redo

CS 441-Midterm Exam
Fall 1999
Meng Yi Yee

Requirements of the Language

The programming language must be able to accept inputs and produces outputs accordingly

When the user input the depth to be drilled, the programming language must process the depth and then tell the underground drill to drill the correct depth, which will be the output of the input

The programming language must be able to support real-time system

This programming language is time constraint. When the user says move forward 3 feet, the underground drill must be able move right after the user sends the command. If it doesn’t move at that moment, which will cause the operation to fail or wasting the user's time to wait for a long time until it moves.

The programming language must be able to handle data storage perfectly

One of the most important data storage is to store the location of the mining field surrounding the underground drill. It can be store in the form of 3-dimensional array.

The programming language must be able to support artificial intelligence

When a critical condition happen such as collapse of the turnel, the underground drill itself must be able to decide which way to move so that the company will not lose their underground drill when this kind of critical condition happen.

The programming language must be able to read input devices

When the user use a pen to point on a location on the screen of the remote control, it must be able to read correct location. Then, the location can be used for some other command like bomb the location

The programming language must be able to support portability

The programming language must support portability so that it can be used in a remote control or a laptop computer or some other control devices

Implement Issues of Project

Basically, this new programming language will be an event-driven programming language. The user in the mind field can hold a remote control or use a laptop computer as a controller to an underground drill. On the controller, there will be many choices of commands like move forward, move backward, turning, scan the area, bomb a target location and so on. These commands will be shown on the screen of a laptop computer or will be each individual button on a remote control.

Global Positioning System is used to track the underground drill so that the user will know where the current location of the underground drill. Furthermore, the user will know which path to use when the user wants the underground drill to return to the surface. This way, the user will not lose the underground drill by not knowing where the current location of the underground drill.

Some Artificial Intelligence is needed when implementing this issue because there might be some many critical conditions occur during mining. Collapse of the tunnel is one of the biggest critical conditions, the user will not feel it on the surface. The underground drill must have the ability to detect that incident before it happens and then the underground drill must be able to know how to move to a safer place.

Most of the commands need a location as inputs of the commands. In this case, a 3-dimensional plane representation is used. The underground drill always represents location (0, 0, 0) even though it moves from location A to location B. Below is the graphical representation of the issue.

This way, user can input the coordinate for commanding an underground drill to do some particular job like bombing a target location or scan the area from where to where.

Besides the above, this new programming language is highly portable. This programming language can be enhanced to perform new job such as going under water to search and rescue people. The programmer can choose not to use all the built-in modules. In fact, the programmer can create new modules. The new modules can be programmed to read inputs from other devices such as mouse or keyboard to perform the tasks. This will allow room for expandability to the existing language.

Language Features and Characteristic

Support different kinds of control devices

This programming language has the ability to communicate with different kinds of control devices. For example, if the program is installed on a laptop computer, it will know how to communicate between the laptop computer or how to communicate with touch pad of the laptop computer. If it is installed onto a remote control, it will know how to read the pointed location when the user uses a pen to point on the screen of the remote control

Support Graphical User Interface (GUI)

All the commands (like move forward, backward, and bomb) will be represented in graphical manner on a laptop computer. This feature will not appear on a remote control but those commands will be on each buttons on the remote control. But, the underground drill location and its surrounding area will be shown on both laptop computer and remote control. 3 colors of grid lines represent the different planes

Support Global Positioning System (GPS)

This feature is needed so that the user can track where is the location of the underground drill. This feature is only used to track the underground drill. The location of mines and others will not use this feature

Support Artificial Intelligence

This feature will let the underground drill to make a perfect decision when some conditions occur. For example, when the user send a command of move forward, the underground drill must be able to choose a path to reach the specified distance if there is a block on its path. Some other condition is collapse of the tunnel

Inclusion and/or Exclusion of Features

Support different kinds of control devices

This feature can be exclusive in the design of the program. But, if this feature is included in the design, the users have a chance to choose whatever controller that they feel more comfortable

Support Graphical User Interface

This is a features the must be used if the program is installed on a computer. The user will feel more comfortable with GUI because it provides a more user-friendly interface for the application

Support Global Positioning System

This is a must have feature to track the underground drill. If this feature is not included in the program, the users might have difficulty to track the underground drill location and later the users will have difficulty to call the underground drill come back to the surface

Support Artificial Intelligence

This feature must be included in the program so that the mining process will run more smoothly. Also, this will prevent any loss of underground drill which is expensive to build

Develop the Regular Grammar

Data Types

Operator	Description	Example
int	16-bit signed integer Range: –32,768 to 32,767	int A
large_integer	32-bit signed integer Range: -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647	large_int A
char	8-bit Windows (ANSI) characters	char A
string	Character string stores value up to 255 characters	string A
bool	Boolean stores TRUE or FALSE	bool A
float	6-7 digits significant signed floating-point 8 bits exponent length, 23 bits mantissa length	float A
large_float	15-16 digits significant signed floating-point 11 bits exponent length, 52 bits mantissa length	large_float A

