Is the hint implementation missing?

[patricksurry]

I've been having fun porting this to a 6502 forth and noticed that altho advent.h defines the HINTx conditions these don't seem to be referenced in the code. The hint messages are present in advent4.h (e.g. #63) but I can't find any equivalent of the checkhints routine from the open-adventure code.

advent.h:#define HINTC       16
advent.h:#define HINTB       32
advent.h:#define HINTS       64
advent.h:#define HINTM       128
advent.h:#define HINT        240

also doc/advent.txt mentions the feature, but maybe disappeared again later?

J) Hint feature restored with original messages
           (exact original algorithm unknown)

I'd be happy to try and restore if you have any traces of the original code.

[patricksurry]

the open-adventure source tree starts from some horrible f2c version where main.c includes references like below, so maybe I can reconstruct? score.c also has some deductions if you take hints.

/*  CHECK IF THIS LOC IS ELIGIBLE FOR ANY HINTS.  IF BEEN HERE LONG ENOUGH,
 *  BRANCH TO HELP SECTION (ON LATER PAGE).  HINTS ALL COME BACK HERE EVENTUALLY
 *  TO FINISH THE LOOP.  IGNORE "HINTS" < 4 (SPECIAL STUFF, SEE DATABASE NOTES).
		*/

L2600:	if(COND[LOC] < CONDS) goto L2603;
	/* 2602 */ for (HINT=1; HINT<=HNTMAX; HINT++) {
	if(HINTED[HINT]) goto L2602;
	if(!CNDBIT(LOC,HINT+10))HINTLC[HINT]= -1;
	HINTLC[HINT]=HINTLC[HINT]+1;
	if(HINTLC[HINT] >= HINTS[HINT][1]) goto L40000;
L2602:	/*etc*/ ;
	} /* end loop */

...

/*  HINTS */

/*  COME HERE IF HE'S BEEN LONG ENOUGH AT REQUIRED LOC(S) FOR SOME UNUSED HINT.
 *  HINT NUMBER IS IN VARIABLE "HINT".  BRANCH TO QUICK TEST FOR ADDITIONAL
 *  CONDITIONS, THEN COME BACK TO DO NEAT STUFF.  GOTO 40010 IF CONDITIONS ARE
 *  MET AND WE WANT TO OFFER THE HINT.  GOTO 40020 TO CLEAR HINTLC BACK TO ZERO,
 *  40030 TO TAKE NO ACTION YET. */

L40000:    switch (HINT-1) { case 0: goto L40100; case 1: goto L40200; case 2: goto
		L40300; case 3: goto L40400; case 4: goto L40500; case 5: goto
		L40600; case 6: goto L40700; case 7: goto L40800; case 8: goto
		L40900; case 9: goto L41000; }
/*		CAVE  BIRD  SNAKE MAZE  DARK  WITT  URN   WOODS OGRE
 *		JADE */
	BUG(27);

L40010: HINTLC[HINT]=0;
	if(!YES(HINTS[HINT][3],0,54)) goto L2602;
	SETPRM(1,HINTS[HINT][2],HINTS[HINT][2]);
	RSPEAK(261);
	HINTED[HINT]=YES(175,HINTS[HINT][4],54);
	if(HINTED[HINT] && LIMIT > 30)LIMIT=LIMIT+30*HINTS[HINT][2];
L40020: HINTLC[HINT]=0;
L40030:  goto L2602;

/*  NOW FOR THE QUICK TESTS.  SEE DATABASE DESCRIPTION FOR ONE-LINE NOTES. */

L40100: if(PROP[GRATE] == 0 && !HERE(KEYS)) goto L40010;
	 goto L40020;

L40200: if(PLACE[BIRD] == LOC && TOTING(ROD) && OLDOBJ == BIRD) goto L40010;
	 goto L40030;

L40300: if(HERE(SNAKE) && !HERE(BIRD)) goto L40010;
	 goto L40020;

L40400: if(ATLOC[LOC] == 0 && ATLOC[OLDLOC] == 0 && ATLOC[OLDLC2] == 0 && HOLDNG >
		1) goto L40010;
	 goto L40020;

L40500: if(PROP[EMRALD] != -1 && PROP[PYRAM] == -1) goto L40010;
	 goto L40020;

L40600:  goto L40010;

L40700: if(DFLAG == 0) goto L40010;
	 goto L40020;

L40800: if(ATLOC[LOC] == 0 && ATLOC[OLDLOC] == 0 && ATLOC[OLDLC2] == 0) goto
		L40010;
	 goto L40030;

L40900: I=ATDWRF(LOC);
	if(I < 0) goto L40020;
	if(HERE(OGRE) && I == 0) goto L40010;
	 goto L40030;

L41000: if(TALLY == 1 && PROP[JADE] < 0) goto L40010;
	 goto L40020;

[troglobit]

First of all, sorry for the late response! Yes, I'd be very interested in the hint feature 😃 Did not even know this existed 🤯

Do you have any more information about this or relevant pointers to it on the Internet?

[patricksurry]

yes, the f2c link and source above were the earliest ref I found.

Your code base already includes the messages and #define's for hints (e.g. search for hint), it seems to just be missing a checkhints implementation to check and display them

I resurrected it in my forth version like this https://github.com/patricksurry/advent-forth/blob/main/src/hints.fs