

// this is equivalent to

let die6 = new Die(6)

# Python

# looking at the data from the table above. this is how we would construct the weighted die

dieDodgy6 = Die(6,[1,1,1,1,1,2])

# we can create a perfectly fair die like this

die6 = Die(6,[1,1,1,1,1,1])

# this is equivalent to

die6 = Die(6)

// Java

// looking at the data from the table above. this is how we would construct the weighted die

Die dieDodgy6 = new Die(6,new int[]{1,1,1,1,1,2})

// we can create a perfectly fair die like this

Die dieFair6 = new Die(6,new int[]{1,1,1,1,1,1})

// this is equivalent to

Die die6 = new Die(6);
  • If there are any negative numbers in the probabilities array then raise the error negative probabilities not allowed.
  • If the sum of the numbers in the probabilities array is less than 1 then raise the error probability sum must be greater than 0
  • If the values passed in are not integers then raise the error only integer values allowed

Create a function on your Die class called setProbabilities. This should take in an array and update the Die instance accordingly.

Add a function to your Die class called setProbabilities. This function should take in an array of integers.

Dice Factory

Dice are made in a factory. A factory can only make one kind of die. Eg there could be a factory that only makes 6 sided dice, and another factory that only makes 20 sided dice.

Create a DiceFactory class. It should have a method called makeDie(js) or make_die(python) that outputs a single fair die instance

eg:

// JavaScript

let factory20 = new DiceFactory(20)
let die20 = new factory20.makeDie()
let anotherDie20 = new factory20.makeDie()

# Python

factory20 = DiceFactory(20)
die20 = factory20.make_die()
anotherDie20 = factory20.make_die()

// Java

SuperClass die20 = DiceFactory.makeDie(20);
SuperClass anotherDie20 = DiceFactory.makeDie(20);

This is a very simplified version of the factory design pattern. Design patterns are cool you guys. Basically the idea behind this one is that some classes are hard to construct:

  • sometimes it’s hard to decide what to construct
  • sometimes the constructor has a lot of parameters
  • sometimes the constructor parameters themselves are complicated to construct

A factory can be initialised to know how to construct a specific thing. Interacting with factory should be very simple.

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