[Linuxcprogramming] senet.c - returning a ptr to a function

[Nick Croft]

Hi, 
I'm learning C from one of those books that promise a lot in 21 days. One 
thing I've learnt from this series is that there's plenty of help getting 
started, but the exercises and advice thin out a bit when the going gets tough.

To consolidate my learning I've set myself the goal of writing an ascii game 
based on a simple board game - Senet. Instead of sticks this game uses 4 
throwing-sticks. Landing one way up gives 0, the other way up gives 1. The four 
sticks are totalled, with 4x0 counting as a six. The character of the game 
derives from the resulting chances, 2 most often, then 1 or 3, then 4 or 6.

Try as I might, I can't turn the function `sticks' in the following inelegant 
piece into a for-loop with an array. I keep getting the address returned.
Unfortunately chapter 14 of the 21 day book has no answers to the few 
exercises on returning pointers to an array.

______________________________________________

senet.c

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>

int sticks (void);
int x;

int main ()
{
   x = sticks();
   printf("\nThrow value: %d. \n", x);
   return 0;
}


int sticks (void)
{
   int throw1, throw2, throw3, throw4, total;

   srand(time(NULL));
				               
   throw1 = (int) (2.0*rand()/(RAND_MAX+1.0));;
   throw2 = (int) (2.0*rand()/(RAND_MAX+1.0));;
   throw3 = (int) (2.0*rand()/(RAND_MAX+1.0));;
   throw4 = (int) (2.0*rand()/(RAND_MAX+1.0));;

   total = throw1 + throw2 + throw3 + throw4;
														                 
   if (total == 0) { total = 6; 
	}
	
	return total; 
} 
___________________________________________________

I'd love to have an nice for-loop and an array instead of the throw1-2-3-4
business.

Sorry for the simplicity, but it's where I'm at. Maybe while there's not 
much traffic on the list you might care to help.

Thanks,

Nick