Milagro 1999 - Cows and Bulls

Software Predefined Design Contest:

We will choose a word of arbitrary length and you have to guess which word it is.You are allowed to create a temporary file in the directory that the program is executing titled TEMP.{whatever name you want}. This file can store whatever data you want to put into it. You do not have to delete it after the program finishes.In the first iteration you will be provided a number which indicates the length of the word. You will now write into the file OUTPUT.DAT your guess of the word. In subsequent iterations, you will be provided with 2 numbers which are

Number of Hits
Number of Misses

for the word that you had provided. The game ends when you correctly guess the word. Let's look at a sample run with an executable called LotOfBull and the word chosen as TRY:

\home\user1\LotOfBull 3
It creates TEMP.BULL,writes information and creates an OUTPUT.DAT with the guess "CAT". Note that only T is common between CAT and TRY, but T is in the wrong place therefore HITS = 0, MISS = 0.

\home\user1\LotOfBull 0 1
Now the program writes into OUTPUT.DAT the guess of "TIN". Note that T is both present in the chosen word and T is also in the right place, therefore HITS = 1, MISS = 0.

\home\user1\LotOfBull 1 0
The program writes into OUTPUT.DAT the guess of "TAR". R is present but in the wrong place therefore HITS = 1, MISS = 1

\home\user1\LotOfBull 1 1
The program assumes A is the MISS, writes "TIA" as a new guess.

\home\user1\LotOfBull 1 0
The program now writes "TRY" as the guess. The remaining cleaning up i.e. deletion of TEMP.????? and OUTPUT.DAT etc will be done by us.

We should be able to support whatever environment you want to work on and whatever platform you are best at. DOS, Win3.11, 98, NT, Linux or other Unix versions are most welcome. If you are working on an unusual language or platform, send us a mail, let's see what we can arrange! For more details or clarifications please contact us.