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This is a Scala hobby project. It is an experiment in meta-programming - the programme will:

• create a piece of code out of building blocks
• compile this code
• evaluate the fitness of the code
• learn from the fitness when creating the more pieces of code

It will consist of:

• one RESTful micro-service that will generate a table of legal moves in a programming language according to whatever rules you give it
• one micro-service that will call the first micro-service to get a list of legal moves and then use AI to pick the next move. I want to experiment with algorithms such as Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO).

It doesn't yet have the RESTful routes as there is plenty of work to do in the back end first.

Development prerequisites

1. JDK 1.7.51 or 1.8 must be installed

2. Install SBT. The current documentation suggests:

   Mac: assuming homebrew is installed, brew install sbt

3. If you are using Java 7 then you should increase the 'permanent generation space' requirements for SBT. Note: PermGen is managed automatically in Java 8.

   Mac: Create the file ~/.sbtconfig with the following content:

   SBT_OPTS="-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled -XX:PermSize=256M -XX:MaxPermSize=2048M"
   

Web framework

I am using Play framework because:

• I am familiar with the framework from using it for projects for DWP Carer's Allowance and the DVLA.
• JSON writing and reading is done in what I find to be a very intuitive way (JSON macro inception).
• It offers the tools to create a rich front end.
• Although Spray has higher throughput it is very different to write the routes and I don't require throughput at the level.

Continuous Integration

I am using Travis CI as my build server because:

• It offers incredibly fast setup with a Github account.
• It is hosted in the cloud (unlike my previous Jenkins server that was running as a local instance).
• It automatically builds branches.
• It automatically builds forks!
• It is free.

Testing

I am using the ScalaTestPlus framework for writing tests. I am using this framework because it is well integrated into the Play framework and the memory usage scaled better than Specs2 for large number of tests (at least it did at the time I began the project!).

You can run the code coverage plugin from a terminal using sbt test.

To run all tests except those tagged as "ui" tests, run sbt "test-only -- -l ui"

Code coverage

When the Continuous Integration build runs, the tests will gather coverage statistics and post the results online to Coveralls.

Offline I run the sbt plugin for Scoverage. From the sbt console run 'clean coverage test' to make it run the tests and output statistics to html files.

Previously I was using Jacoco offline, but the problems are:

• It only records line-coverage. For example, when operating on lists we may chain several operations together on a single line. If our tests all exit in the first few operations and never reach the final operation then this will be recorded as a false positive.
• It gave many false-negatives when running on parts of the Play framework such as the reverse routing. This may be because it runs against the Java compiled code and is unaware of how to track the Scala.

You can run the code coverage plugin from a terminal using sbt clean coverage test. Note I add the clean to wipe the target directory where old reports are stored and add test because on another project I see problems with .scss stylesheets not being compiled by scoverage.

Abide

Abide is a simple framework for lint-like rule creation and verification. You can run this plugin from a terminal using sbt abide.

Version control

I am using Git with Github because:

• I am familiar with Github from using it on several projects.
• I prefer using Git for version control as it works well with TDD's short iterations of coding. Also Git is great for local commits when I am working from a train with no 4G signal.

Scott Walker

Hello! I'm a software developer based in London. I have a lot of experience working in Agile, TDD environments. I really enjoy functional programming and have put together this Scala application as a way to practice techniques.

A few of the big government projects (Carer's Allowance and DVLA) are in the process of being regularly open sourced.

LinkedIn

You can find out more about the other projects I've worked on through my

Stackoverflow