CPSC 233: Assignment 3 (Worth 5%)

Due Wednesday October 13

New concepts to be applied for the assignment

1. Dynamic memory allocation using references and class constructors
2. Arrays of references
3. Using code in predefined Java classes (String, Character)

Writing a program to manage a course list

For this assignment you are to write a program that will allow a student to track the number of courses that he or she has taken.  The courses will be stored in an array and the program can track information for up to 100 courses.

Grading for working submission

Basic submission ('C' grade):

    Functional requirements

1. Initializing the list to some starting default values.

2. Displaying the list in a presentable form e.g., empty list elements should not be displayed, lists that are very long (say over 5 elements in size) should not be displayed all at once but instead the user should have the ability to see only a portion of the list at a time and then the program will wait for a response from the user (e.g., asking the person to hit return) before displaying any other elements.

3. A menu of options is displayed onscreen.  Although for this grade level not all options will be working, at the very least the user should be able to display the list and to quit the program.

    Design requirements: You need to implement four classes: Driver, CommandProcessor, CourseTracker, Course:

1. Class Driver: The starting point of execution in the program (contains the main method).

2. Class CommandProcessor: The purpose of this class to provide an interface to the user: it shows the available menu options as prompting the user for his or her selection.  Based on the user's  selection, different methods of class CourseTracker will then be invoked by the command processor.

3. Class CourseTracker: It performs the basic list management functions: initializing and displaying the list onscreen, adding new elements, removing or editing existing elements.  Information about the list of courses will be stored in an array of references.  This array will be an attribute of this class.

4. Class Course: Tracks the pertinent information about a course: 1) The four character course code (e.g., CPSC)  2) The three digit course number (e.g., 233)  3) The year that course was taken (4 digit integer)  4) The grade received ('A', 'B', 'C', 'D' or 'F').

Extra features (completing all three can yield a grade of 'A+'):

• Searching for a course (increase of 1 letter 'step'):  The user will be prompted to enter in a course code and course number and the program will search the list for a match.  If a match is found then the program will display all details about the course (all four fields).  If no match was found then the program will indicate that the search was unsuccessful because the course was not in the list.  If the list is empty no search will performed and an error message will be displayed instead.  The user should be able to enter in the course code in upper or lower case characters and program will convert all lower case values to upper case equivalents. The program will check that the course code consists of exactly four characters and will continue prompting the user if it is not.  The course number must consist of exactly three digits (from 100 to 999 inclusive).   If the user enters in a course number outside of this range the program will again continue prompting him or her to enter a proper value.   An option to cancel the search process should be provided in both cases.  Cancelling the search will bring the user back to the main menu.

• Adding a new course (increase of 2 letter 'steps'): The user will be prompted to enter in the information for a new course.  This course will be inserted into the list according to a chronological ordering.  For example, there are currently two courses in the list: the first course was taken in 1997 2) the second was taken in 2001.   The user then wants to add a  new course which she took in 1996.  The program will have to shift the existing elements in order to make room for the new element.   The second element is shifted into the third position while the first element is shifted into the second position.  The new element is then inserted into the first position of the list.  If the list already at the maximum possible size no addition will performed and an error message will be displayed to the user.  The program will check that the values for the course code and course number are valid as it did with searches.  Although the program doesn't directly check that the year was valid, entering a negative value will allow the user to cancel the process of adding  a new course.  Finally the program should check that the letter grade entered is in the range of 'A' - 'F', excluding the 'E' character but including upper or lower case input.  Lower case values for the course code or letter grade will be converted by the program into the corresponding upper case value before the new course is added to the list.

• Editing an existing course (increase of 2 letter 'steps'): The user will be prompted to enter in a course code and course number and then the program will search the list for a match.  If a match is found the program will then prompt the user to enter new information for the four fields of the class.    If no match was found then the program will indicate that the search was unsuccessful because the course was not in the list.  If the list is empty no search will performed and instead an error message will be displayed.  The program will check for the validity of the input in the same fashion as the addition of a new course.

• Removing an existing course (increase of 2 letter 'steps'):  The user will be prompted to enter in a course code and course number and the program will search the list for a match.  If a match is found then the program will delete that entry.   If the element to be deleted is not the last element then the elements that follow the element to be deleted must be shifted up.  For example if the list consists of three elements and the user wants to delete the first element, then the second element is shifted into the first position and the third element is shifted into the second position.  At this point your program should now treat the list as if it only had two elements.  In this example no third element will be displayed.  If no match was found then the program will indicate that the deletion was unsuccessful because the course was not in the list.  If the list is empty no search will performed and an error message will be displayed to the user.  The program must check for the validity of the course code and course number as was the case with the search function above.

Grading: Non-working submissions

D submissions:

The student has invested considerable time and effort into the assignment, the program does not fulfill any of the above requirements but it does compile.

D- submissions:

The student has invested considerable time and effort into the assignment, the program does not fulfill any of the above requirements and it does not compile.

Other submission requirements

In addition to having fulfill the generic assignment requirements the requirements specific to this assignment include:

1. Good coding style and documentation:  They will play a role in determining your final grade for this assignment.  Your grade can be reduced by a letter step or more (e.g., 'A' to 'A-' for poor programming style such as employing poor naming conventions for identifiers, insufficient documentation, the use of global variables or by not assigning the proper operations and attributes to classes).

2. Include a README file in your submission:  For this assignment your README file must indicate what functions you have completed as well as the grade level that you are aiming for.  This will allow your marker to quickly determine what he or she must look for and speed up the marking process.   For example:

e.g., I completed the "C" level requirements plus:

• The search function (+1)
• The remove function (+2)

Total estimated grade = 2.0 + 3 steps = 3.0

3. Assignments (source code and the README file) must be electronically submitted via submit.  In addition a paper print out of the source code must be handed into the assignment drop box for the lab that you are registered in (located on the second floor of the Math Sciences building).  Electronically submitting the assignment allows your marker to run the code in order to quickly determine what features were implemented.  Providing a paper printout makes it easier for your marker to read and flip through your source code.