feat: expose more nim utils

crates/game-solver/src/player.rs

@@ -77,7 +77,9 @@ impl TwoPlayer for PartizanPlayer {}
 
 /// Represents a player in a zero-sum (2-player) game,
 /// where the game is impartial. That is,
-/// the only difference between players is who goes first.
+/// the only difference between players is who goes first,
+/// and the only thing that defines a game is its 'state':
+/// both players need to have the same winning criteria for this player to be used.
 #[derive(PartialEq, Eq, Debug, Clone, Copy, Hash)]
 pub enum ImpartialPlayer {
     /// The player that will play on the current game state,

crates/nimnim/src/lib.rs

@@ -1,7 +1,12 @@
-use std::ops::Add;
+use std::{collections::HashSet, ops::Add};
 
-#[derive(PartialEq, PartialOrd, Eq, Ord, Debug)]
-struct Nimber(usize);
+/// A nimber is the size of a heap in a single-stack nim game.
+/// 
+/// Nim is crucial for loop-free* impartial combinatorial game theory analysis.
+/// 
+/// *This structure does not define utilities for loopy nimbers.
+#[derive(Copy, Clone, PartialEq, PartialOrd, Eq, Ord, Debug, Hash)]
+pub struct Nimber(pub usize);
 
 impl Add for Nimber {
     type Output = Nimber;
@@ -13,6 +18,22 @@ impl Add for Nimber {
     }
 }
 
+/// Returns Some(minimum excluded value of `list`), or `None` iff `list.is_empty()`
+pub fn mex(list: &[Nimber]) -> Option<Nimber> {
+    let mut mex: Option<Nimber> = None;
+    let mut set: HashSet<Nimber> = HashSet::with_capacity(list.len());
+
+    for item in list {
+        if set.insert(*item) {
+            if item > &mex.unwrap_or(Nimber(0)) {
+                mex = Some(*item)
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    mex
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use crate::Nimber;