wizardchik

Hey folks,
I'm a newbie in programming, don't know much about it. Now, I am trying to program the game called NIM, if you ever heard of it. Here is a little info

[
The game of Nim typically involves two players and a pile of matches, stones, marbles, or some other kind of objects. Each player alternately makes a move by taking one, two, or three objects from the pile. The player who takes the last object(s) loses -- and the other player wins. For example, suppose there's a pile of five matches. Player A takes two matches, leaving three. Player B then takes two matches, leaving one. Player A must take the final match, and loses. Player B wins.

]

Here is what i have so far for the source code for DOS.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int current_pile(int,int);
int computerTurn(int,int);

int main (){
int num,_removeSticks;
cout<<"Welcome to NIM. Please enter an integer >=9 to start off the game.\n";
cin>>num;

/*Tests for numbers smaller than 9*/
while (num<9){
cout<<"You have entered "<<num<<" is not great than or equal to 9.\n"
<<"Try again. Please enter an integer >=9 to start off the game.\n";
cin>>num;
}

while (current_pile!=0){

cout<<"It's show time. You have "<<num<<" number of sticks to play againist the computer.\n"
<<"Enter the number of sticks, between 1 and 4, to be removed \n";
cin >>_removeSticks;

/*Tests for numbers greater than 4 or smaller than 1*/
while (num<1 && num>4){
cout<<""<<_removeSticks<<" is not bettween 1 and 4. No worries, let's try again \n";
cin >>_removeSticks;
}

cout<<""<<current_pile(num,_removeSticks)<<" sticks left.Now it's the computers turn \n";
}
system ("PAUSE");
return 0;
}


/* F U N C T I O N D E C L A R A T I O N N STARTS HERE */

/* Function that substracts the number of sticks user entered from the whole pile*/
int current_pile(int _currentPile,int _userNum){

_currentPile=_currentPile-_userNum;
return _currentPile;

}
/* Function that the computer substracts the number of sticks from the whole pile*/
int computerTurn(int _currentPile, int _compNum){
_currentPile=_currentPile-_compNum%(1+4);
return _currentPile;
}


My question is, how can I get the computer to remove sticks automatically after user finishes his turn. What I have for the computer doesn't work.

Any help will be greatly appreciated