I coded a test_strategy sub, that takes a guessing function (a strategy) and runs many games with it, on the easy dictionary. Here it is: 
sub test_strategy
{
    my $func_ref = $_[0];
    
    my $dict_file = "easy.txt";
    open(FH, $dict_file) or die "Can't open $dict_file: $!\n";
    my @words = <FH>;
    chomp(@words);

    my $n_runs = 200;

    my $verbose = 0;
    my $total_count = 0;

    for (my $i = 0; $i < $n_runs; ++$i)
    {
        my @dup_words = @words;
        my $count = 1;

        # Pick the word that should be guessed
        my $the_word = random_arr_elem(\@dup_words);

        print "The word: $the_word\n" if ($verbose);

        # Here the guessing starts
        #
        my $guess = &$func_ref(\@dup_words);

        while (1)
        {
            my $score = score($the_word, $guess);

            print "$guess $score\n" if ($verbose);

            last if ($score == $words_equal);

            my $ref = refine_words_array(\@dup_words, $guess, $score);
            @dup_words = @$ref;
                
            die if (scalar(@words) == 0);
            
            $guess = &$func_ref(\@dup_words);
            ++$count;
        }

        print "Guessed after $count tries\n" if ($verbose);

        $total_count += $count;

        print "$i " if ($i % 10 == 1);
    }

    my $av_count = $total_count / $n_runs;

    print "\nRun $n_runs games. Average guess count: $av_count\n";
}

[download]
When run like this: 
test_strategy(\&random_arr_elem);

[download]
On average, this strategy guesses a word after 7.8 tries.

This will serve as a framework for me to test more advanced heuristics, and see how they match against the simple random one.

In reply to Re: The Jotto word game by spurperl
in thread The Jotto word game by spurperl

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