RoboJogger

A user interface for RoboRunner currently being developed by Skotty. Once the user interface is complete, this page will provide details on it; until then, this page will provide information on development progress.

Version 0.9.3 for non-Macs: RoboJogger 0.9.3

Version 0.9.3 for Macs: RoboJogger 0.9.3 for Mac

These early release versions may still have issues but are available for review to anyone who is interested. If you do try it, feedback is welcomed. Should interest in this exist and grow, I'll look into hosting it from someplace more official; for now, it's just a ZIP of jars and files hosted off my personal website.

Version Support

RoboJogger 0.9.x

• RoboRunner -- Packaged with custom RoboRunner 1.2.3.1. Will mostly work with RoboRunner 1.2.3 but requires some jar modifications.
• Robocode -- Known to work with Robocode 1.7.3.x. Not yet tested on other versions, but likely works with many versions up to current.
• Java -- Requires version 1.6+ for most platforms. On Mac, with the current build, RoboJogger may not work with any Java version other than the latest 1.6. With 1.7, my understanding is that Apple turned Java over to Oracle, and I am unsure whether or not the Apple Java Extensions used in RoboJogger will function properly, or if they will need to be removed for 1.7+.

Development Progress

The RoboJogger UI is being built using Skotty's existing Swing codebase as a starting point. This means some of the background code may not be entirely clean or relevant, but it will speed development considerably.

At present, there is no licensing restrictions on any of the code, as it is all written entirely by Skotty and Skotty generally doesn't bother with licenses for his own code. However, some kind of open source license may be applied to RoboJogger before it is released, provided there is any desire for such.

An initial trial version is complete -- version 0.9.x -- but it's features are reduced until an updated RoboRunner is released that provides a way to get on-the-fly battle results. Until then, version 0.9.x uses a very slightly modified version of RoboRunner 1.2.3, where the only change is to allow RoboRunner to be interrupted mid-challenge.

The app is initially set up for using Robocode 1.7.3.0. If you switch Robocode versions when running Setup, you will have to manually copy the correct robocode.jar file into the robocode_jars folder that RoboJogger uses (you will be prompted about this in the program when you run Setup). Part of the issue is that the setup function is part of the application rather than a separate script as in RoboRunner, and I therefore cannot specify a classpath via the command line like RoboRunner itself does. Instead, RoboJogger uses robocode jars from a folder named robocode_jars. When setting up with a new version, most of the jars are automatically copied into this folder, but the robocode.jar file cannot be. When RoboJogger is running, robocode.jar is in use and cannot be automatically replaced. Thus the required manual copy.

One potential major problem right now has to do with reading and writing the score log files. They are not properly synchronized at the moment, so if you don't want to risk messing up a score log, it's best to avoid interrupting RoboRunner by clicking the Stop button or opening result summary windows while RoboRunner is still running. It's not a big deal -- I do these things frequently and haven't chanced on a messed up log file yet -- but just be aware it could happen.

As touched on earlier, until a new version of RoboRunner is released, there are no on-the-fly results. To see the latest results, you have to close any open results summary windows and reopen them, such that they pull the latest data from the RoboRunner score log files. Likewise, the status information for RoboRunner at the bottom of the main RoboJogger window currently does nothing. Also, RoboJogger calculates confidence values itself. Confidence values for individual robots will match what RoboRunner calculates, but confidence values for challenge groups and overall total will not be the same. The method RoboJogger uses is not the same as what RoboRunner uses. This will also hopefully be fixed after an update to both RoboRunner and RoboJogger.

A quick explanation of what some of the jars in RoboJogger are:

• robojogger.jar -- the main RoboJogger classes
• core.jar -- generic set of Swing classes RoboJogger relies on; this could be trimmed down to only what is needed when 1.0 comes out
• zenput.jar -- input validation classes that RoboJogger uses
• applestub.jar -- stub classes that match the signature of the Apple Java Extensions classes used on Macs; this jar is included on the non-Mac version to prevent class not found exceptions.
• roborunner-1.2.3.1.jar -- slightly modified version of RoboRunner 1.2.3 used by RoboJogger
• swing-worker-1.2jar -- a version of the SwingWorker class for Java but from JDesktop and without some of Java version's bugs.
• guava-12.0.1.jar -- used by RoboRunner 1.2.3
• log4j-1.2.11.jar -- logging engine used by RoboJogger

Next progress update will be on or around 12/31/2012.

RoboJogger Version Notes

Version 0.9.3

• Fixed bug where battle scores were not filtered to ensure only battle scores with the same number of rounds as the challenge were used.
• Fixed bug where challenge run completion percentage did not change to 100% after challenge run was completed.
• Score type values AVERAGE_BULLET_DAMAGE and AVERAGE_ENERGY_CONSERVED are now recognized.
• Scores for all scoring types should now be correct (hopefully).
• Added option to create Wiki formatted text to the result summary window popup menu.
• Added preference for Author name used with Wiki formatted text.
• Reduced distribution size further by eliminating duplicate jars.

