Take-home Assessment A6: YazInterpreter

Due August 03, 2021 11:59:59 pm PDT

Submit on Ed

Video Overview

Demo Video

FAQ Post

This assessment will assess your mastery of the following objectives:

• Write a functionally correct Java program to produce specified console and file output.
• Use Scanner and File to read input from a file.
• Use PrintStream and File to write output to a file.
• Use methods of the String class to process and manipulate string values.
• Use methods to manage information flow and add structure to programs.
• Follow prescribed conventions for spacing, indentation, naming methods, and header comments

Background

Note: You do not need to read this section to complete the assessment, but it provides some helpful context that may make the assessment easier to understand.

Throughout the quarter, we have been working with the programming language Java. Java is an example of a compiled language, meaning that before we can run our code, we need to run it through a tool called a compiler to translate it into a language that the computer itself can understand and execute. But not all languages work this way. Some languages are what are called interpreted languages, meaning that the source code in the language can be read and executed directly using a tool called an interpreter. The language you will work with on this assessment, YazLang, is an example of an interpreted language.

Program Behavior

In this assessment, you will create an interpreter for the programming language YazLang. (This language was named a former CSE 142 Head TA and Instructor, Ayaz, who led development of the language and this assignment.) When interpretting a YazLang file, the program prompts the user for input and output file names (user input is underlined in the Sample Execution examples below). Then the program reads and executes the YazLang commmands in the input file and outputs the results to a different file. The user can later view the output file that was created or quit the program.

Sample Executions

User input is bold and underlined in the sample output in this document

Welcome to YazInterpreter!
You may interpret a YazLang program and output
the results to a file or view a previously
interpreted YazLang program.

(I)nterpret YazLang program, (V)iew output, (Q)uit? I
Input file name: input.txt
File not found. Try again: yaz lang.txt
File not found. Try again: interpret.txt
Output file name: interpret-out.txt
YazLang interpreted and output to a file!

(I)nterpret YazLang program, (V)iew output, (Q)uit? View
(I)nterpret YazLang program, (V)iew output, (Q)uit? vi
(I)nterpret YazLang program, (V)iew output, (Q)uit? v
Input file name: interpret-out.txt

-9 -6 -3 0 3 6
39F
gucci ganggucci ganggucci ganggucci ganggucci ganggucci ganggucci gang
11C
humuhumunukunukuapua'a
5 12 19 26 33
24F

(I)nterpret YazLang program, (V)iew output, (Q)uit? q

Welcome to YazInterpreter!
You may interpret a YazLang program and output
the results to a file or view a previously
interpreted YazLang program.

(I)nterpret YazLang program, (V)iew output, (Q)uit? V
Input file name: simple-out.txt

15C
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
abba

(I)nterpret YazLang program, (V)iew output, (Q)uit? interpret
(I)nterpret YazLang program, (V)iew output, (Q)uit? I
Input file name: simple.txt
Output file name: blah output.txt
YazLang interpreted and output to a file!

(I)nterpret YazLang program, (V)iew output, (Q)uit? q

Console Output and Viewing a File

File Prompting

Depending on the command that the user selects, they will be asked to provide an input and/or output file name. Note that all console input should be read in using the Scanner's nextLine() method.

• Input Files: When prompting for an input file, the user may respond with the name of an input file that does not exist. If the file does not exist, the user should be reprompted until they enter the name of a file that does exist. See the logs of Sample Execution on the first and second pages for examples of this reprompting behavior
• Output Files: When prompting for an output file, the user may similarly respond with the name of a file that does not exist. In this case, you should rely on the default behavior of the input/output approaches we use. By default, if the output file does not exist, a new file will be created. And if the file does already exist, its contents will be overridden.

You should assume that the input and output files are not the same.

Menu

The program's menu should work properly regardless of the order or number of times its commands are chosen. For example, the user should be able to run each command (such as I or V) many times if desired. The user should also be able to run the program again and choose the V option without first choosing the I option on that run, or to run the program and immediately quit with the Q option if so desired. Menu options should be case-insensitive (e.g. both Q and q should cause the program to quit). If an invalid option (anything other than I, V, or Q, in any casing) is entered, the user should be reprompted.

Viewing Output

When the user enters V from the menu, they should then be prompted to enter an input file to view. If the input file does not exist, the user should be reprompted until they enter the name of a file that does exist (see the File Prompting section for more details).

When you are viewing a given input file, you are simply reading and printing its contents, unchanged, to the console. This functionality can be used to view previously-interpreted YazLang files, but it can be used on any given input file that exists. Therefore, you do not need to test that the specified file is a YazLang output file. Just output the file's contents (even if it is a different type of file).

Interpreting and File Output

Interpreting YazLang Files

When the user enters I from the menu, they should then be prompted to enter an input file and an output file. The input file should contain YazLang commands. Your program should then read the input file, execute each command, and print the output to the output file. If the input file does not exist, the user should be reprompted until they enter the name of a file that does exist, but no reprompting is necessary for the output file (see the File Prompting section for more details).