Typed vs Typeless

In this underground drilling issue, the varibles should be typed variables. This is because some modules need input variables some need float as input and some need integer as input. We cannot send any character to any modules that require float. Therefore, all variables should be typed variables

Assignment and Comment

Operator	Description	Example
=	Assignment	A = 1 + 2
##	Sigle Line Comment	## This is sigle line comment
!#, #!	Multiple Lines Comment	!# This is the start for the comment This is the end of the comment !#

Arithmetic Operations

Operator	Description	Example
+	Addition	Result = A + B
-	Subtraction	Result = A – B
*	Multiplication	Result = A * B
/	Division	Result = A / B Sample output: Result = 17.1
\	Integer Division	Result = A \ B Sample output: Result = 17
%	Modulus	Result = A % B Sample output: Result = 1 (17.1)

Logical Operations

Operator	Description	Example
&&	AND	A && B
\|	OR	A \| B
!	NOT	!A

Equality and Relational Operations

Operator	Description	Example
= =	Equal	A = = B
!=	Not Equal	A != B
>	Greater Than	A > B
<	Smaller Than	A < B
>=	Greater Than or Equal	A >= B
<=	Smaller Than or Equal	A <= B

Statement Types

If-Then-Else Statement

Nested If-Then-Else Statement

While Statement

Repeat-Until Statement

Case Statement

For Statement

Modules

Module	Description of Module	Variables	Description of Variables
Scan (float x1, float y1, float z1, float x2, float y2, float z3)	Scan for mine from initial location to final location	float x1 float y1 float z1 float x2 float y2 float z2	Initial location in x-plane Initial location in y-plane Initial location in z-plane Final location in x-plane Final location in y-plane Final location in z-plane
Turn (char Direction, float Degree)	Turn left or right in the amount of degree	char Direction float Degree	Turning direction, L or R Number of degree to be turned
Forward (float Distance)	Move forward in the amount of feet	float Distance	Number of feet to move forward
Backward (float Distance)	Move backward in the amount of feet	float Distance	Number of feet to move backward
Bomb (float x_axis, float y_axis, float z_axis)	Bomb a location in the specified target location	float x_axis float y_axis float z_axis	Target location in x-plane Target location in y-plane Target location in z-plane
Detect ()	Detect for mines, count number of groups of mines and show the location of mine on the controller screen
Drill (float Depth)	Drill the current location until the specified depth	float Depth	Depth in feet that to be drill
Collect ()	Store the mines in the storage compartment after drilling

Modularity

The modules are written and can be maintained independently. Coupling among modules is minimal. If a module is modified, it will not effect the whole system. Therefore, each module is indepent
Language suppports build-in modules. This enchance the modularity of the language

Grammar

Assignment = =

Comment = ## | !# | #!

datatype = int | large_int | char | string | bool | float | large_float
int = 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0

large_int = <int>E<int>

char = a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

string = <char><char><char>… .<char> ##255 char

boolean = TRUE | FALSE

float = <int>.<int>

large_float = <float>E<int>

SpecialCharacter = ~ | ` | @ | # | $ | ^ | & | ( | ) | _ | [ | { | } | ] | : | ; | ' | " | < | > | , | . | ?

ArithmeticOperation = + | - | * | / | \ | %
LogicalOperation = && | | | !
EqualityAndRelationalOperation = != | = = | > | < | >= | <=
StatementType = If-Then-Else Statement | Nested If-Then-Else Statement | While Statement | Repeat-Until Statement | Case Statement | For Statement

VariableName = <string>

condition = <StatementType> | <VariableName> <LogicalOperation> <VariableName> | <VariableName> <EqualityAndRelationalOperation> <VariableName>

statement = <datatype> = <datatype> | StatementType | statement

If-Then-Else Statement = if <condition> then {<statement>} else {<statement>}

Nested If-Then-Else Statement = if <condition> then {<statement>} elseif <condition> then {<statement>} else {<statement>}

While Statement = while <condition> {<statement>}

Repeat-Until Statement = repeat {<statement>} until <condition>

case 1 | case 2 | … | case n = <datatype>

Case Statement = case <VariableName> {<case 1>: {<statement> } <case 2>:{<statement>} <case n>:{<statement>}}

initial = <int>

final = <int>

For Statement = for <VariableName> = <initial> to <final> {<statement>}

CommandType = Press | JoystickMove

Module = <ModuleName>_<CommandType> {<statement>}

Example of the Programming Language

References

MSDN Website, http://msdn.microsoft.com/
CS 441 Class Notes, http://www.bit.umkc.edu/vu/course/cs441/Lessons.shtml
Using Turbo Pascal 6.0-7.0, 3rd Edition, Julien Hennefeld, PWS Publiching Company
Applications Programming in ANSI C, 2nd Edition, Richard Johnsonbaugh & Martin Kalin, Macmillan Publishing Company
C++: How to Program, H. M. Deitel & P. J. Deitel, Prentice Hall, Inc.