We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 June 2025
Tired of all those hand calculations? Of converting to canonical forms? Of calculating means and temperatures? Of wondering if you've goofed? Wanted to play with the overheating operator, but don't have any patience?
The Gamesman's Toolkit, written in C under UNIX, implements virtually all of the material in finite combinatorial game theory. It is invaluable in analyzing games, and in generating and testing hypotheses. Several of the results presented at the 1994 Combinatorial Games Workshop were discovered using this program.
The Gamesman's Toolkit is useful and fun. This paper is an overview of its features.
1. Overview
The Gamesman's Toolkit, written in C and running under UNIX, implements virtually all of the material in finite combinatorial game theory. The toolkit can be used in one of two ways: as a “games calculator”, by the gamesman who wishes to do standard algebraic manipulations on games; and as a programming toolkit, to analyze a particular game, for instance. A broad base of game-theoretic functions is provided, along with a parser and output routines. Either way, the program has proved to be a versatile and powerful tool for the student and the researcher.
2. Use As a Games Calculator
Table 1 shows a sample run of the Toolkit, and gives an idea of its functionality as a games calculator. Here is the input notation, in a nutshell:
• The caret, , represents ↑ ; the letter v is reserved for j ↓. Triple-up can be typed as either or 3.
• You can assign variables to games and later reuse them. For example, you can set g = 2|1 and later reuse g in another expression.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge-org.demo.remotlog.com is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