Sample Input File

interpret.txt

RANGE -9 9 3
CONVERT 4 C
REPEAT "gucci_gang" 7
CONVERT 53 F
REPEAT "humu" 2 "nuku" 2 "apua'a" 1
RANGE 5 35 7
CONVERT -4 C

Sample Output File

interpret-out.txt

-9 -6 -3 0 3 6
39F
gucci ganggucci ganggucci ganggucci ganggucci ganggucci ganggucci gang
11C
humuhumunukunukuapua'a
5 12 19 26 33
24F

YazLang Commands

YazLang consists of three commands: CONVERT, RANGE, and REPEAT. These commands are described in the table below.

The syntax for YazLang is much simpler (and more limited) than Java's. Every YazLang command follows this pattern:

COMMAND arg1 arg2 ... argn

That is, every command consists of a single token indicating the command be executed, followed by some number of arguments. Some commands take a specific number of arguments, while others may take any number of arguments. Some commands may also take no arguments, in which case the command token itself is considered a complete command. There will be one or more spaces or tabs between the command and the arguments, and between each argument. In a YazLang program file, each command is on its own line.

The three commands will always appear exactly as CONVERT, RANGE and REPEAT (case sensitive) with the appropriate arguments

There are several example input and output files linked below, along with supplemental videos explaining the program's desired behavior. We strongly recommend looking over these additional resources to aid your understanding of how the program is intended to function before beginning your implementation.

CONVERT 0 c
CONVERT 32 F
CONVERT 9 C
CONVERT 9 f

32F
0C
48F
-12C

REPEAT "a" 5 "B" 2
REPEAT "yo_yo" 1 "_"a" 1
REPEAT "a" 1 "b" 0 "c" 2
REPEAT

aaaaaBB
yo yo "a
acc

RANGE 0 5 1
RANGE 1 10 9
RANGE 2 1 1

0 1 2 3 4 
1 

Creative Aspect

There are only three commands in YazLang at the moment, and to come up with more we have decided to crowdsource! Along with your program, submit a file called my-command.txt with a proposal for a new command to add to YazLang. Your proposal must include the following elements:

• The name of the command
• The arguments the command will take
• A description of what the command does
• At least one sample input and sample output

You should format your proposal like the example below. We have also posted examples on the course website. You do not need to provide an implementation for your custom command.

Sample my-command.txt

Proposal for the REPEAT command.

REPEAT

REPEAT takes an arbitrary number of pairs of Strings and integers and
creates one large string with each string repeated the number of times
indicated by the following integer.

Input: REPEAT "ha" 3 "_" 1 "lol" 2
Output: "hahaha lollol"

Development Strategy

Once again, this assessment will be best approached in smaller chunks. We recommend the following strategy:

1. File prompting: Add code to prompt the user for the input and output file to use.
2. File reprompting: Handle the case when the user inputs invalid file names when prompted for input files.
3. View: Write code to read and print the contents of an input file to the console. This will be used for viewing YazLang output. (Even though you can't intepret YazLang programs yet, you can test this on any input file you like, including a YazLang program itself.)
4. Menu/Reprompting: Add code to allow the user to select whether to intepret, view, or quit and to reprompt if invalid mode is chosen. Since you haven't implemented the "interpret" functionality yet, we suggest simply including the file prompting and "YazLang interpreted and and output to a file!" println when the user selects "I" for now.
5. Interpret a single command: Write code to execute a single YazLang command and print the results to the console. You may want to begin by hard-coding the command and changing it as you debug. You can then move on to reading a single command from an input file. We recommend approaching the commands one at a time and in the order the appear in the above table (CONVERT, then RANGE, then REPEAT).

   "Hard-coding" refers to embedding a value directly in your program rather than accepting it as input. For example, you might start by having your program always process the command CONVERT 0 C instead of a different command each time it runs.

6. Intepret a YazLang file: Modify your code to read each line from a YazLang input file, execute the command, and print the output to the console.
7. File output: Modify your code to produce output to a file instead of the console.

Hints

• When reading input from a file, you may need to use a mixture of line-based and token-based processing as shown in class and described in chapter 6 of the textbook. (The FindMinAndMax, RateMovies, Payroll programs from class will be particularly helpful.)
• To check if a file exists, you should use methods from the File class. The textbook describes an alternate technique for dealing with missing files using try/catch statements, but you should NOT use this approach on this assessment (try/catch statements are considered "forbidden features" in this class).
• You may find the startsWith method of the String class useful for determining which type of command you are processing.
• You may also find the replace method of the String class useful for replacing occurrences of one character with another. For example, the code:

  String str = "mississippi";
str = str.replace("s", "*");

  will result in the string str containing the value "mi**i**ippi".

• The output from RANGE should end with a space -- you do not need to use a fencepost approach for the output of this command.
• If your program is generating InputMismatchException errors, you are likely reading the wrong type of values from your Scanner (for example, using nextInt to read a String).
• If your program is generating NoSuchElementException errors, you are likely attempting to read past the end of a file or line.

Debugging Tips

You may want to initially "hard-code" the input and output filenames; in other words, you may want to just use fixed file names in your code rather than prompting the user to enter the file names. You may also want to temporarily print extra "debug" text to the console while developing your program, such as printing each command or argument as you read it. Be sure to remove this extra output before submitting your program.

