The primary goal of this lab is to get practice with basic methods. The logic is very simple in this lab; the point is to become familiar with the syntax of methods and how to document them.
A secondary goal is to introduce the use of Mercurial, a tool for revision control.
A revision control system provides a way that you can track groups of changes made to a set of files. Being able to manage the changes is especially important when more than one person is working on a project. But even when working by yourself, it can be helpful to be able to back up to a previous revision.
The revision control system that we will be using is Mercurial. In this lab, you'll begin to learn how you can use it for projects and labs in this course.
With any revision control system, you will have a distinction between the
working copy of a program and a repository that stores
its history. You can check out a particular revision from the
repository to create a working copy, and you eventually commit
the changes you have made back to the repository.
Mercurial hides a copy of a repository inside your working directory.
You'll usually start work in one of two ways: either you will initialize
a new repository where you are working, or you will clone a
repository that someone has already set up.
The Linux command for Mercurial is hg. There is some help
built in: you can find out what Mercurial commands exist with hg
help, and you can find out about a specific command, such as
add, with hg help add. The commands that you are
most likely to be interested in are:
hg init
hg clone repository
hg add filename
hg revert filename
hg commit -m "log message"
hg log
hg status
Go to the account's directory for this class:
cd csci235
Now clone a repository from the shared class directory:
This works because there is already a Mercurial repository set up in that directory. After you clone, you canhg clone /cslab/class/csci235/lab5
cd into the
lab5 directory that holds your new working copy. If you list
the directory with the -a flag, you should see that there is
a subdiretory named .hg, which holds your local repository.
You'll also see a file named .hgignore; this file (which I've
provided) tells Mercurial to ignore several kinds of files that you don't
want it to store, such as the .class files created by the
Java compiler and the backup files created by XEmacs.
If you try hg status, you should see nothing, because the
working copy and the repository match. If you try hg log,
you should see the (short) history of revisions that I made to the
repository before you cloned it.
You are the programmer on an interstellar space ship, traveling at light speed. Your captain wants to know how far the ship is from our home planet; all you know is how many days you have been been traveling. You are to write a program that asks the user for a number of travel days and displays the distance from the home planet in kilometers.
The speed of light is 2.997925 x 10^8 meters per second. To take a number of days and compute a number of kilometers using a meters per second rate takes several conversions. We will compute each step using a separate method.
Open your source file in XEmacs.
xemacs StarshipDistance.java &
Note that is has a main method, and also some method stubs that are commented out. Before you do anything else, fill in the heading comment appropriately. Save your file, and make sure that it still compiles cleanly. To commit your changes to the repository, first check the status with
You should see that just the onehg status
.java file is modified.
Then do the actual commit with
Note that you do put the message inside quotes.hg commit -m "Filled in the heading comment"
We're now ready to begin the actual work. The basic plan is:
First implement the conversion from days to hours. Find the method stub that has the signature
daysToHours(int)
Move the start-of-comment marker down so that the method is no longer commented out. Then fill in the body so it works.
After you have written it, you must do two things: document and test. To document, remember the rules for documenting methods. Write a block comment (start with two stars, and with stars all along the left side) containing:
These methods can count as "trivial," so you can skip the second part (the description of the algorithm).
Test your method by changing the main method so that it only calls your method and prints the result. Try a few examples, and make sure it is working. When you are satisfied, commit it to your repository.
Repeat the process in part 3 for hoursToMinutes
and minutesToSeconds.
Document them properly and test them individually so you know they are right.
Then do the same for daysToSeconds, but instead of
calculating the conversion directly, have this method call the other
conversion methods to get its result.
Document and test. Now you know that entire sequence of methods is right.
You can commit at any point that you feel that the program is
consistent. If you haven't committed since completing
daysToSeconds, do so now.
Now go ahead and fill in the code for secondsToMeters,
calculating distance by time times velocity.
You can write big number literals using "e" (for "exponent") to mean "times 10 to the..."
That is, you might make a variable like this:
double speedOfLight = 2.997925e8
Document and test. Then repeat the process for one more conversion
method, metersToKilometers.
Finally, you can use calls to daysToSeconds,
secondsToMeters,
and metersToKilometers to write daysToKilometers.
Since you've tested all the components, you should have nothing to worry
about for the correctness of this method.
To wrap up, make sure everything is documented well (including the block at the beginning of the program and including all local variable declarations). Also make sure the main method has been cleared out of testing code, and works now according to the specification.
This would be a good time to commit, again.
This is an American vessel, and your captain doesn't know what a "kilometer" is. Write and use an extra conversion method, from kilometers to miles, so that the more familiar unit of measure is used (and use it in your main method).
Don't forget to commit.
Remove your .class file(s). Then create a script file as
before (compile and run).
Run the program using 1 day, 5 days, 16 days, and 80 days.
After you have run the program, include
before you end the script.hg log
Clean the script, then print your source file and the script; hand them in a hard copy.
Use handin to turn in your source file and the script file
as lab5.
You can copy the repository (with all of its history) to your account
as a Mercurial clone. Assuming that your account name is msnerd
and that you already have a subdirectory named csci235, you'd
do the command
You'll be prompted for your password, of course.hg clone . ssh://msnerd@cslab25/csci235/lab5
The script file is not in your repository. If it is named
typescript you can copy it with the command
scp typescript msnerd@cslab25:csci235/lab5/