home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The World of Computer Software
/
The World of Computer Software.iso
/
compugr.zip
/
COMPUPGR.DOC
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-08-20
|
3KB
|
63 lines
Yes, you have found the fabled "Computer Upgrade!" Soon, you will be
robbing class 9 ports for fighters and shields, tackling the arrogant
Federals for control, and being promoted to the highest ranks of Ferrengi
Leadership!
...yeah, right. Actually, this started as a bit of a joke. One user on the
fido tradewars echo was desribing a utility to find structures like
... - xxx - xxx - xxx - xxx
| |
xxx - xxx
No dead ends, of course, but a highly useful structure. He'd made the
assertion that he'd written the program, but no utility was forthcoming.
Later in the same sequence of posts was someone complaining about all the
junky "how do I get the computer upgrade" posts, and wished someone would
write an offline utility called The Computer Upgrade, so we could say "To
get the computer upgrade, just call (510)-376-1554, log in as GUEST,
password GUEST, phone 9999, and download from the Tradewars Utilities
directory." Well, they weren't quite that specific, but you get the general
idea.
It was my birthday yesterday, and so someone took me to lunch today. I
never should have had that second margarita... however, it was going to be a
couple of hours before I would be a useful human being, so...
The enclosed application isn't pretty: its a quick and dirty analysis. What
it does is find sectors that separate other sectors from access from 1 -- a
"cutpoint analysis" in the lingo of graph theory. It uses the regular
TWVIEW data files. There aren't any options. It prints out a series of
lines of the form
Sector xxx protects yyyy yyyy yyyy yyyy
which means that to get from sector 1 to any of the yyyy's, you have to pass
through sector xxx (except for transwarp, of course). So, put a beacon or
something in all the yyyy's, fortify xxx, and you have the start of an
empire.
This should redirect to a file nicely. If your database is called "fred.dat"
and you want to generate a report called "protect.txt" enter
compupgr fred.dat > protect.txt
and walk away; when you come back, the text file will have been created. Or
you can run it interactively, and just write down what looks interesting.
On my 386sx - 20, it takes around five minutes to do a complete run.
Enjoy. Questions and comments to woody@galileo.stmarys-ca.edu,
oob the rhox@5056.wwivnet, or snail to Woody Weaver, Dept Mathematical
Sciences, St. Mary's College, Moraga, CA 94575.
PACKING LIST:
compupgr.exe --- dos executable to find cutpoints
compupgr.pas --- calling source file (uses TWVIEW library)
subgraph.inc --- function that finds subgraph from fixed sector
compupgr.doc --- this file