Project: castar - The Ruby Toolbox

DESCRIPTION:

Ruby interface to a C++ implemention of the A* search algorithm.

The C++ implementaion is found here http://code.google.com/p/a-star-algorithm-implementation/

FEATURES:

SYNOPSIS:

See spec\castar_spec.rb for usage examples.

Create an empty map and plan a path across it:

    require 'castar'
    include Castar
    map = init_map(:width => 4, :height => 3)
    astar = HeyesDriver.new(map, HeyesDriver::EIGHT_NEIGHBORS)
    astar.run(0,0,3,2)
    puts get_map_with_path(astar)

    |S|1|1|1|
    |1|*|1|1|
    |1|1|*|G|

Load a map from a text file and plan a path:

    map = load_map('./spec/map_20.txt')
    astar = HeyesDriver.new(map, HeyesDriver::EIGHT_NEIGHBORS)
    astar.run(0,0,19,19)
    puts get_map_with_path(astar)

    
    |S|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|
    |1|*|*|*|*|*|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|
    |1|1|9|9|9|9|*|1|1|1|1|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|
    |1|1|9|9|9|9|1|*|1|1|1|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|
    |1|1|9|9|9|9|1|1|*|1|1|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|
    |1|1|9|9|9|9|1|1|1|*|1|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|
    |1|1|9|9|9|9|1|1|1|1|*|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|
    |1|1|9|9|9|9|1|1|1|1|*|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|
    |1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|*|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|
    |1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|*|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|
    |1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|*|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|
    |1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|*|*|*|*|*|1|1|1|
    |1|1|1|1|1|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|*|1|1|
    |1|1|1|1|1|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|1|*|1|
    |1|1|1|1|1|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|1|1|*|
    |1|1|1|1|1|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|1|1|*|
    |1|1|1|1|1|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|1|1|*|
    |1|1|1|1|1|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|9|1|1|*|
    |1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|*|
    |1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|1|G|

REQUIREMENTS:

Ruby 1.9
C compiler for C extensions

DEVELOPMENT

To modify the gem in a cloned repo this is what I'm doing (from root of gem):

    bundle install
    cd ext/
    ruby extconf.rb
    make

These steps will install the development dependencies, build the Makefile and compile the C++ code. Running

    bundle exec rspec ./spec

should show all tests passing. To clean up the autogenerated Makefile and the compiled objects:

    cd ext/
    make realclean

If you need to regenerate the ruby interface functions heyes_wrap.cxx, run:

    cd swig/
    swig -c++ -ruby heyes.i
    mv heyes_wrap.cxx ../ext

If you are just trying to run the tests:

    rake build
    gem install pkg/castar-0.0.1.gem

builds the gem and installs it to your local machine.

    gem which castar

tells you where it is. You can then cd to that directory and run the tests as above (but since you're not in a git repo you can't commit them).

I followed the instructions here for using Bundler to create the gem.

To run the benchmarks:

    bundle install
    cd swig/
    ./buildRubyExtension.sh
    cd ../benchmarks
    bundle exec ruby -I . ./benchmarker.rb

                                                      BIG_OBSTACLE | SMALL_OBSTACLES |
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    using polaris                                            1.150 |           0.468 |
    using c++ implementation                                 0.034 |           0.079 |
    using c++ implementation, eight neighbors                0.010 |           0.014 |

INSTALL:

gem install castar

LICENSE:

(The MIT License)

castar