00100	CS206    Computing with Symbolic Expressions      Fall 1973
00200	
00300	Sequence Solitaire
00400	
00500	
00600		A  form  of solitaire called "sequence solitaire" will be the
00700	subject of several programming assignments and will be  discussed  in
00800	class.
00900	
01000		The game is played as follows;
01100	
01200		1.  An ordinary 52 card deck is used.  Suits are ignored, and
01300	ace,jack,queen and king are regarded as representing the  numbers  1,
01400	11, 12, and 13 respectively.
01500	
01600		2.  The  object  of the game is to make four "final piles" of
01700	cards.  The first pile starts with 1 at the bottom and goes up by 1's
01800	to  13.  The  second  pile starts with 2 and goes up by 2's to 12 and
01900	then continues with 1 and goes on up to 13. Thus, the cards are taken
02000	in  cyclic  order  with 1 following 13.  The third pile starts with 3
02100	and goes up by 3's to 13, and the fourth pile starts with 4 and  goes
02200	up by 4's to 13.  In the won position, therefore, each pile will have
02300	13 cards.
02400	
02500		3.  The game starts with a shuffled face down deck.   At  any
02600	intermediate  stage  there  will  be some (maybe none) cards in final
02700	piles, some cards in four storage piles, one turned up  "hand  card",
02800	and a deck of unexamined cards.
02900	
03000		4. The allowed moves are
03100			a.  play the top card on any storage pile to a  final
03200	pile on which it will start or continue the sequence for that pile.
03300			b.  play the hand card onto a final pile on which  it
03400	will start or continue the sequence for that pile.
03500			c.  play the hand card to the  top  position  of  any
03600	storage pile.
03700			d.  if the hand card has just been played turn  up  a
03800	new hand card from the deck.
03900	
04000		5. The game continues until all cards are in final  piles  or
04100	until  no  legal move can be made.  The former condition is a win and
04200	the latter is a loss.
04300	
04400		Sequence solitaire can be won more than half  the  time  with
04500	correct play.  Random play almost never wins.
04600	
04700		Our  object  will be to study how our ideas about how to play
04800	well can be expressed to the computer.   Ideally,  we  would  have  a
04900	system  that  would  accept the description of the game and ideas for
05000	playing it in a form close to that in which they  occur  to  us.   We
05100	will not come very close to the ideal in this course.