It is easier to debug this problem using a smaller input file with fewer commands and arguments. The file simple.txt on the course website has a short YazLang program that will be useful for testing your program at first.

Implementation Guidelines

User Input / File Input

All console input should be processed using a Scanner and should be read using the nextLine method only. All file input should be processed using a File object and a Scanner as shown in class. File output should be performed using a File and a PrintStream as shown in class.

Be sure to use nextLine for all console input.

When interpreting a YazLang program, your program should break the input into lines and then into tokens using Scanner objects so that you can identify the command and look for all its arguments. Follow the process demonstrated in class and in the textbook.

You may assume that each line of any input file provided to the I option will contain a valid YazLang command (see below). There will not be any blank lines or lines that are not YazLang commands. You do not need to check the file name or extension, and you should not assume that the file name or extension will have any particular format. In particular, DO NOT assume that all input files will end with .txt, and do not assume that you need to add the .txt extension to input file names.

You may assume that whenever a YazLang command is expected, it will be valid. Specifically, you may assume that:

• each command will be on its own line
• the first word on each line will be a valid YazLang command (CONVERT, RANGE, or REPEAT)
• each command will have an appropriate number of arguments
• all arguments will be of the correct type and will meet the requirements outlined above

Permitted Java Features

For this assessment, you are restricted to Java concepts covered in chapters 1 through 6 of the textbook. In particular, you ARE NOT allowed to use arrays on this assessment. In addition, you may not use the repeat method in the Java String class. You must implement this functionality yourself for the YazLang REPEAT command. try/catch statements are considered "forbidden features" in this class, and you are not allowed to use them on any take-home assessments.

Code Quality Guidelines

In addition to producing the desired behavior, your code should be well-written and meet all expectations described in the general rubric and the Code Quality Guide. For this assessment, pay particular attention to the following elements:

Capturing Structure

Your main method in this program may have more code than it has in previous assessment. In particular, you may include a limited amount of output and some control flow constructs (e.g. a loop to drive the menu) in main. However, your main method must remain a concise summary of your program's structure, and you must still utilize methods to both capture structure and eliminate redundancy.

Each method should perform a single, coherent task, and no method should do too much work. To receive full credit, your program must include a separate method to execute each type of command, plus four (4) other non-trivial method besides main. (Therefore, your program should have a total of at least seven (7) non-trivial methods.)

Your program must include a single method to process each type of YazLang command.

Using Parameters and Returns

Your program should utilize parameters and return values effectively to produce a well-structured program as described above. Your methods should not accept unnecessary or redundant parameters. In particular, your program should include only a single Scanner connected to System.in, though you may have additional Scanners as well. You can (and probably should) use objects (such as Scanner, File, or PrintStream) as parameters and/or return values.

Code Aesthetics

Your code should be properly indented, make good use of blank lines and other whitespace, and include no lines longer than 100 characters. Your class, methods, variables, and constant should all have meaningful and descriptive names and follow the standard Java naming conventions. (e.g. ClassName, methodOrVariableName, CONSTANT_NAME) See the Code Quality Guide for more information.

Commenting

Your code should include a header comment at the start of your program, following the same format described in previous assessments. Your code should also include a comment at the beginning of each method that describes that methods behavior. Method comments should also explicitly name and describe all parameters to that method and describe the method's return value (if it has one). Comments should be written in your own words (i.e. not copied and pasted from this spec) and should not include implementation details (such as describing loops or expressions included in the code). See the Code Quality Guide for examples and more information.

Running and Submitting

You should write your program in a file named YazInterpreter.java and submit it in Ed. You will not be able to use the "Run" button to run your program in Ed. You can run your YazIntepreter program by clicking the "Activate the Terminal" message in Ed. (Note that this is a different process than previous assessments.) You may also need to click the arrow at the bottom of the window to reveal the terminal. This will compile and execute your code and show you any errors, or the output of your program if it runs correctly. If you believe your output is correct, you can submit your work by clicking the "Mark" button in the Ed assessment. You will see the results of some automated tests along with tentative grades. These grades are not final until you have received feedback from your TA.

You may submit your work as often as you like until the deadline; we will always grade your most recent submission. Note the due date and time carefully -- work submitted after the due time will not be accepted.

Getting Help

If you find you are struggling with this assessment, make use of all the course resources that are available to you, such as:

• Reviewing relevant examples from lectures, section, and lab
• Reading the textbook
• Visiting support hours
• Posting a question on the message board

Collaboration Policy

Reflection

In addition to your code, you must submit answers to short reflection questions. These questions will help you think about what you learned, what you struggled with, and how you can improve next time. The questions are in the Reflection slide in the Ed assessment.

Files

• YazLang Command slides
• sample REPEAT command proposal
• sample input #1 - interpret.txt
• sample file output #1 - interpret-out.txt
• sample input #2 - simple.txt
• sample file output #2 - simple-out.txt
• sample input #3 - yaz.txt
• sample file output #3 - yaz-out.txt
• sample input #4 - tricky.txt
• sample file output #4 - tricky-out.txt