animals for Debian
----------------------

Animals uses a binary-tree database to store questions (which are like lisp
cons-cells) and animals (which are like lisp atoms).

I wrote this, it's the typical animals game where you think of an animal
which is searched in a binary tree where non-leaf nodes are yes-or-no
questions and leaf nodes are animals.

Typical:

                   ----> "frog"
                  / YES
 "does it        /
  live in     --<
  the water?"    \
                  \  NO
                   ----> "moose"

can become
                                          ----> "frog"
                                         / YES
                   ----> "Does it       /
                  / YES  have legs?" --<
 "does it        /                      \
  live in     --<                        \  NO
  the water?"    \                        ----> "dolphin"
                  \  NO
                   ----> "moose"
in one play.

Traditionally, all such animals games I ever saw always had an initial database
as shown in the first tree above. My version is not traditional: there are NO
animals and NO questions at all in the initial database. Hence, my databases
tend to be more flexible.

Play it; you'll see what I mean.

 -- Jim Lynch <jim@laney.edu>, Fri,  4 Jun 1999 12:14:53 -0700
