Miscellaneous tips & tricks
Some warriors bootstrap their codes
by copying their functional ones to somewhere distant from their original ones.
Its general purposes are to arrange a better setup and to leave the original
codes as decoys.
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A core clear is basically a linear
bombing stone. Its size and function fit in many warriors as the routine that
completely clear the arena.
Typical core clear is:
mov 2, <1
jmp -1, -1or: spl 0, 0
mov 2, <-1
jmp -1, -1The presence of SPL 0 is to prevent the warrior
from self termination.
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Self-splitting or SPL 0 is
such a peculiar instruction that can be used as either a weapon or a protection.
As a weapon, SPL 0 is usually accompanied by JMP -1 and thrown together into
the core. These two instructions are very lethal against replicators
because they can hinder and eventually stall their progress.
Self-splitting can also be used to improve the warrior endurance. Consider
the following example:
MOV 3, 3
ADD #165, -1
JMP -2If any part of this code is hit, the program will terminate
immediately. Now compare it with the following: SPL 0
MOV 3, 3
ADD #165, -1
JMP -2After few cycles are running, this small module have
accumulated some processes in its loop. A hit to any of its parts will not stop
it from running. Furthermore, a single hit to either the first or the last
instruction will still let the program remain operational.
There is a notable difference between the following routines:
SPL 0 SPL 0
MOV 3, 3 MOV 3, 3 ADD #165, -1
ADD #165, -1 ADD #165, -1 MOV 3, 3
JMP -2 JMP -2 JMP -2
The difference is due to the way SPL works. For comparison:
- No self-splitting routine works as:
MOV, ADD, MOV, ADD, MOV, ADD, MOV,
ADD, MOV, ADD, MOV, ADD, ...
- Self-splitting routine 1 works as:
MOV, ADD, MOV, ADD, MOV,
MOV, ADD, MOV, ADD, MOV, ADD, MOV, ...
- Self-splitting routine 2 works as:
ADD, MOV, ADD, MOV, ADD,
ADD, MOV, ADD, MOV, ADD, MOV, ADD, ...
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Such kind of pattern is
typically shown in: (C * i) mod
coresize.
C is an integer number that is repetitively added
to or subtracted from another number. If C is one, then the formed pattern will
be similar to that of linear bombing or scanning.
i is the nth times
of addition or subtraction.
coresize is the size of the arena.
The measurement of good constant number C is generally characterized by how
swift the module employing C can fully break the arena down into smaller
fragments whose size is equal or less than N. N here is the expected
fragmentation size. The smaller the N, the slower the break down process. This
is understandable as the smaller the N, the more the fragmentation is needed.
There is also a lower limit in which a fragment cannot be broken into smaller
ones. Thus this limit number sets as the minimum fragment size and it depends on
the chosen constant number. Modulo is associated with this
limit number. A pattern of modulo 5 means that the arena cannot be broken into
fragments whose size is smaller than 5. For every five cells in a row, four of
them cannot be touched and left as gaps. Another term for modulo is the greatest
common divisor or gcd between the constant C and the coresize.
Below is the list of some constants that produce best pattern for any
given modulo in coresize 8000:
- 1 3039 3359
- 2 2234 3094
- 4 3044 3364
- 5 2365 3315
- 8 2376 2936
There are C source code
and DOS
executable file that compute best constant for any given modulo.
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This is a beauty in corewar
programming. A simple few lines of code can have more than one function or
behavior. Not all of them are readily apparent until the code undergoes
self-mutation or hits itself on its own purpose during its course. This is cheap
and highly effective. Twill,
for example is designed as a very capable stone that changes its behavior four
times during its full course.
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On-Line processes are several processes that run at the same line
everytime. They are very useful in many prototypes especially paper.
The formula to create N number of these processes:
- Subtract N by 1.
- Encode (N-1) into its equivalent binary value.
- Starting from left to right, replace every 1 with "SPL 1" and every 0 with
"MOV -1, 0".
Example:
For N = 10, its (N-1 or 9) equivalent binary
value is: 1001. The sequence is: SPL 1 ;1
MOV -1, 0 ;0
MOV -1, 0 ;0
SPL 1 ;1(back
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