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Previously, we looked at how to calculate a binomial coefficient (to find the total number of possible combinations) and an example of how to generate a list of combinations with hard-coded loops.

A function would be much more useful to us if it was flexible - if it could generate a list of combinations for any size set of numbers. We can’t do this with the hard coded loop solution, so we need to come up with a better method.
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I came across this problem on the DigitalPoint forums the other day. How can we write a script to calculate the total number of random combinations in a set (i.e. the binomial coefficient), and how can we generate a list of these combinations?

Today, we’ll tackle the first part. We’ll start with a quick primer on math - what is a binomial coefficient? Then, we’ll look into the most efficient way to calculate that and get the total number of possible combinations.
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Yesterday, I wrote a short article on generating random numbers in Javascript. The Javascript random number generator is similar to C/++ - it gives you a random number from 0 to 1 and you need to make it useful.

At the suggestion of a reader (thanks Justin), I decided to go ahead and turn the general formula for this into a short helper function to generate a random number.
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I’ve been working with PHP for some time now, and I’ve become spoiled with the rand() function for generating random numbers. It’s so simple - pass a min, pass a max, and get the number you want.

While I was working on various game-related scripts this weekend, I was left wondering how to create a random number in Javascript. It’s not quite as simple as the rand() function - we’ll have to go back to the old C-style random number generation.
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I was browsing the Frihost forums this morning, and I stumbled on a cool Javascript game.

One of the Frihost users and his friend made a 3d Worm game. Although the directions are in Spanish (as is the source code), the game is pretty cool. It’s a good example of what you can accomplish with some Javascript/DOM trickery.
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In a recent post, I sketched out how to use Javascript to build a gameboard for a browser-based game - specifically Tic Tac Toe. After a little tweaking, I’ve worked this into a functioning Tic Tac Toe board.

In this post, we’ll explore the code used to set up this board. Once that’s done, the next step will be to create a php script to evaluate some of the game’s logic.
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A thorough knowledge of Javascript can give you tremendous control over what happens on a website. Combined with PHP through an AJAX request, you can make some pretty nifty browser-based games.

This tutorial will focus on the first part of making a basic board game - creating a board. The end result will be a three by three game board suitable for use in developing a tic-tac-toe game.
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