dylanpking / five-in-a-row-client-server

An implementation of a five in a row game utilising a client/server architecture

five-in-a-row-client-server

An implementation of a five in a row game utilising a client/server architecture in Python.

Notes

• Working directory (AKA ./) has been added to $PATH.
• Developed on Ubuntu 20.04 in a WSL2 VM.
• Tested locally. Your mileage may vary if running this across multiple machines.
• Server disconnects all clients and shuts down if it does not receive a request within 15 seconds of handling its previous request.

Running

Note: These commands work on Ubuntu 20.04 with python3 and python3-pytest installed via apt. If they do not work for you try running python and pytest instead.

Server

python3 server

Client

python3 client

Tests

pytest-3

Known Issues

• Using Pythons builtin input function blocks stdin until after the user has sent a command. I tried several solutions to this, with varying degrees of success.
  • Tried running client input and output on separate threads. Did not work as input was still blocking stdin.
  • Tried implementing a non-blocking method to read stdin. This saw some success, but was very inconsistent, and confusing to read.
• If a client tries to disconnect after another client has already disconnected, and is the only client on the server, the server processes the disconnect command incorrectly, and does not not disconnect the client properly.