CSC231 Homework 9 Fall 2017
--D. Thiebaut (talk) 20:19, 4 December 2017 (EST)
Problem 1: C Functions
Write a C program called funcs.c that contains only C functions. You will need to write an additional file called funcs.h, and the information about what it contains is the section on testing. The functions will be called by an external main program. This is very similar to the the last homework assignment, except then it was done in assembly.
Functions
Your funcs.c program should contain 3 functions: getMin(), zap() and merge().
- getMin()
- Receives 3 ints as parameters and returns the smallest.
- Example
printf( "Min of -10, 1, 10 = %d\n", getMin( -10, 1, 10 ) ); printf( "Min of -10, 1, 10, -20, 2 = %d\n", getMin( getMin( -10, 1, 10 ), -20, 2 ) ); // output: // Min of -10, 1, 10 = -10 // Min of -10, 1, 10, -20, 2 = -20
- zap()
- Receives two strings as parameters and modifies the first one by finding the first
- string in it, and replacing it with dashes.
- Example
char s1[] = "Mississippi Burning"; char s2[] = "Mississippi Burning"; //--- test zap --- printf( "s1 = %s\n", s1 ); zap( s1, "ss" ); printf( "zap(s1) = %s\n", s1 ); printf( "s2 = %s\n", s2 ); zap( s2, "tt" ); printf( "zap(s2) = %s\n", s2 ); // output: // s1 = Mississippi Burning // zap(s1) = Mi--issippi Burning // s2 = Mississippi Burning // zap(s2) = Mississippi Burning
- Note that zap() will return 1 if it has performed a substitution, and 0 otherwise.
- merge()
- receives 3 arrays of ints. The first two have dimension 5, each, and are sorted. The third one is of dimension 10, and contains random information, i.e. it is not initialized. Merge() takes the ints from both arrays of dimension 5 and merges them into the third array, keeping the ints sorted. You may assume that the first two arrays will always have dimension 5, and the third one will always have dimension 10.
- Example
int A[] = { 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 }; int B[] = { 4, 5, 12, 13, 15 }; int C[10]; merge( A, B, C ); for ( i=0; i<10; i++ ) printf( "%d, ", C[i] ); printf( "\n" ); // output: // 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15,
Merging in Python
For reference, here is how merge would work in Python:
from __future__ import print_function def merge( A, B, C ): """ merges 2 arrays into a 3rd one. The dimensions of the arrays can be any valid integer. C must be a mutable list. """ i = 0 j = 0 k = 0 while i<len(A) and j<len(B): if A[i] < B[j]: C.append( A[i] ) i += 1 else: C.append( B[j] ) j += 1 if i >= len( A) or j >= len( B ): break while i < len( A ): C.append( A[i] ) i += 1 while j < len( B ): C.append( B[j] ) j += 1 def main(): A = [1, 3, 10, 20, 30 ] B = [2, 3, 4, 5, 100 ] C = [] merge( A, B, C ) print( "A = ", A ) print( "B = ", B ) print( "C = ", C ) main() # output # A = [1, 3, 10, 20, 30, 31] # B = [2, 3, 4, 5, 100] # C = [1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 30, 31, 100]
Testing Your Program
Here is a simple example showing how to write two C programs, one containing functions, and one containing a main program, and link them together.
funcDemo.c
// funcDemo.c // D. Thiebaut // demonstration code for illustrating how to link // several C programs. // This program contains only 1 function. // sum() // returns the sum of the 2 ints it gets as parameters. int sum( int a, int b ) { return a + b; }
mainDemo.c
// mainDemo.c // D. Thiebaut // main program that calls the sum() // function from funcDemo.c #include <stdio.h> #include "funcDemo.h" void main() { int a=3, b=10; int c; c = sum( -1, 2000000000 ); printf( "sum( %d, %d ) = %d\n", -1, 2000000000, sum(-1, 2000000000 ) ); printf( "sum( %d, %d ) = %d\n", a, b, sum(a, b) ); printf( "sum( %d, sum( %d, %d ) ) = %d\n", a, 2, b, sum(a, sum( 2, b ) ) ); printf( "sum( %d, %d ) = %d\n", -1, 1, sum(-1, 1) ); }
funcDemo.h
In order to link together funcDemo.c and mainDemo.c, we need a third file, called a header file, that will list all the functions in funcDemo.c, but just the name of the functions and what kind of parameters they take, along with the type of value they return. We'll include this file in mainDemo.c, so that it knows what functions are available "on the outside." For funcDemo.c, the header file funcDemo.h looks like this:
// funcDemo.h // D. Thiebaut // header file for funcDemo.c // int sum( int a, int b );
Compiling Steps
gcc -c funcDemo.c gcc -o funcMain mainDemo.c funcDemo.o
- the first execution of the gcc command instructs it to generate an object file (with a .o extension) for funcDemo.c
- the second execution of gcc instructs it to compile funcMain.c, link it with the object file funcDemo.o and output the resulting executable in funcMain.
