Add 'stats mode' to demonstrate how frequent various numbers of iterations are.

alphabetter.go

@@ -38,22 +38,30 @@ var SPELLINGS = map[rune]string{
 	'Z': "ZEE",
 }
 
+var modeRandom = false
+var modeInfinite = false
+var modeStats = false
+
 func main() {
 	rand.Seed(time.Now().UnixNano())
-	random := false
-	infinite := false
 	for i := 1; i < len(os.Args); i++ {
 		if os.Args[i] == "--random" {
-			random = true
+			modeRandom = true
 		}
 		if os.Args[i] == "--infinite" {
-			infinite = true
+			modeInfinite = true
+		}
+		if os.Args[i] == "--stats" {
+			modeStats = true
 		}
 	}
 
+	totalAlphabets := 0
+	// a count of how many alphabets stabilize in various quantities
+	stats := make(map[int]int)
 	for {
 		var alphabet []rune
-		if random {
+		if modeRandom {
 			alphabet = randomAlphabet()
 		} else {
 			alphabet = []rune{'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'O', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T', 'U', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y', 'Z'}
@@ -62,22 +70,32 @@ func main() {
 		fmt.Println(string(prev))
 		i := 0
 		for {
+			if i > 100 {
+				fmt.Println("Alphabet seems infinite.")
+				break
+			}
 			alphabet = sortAlphabet(alphabet)
 			if string(alphabet) == prev {
-				if infinite {
+				if modeInfinite {
 					fmt.Println(prev)
 				}
 				break
 			}
 			prev = string(alphabet)
-			if !infinite {
+			if !modeInfinite {
 				fmt.Println(prev)
 			}
 			i++
 		}
 		fmt.Println("Iterations:", i)
+		stats[i]++
+		totalAlphabets++
 
-		if !infinite {
+		if modeStats {
+			printStats(stats, totalAlphabets)
+		}
+
+		if !modeInfinite {
 			return
 		}
 	}
@@ -124,3 +142,20 @@ func randomAlphabet() []rune {
 	rand.Shuffle(len(a), func(i, j int) { a[i], a[j] = a[j], a[i] })
 	return a
 }
+
+func printStats(counts map[int]int, total int) {
+	keys := make([]int, 0, len(counts))
+	for k, _ := range counts {
+		keys = append(keys, k)
+	}
+	sort.Ints(keys)
+
+	for _, k := range keys {
+		if k == 101 {
+			fmt.Printf("Infinite Loops: %.2f\n", float64(counts[k])/float64(total))
+			continue
+		}
+		fmt.Printf("%d: %.2f\n", k, float64(counts[k])/float64(total))
+	}
+	fmt.Println(counts)
+}