Version 0.9.2

• Added ability to show custom Descriptions for Challenge Runs.
• Added ability to edit Challenge Runs (though Robot and Challenge cannot be changed)
• Columns in the Challenge Run table on the main window can now be toggled on and off using a popup menu on the table header.
• Column sizes, order, and visibility in the Challenge Run table is now saved on exit and restored on startup.
• Fixed bug where Robot would fail to load if the Robot jar file contained multiple .properties files.

Known/Possible Issues

• There is still the possibility of one or more threads misbehaving. I will be looking into this closely in the next couple of weeks.

Version 0.9.1

• Added new window for setting preferred Look and Feel. If no preference is set, the system Look and Feel is used.
• Fixed bug where some functions were not properly re-enabled after RoboRunner finished processing all challenges.
• Fixed bug where RoboRunner threads would remain active and continue to consume CPU after stopping RoboRunner.
• Only prompt user about replacing robocode.jar on setup if robocode.jar changes (rather than prompting for every version change).
• Reduced the packaged copy of Robocode to the bare minimum to reduce distribution size.

Version 0.9

• Some features are not fully functional until a later update to RoboRunner is available. This includes:
  • On the fly battle results not yet available. Also, the RoboRunner progress and status area on the main window are not functional.
  • Completion percentages for challenge runs currently only update on program launch or when RoboRunner fully completes a challenge run.
  • Confidence values for groups and overall total will not match between RoboJogger and RoboRunner.
  • It may be possible for a score log to become corrupted under certain scenarios. While unlikley, if you wish to avoid this possibility, do not open challenge results windows while RoboRunner is running, and do not stop RoboRunner in the middle of a challenge.
  • Yes, I know the About menu icon is ridiculous. Sometimes I like ridiculous things. But I will replace it with something nicer for the finished 1.0 release.
• All errors and a few information messages are logged to the file robojogger.log.
• On first run (or any time the robocodes folder is empty), the RoboRunner setup window will appear automatically on launch. However, you can run setup anytime by lauching it through the Tools menu.
• Robocode version 1.7.3.0 is currently packaged with RoboJogger, and that version serves as the default when you run RoboRunner setup.
• If you change the version of Robocode when running RoboRunner Setup, you will have to manually copy the robocode.jar file from the new version of Robocode into the robocode_jars folder. You will be prompted about this by the program.
• All robots must be in the bots directory. When adding a new challenge, robots listed as part of the challenge must be in the bots directory, but the robot selected to participate in the challenge will be automatically copied into the bots directory if it is not already there.
• Development robots are not currently supported.
• Popup menus exist for the challenge run table on the main window and for the challenge result windows that show the score summary. This is particularly important to know for the challenge result windows, as at the moment the popup menu is the only way to access the challenge result detail window that shows results for every season.
• When RoboRunner is running, incomplete challenges will be processed from the top of the challenge run table to the bottom, until RoboRunner is stopped or no incomplete challenges remain.
• Currently distributed as a simple ZIP archive, but later can provide installer for Windows and .app for Mac if desired.

Sneak Peek

A sneak peek of the main RoboJogger UI window. Pretty basic at the moment, and it could see drastic changes depending on further development and feedback. (My skills are more in the area of bringing a design to life rather than coming up with the good design in first place). Ultimately, it will probably end up looking a lot like RoboResearch, as it is trying to accomplish basically the same thing. The table of challenges acts like a priority queue, with RoboRunner running whatever challenge is at (or nearest) the top that has not already been run. All functions for now are controlled by menu items or buttons, but before it's done, there will also be popup menus and at least some drag/drop ability. There are other dialog windows for basic options, adding new challenges, running setup, challenge results, and a few other things.

(Changed on 12/11/2012 -- button locations changed to be more like RoboResearch, which I think is better; added status message and progress bar for RoboRunner status at the bottom, though progress bar will not function until the next RoboRunner update is finished.)

Dialog for running RoboRunner setup. Currently accessed via menu: Tools -> Run Setup.

Dialog for adding a new challenge (smart battles and force wiki output options not yet present). Currently accessed via menu: File -> New Challenge. Not sure if there will be a button for this anywhere, but it will be added to a popup menu for the main window, in addition to being avaiable via the File menu.

Dialog (non-modal) showing summary of battle results. I welcome feedback on this. At present, it uses the top row to show scores, the second row to show confidence in the scores (although the dialog in the screenshot doesn't show data for this row yet), and I was also thinking of adding a third row showing battles run per opponent, which would be of interest on an opponent by opponent basis due to how RoboRunner smart battles works. Center data area is separate and scrollable to better handle huge challenges (suggested by Voidious).