- to run the program, we simply type:
./funcMain
- and we get the following output:
sum( -1, 2000000000 ) = 1999999999 sum( 3, 10 ) = 13 sum( 3, sum( 2, 10 ) ) = 15 sum( -1, 1 ) = 0
A Test Program for funcs.c
In case this could be useful, here is a test main program to test your functions with, and its output when linked with the solution program containing the functions.
// main.c // D. Thiebaut // Test program for functions of Homework 9. #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> #include "funcs.h" void main(){ char s1[] = "Mississippi Burning"; char s2[] = "Mississippi Burning"; int i; //--- test getMin --- printf( "Min of -10, 1, 10 = %d\n", getMin( -10, 1, 10 ) ); printf( "Min of -10, 1, 10, -20, 2 = %d\n", getMin( getMin( -10, 1, 10 ), -20, 2 ) ); //--- test zap --- printf( "s1 = %s\n", s1 ); zap( s1, "ss" ); printf( "zap(s1) = %s\n", s1 ); printf( "s2 = %s\n", s2 ); zap( s2, "tt" ); printf( "zap(s2) = %s\n", s2 ); strcpy( s1, "Mississippi less" ); printf( "s1 = %s\n", s1 ); while ( zap( s1, "ss" ) ) /* do nothing */; printf( "zap(zap(...(s1))) = %s\n", s1 ); //--- test merge --- int A[] = { 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 }; int B[] = { 4, 5, 12, 13, 15 }; int C[10]; merge( A, B, C ); for ( i=0; i<10 && A[i]!=-1; i++ ) printf( "%d, ", C[i] ); printf( "\n" ); }
- output
Min of -10, 1, 10 = -10 Min of -10, 1, 10, -20, 2 = -20 s1 = Mississippi Burning zap(s1) = Mi--issippi Burning s2 = Mississippi Burning zap(s2) = Mississippi Burning s1 = Mississippi less zap(zap(...(s1))) = Mi--i--ippi le-- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15,
Submission
Submit your program as two different files (funcs.c and funcs.h) in the Homework 9 section, on Moodle.
Preparation for Problem 2: Accessing argc and argv
Using argc and argv to get command line arguments is standard practice in most programming languages (at least the one that can be run from the command line).
We can also do it in assembly, as well.
Here is a demo program that gets argc (the number of arguments on the command line, including the name of the program itself), and argv[1] from the command line:
;;; getParams.asm ;;; D. Thiebaut ;;; ;;; gets argc and argv[1] as an int from the command ;;; line. ;;; ;;; To assemble, link, and run: ;;; nasm -f elf getParams.asm ;;; nasm -f elf 231Lib.asm ;;; ld -melf_i386 -o getParams getParams.o 231Lib.o ;;; ./getParams ;;; section .text extern _atoi ; note the new function extern _printDec extern _println global _start _start: ;;; When any assembly language program starts, the operating system ;;; passes it argc and argv through the statck. The esp register ;;; points to argc. at esp+4, is a pointer to the beginning of argv[0], ;;; as a string. At esp+8 is a pointer to the beginning of argv[1], ;;; as a string. mov ebp, esp mov eax, dword[ebp] ; put argc into eax call _printDec ; print it call _println mov eax, dword[ebp+4+4] ; make eax points to arv[1] call _atoi ; convert ascii string to int call _printDec ; print it. call _println ; new line. ;;; exit mov ebx, 0 mov eax, 1 int 0x80
- Compile and run it with a variety of input parameters
231b@aurora ~ $ nasm -f elf getParams.asm 231b@aurora ~ $ nasm -f elf getParams.asm 231b@aurora ~ $ nasm -f elf 231Lib.asm 231b@aurora ~ $ ld -melf_i386 getParams.o 231Lib.o -o getParams 231b@aurora ~ $ ./getParams 123 2 123 231b@aurora ~ $ ./getParams 12 hello 3 12
- When you run the program with command line arguments, such as "123" or "123 hello", getParams prints the number of arguments first, follow by the integer that is entered right after the program name.
./getParams 123
- in this case we have 2 words on the command line, "./getParams" and "123", so the first number printed is 2, and "123" is translated from a string to an int by the function atoi, and that's the second number printed.
./getParams 123 hello
- in this second case, we have 3 words on the command line, so the first number printed is 3, and atoi transforms "12" into the integer 12, which is the 2nd number printed.
Problem 2
Your assignment is to use the previous program (getParams.asm) as inspiration and create a program called hw9b.asm that will use a recursive function to print all the moves required to displace disks in the Towers of Hanoi game. The program will also display the number of moves required to move N disks from the source peg to the destination peg.
Your program must be written in assembly.
Requirements
- Your program will call the recursive function moveDisks and pass it the characters 'A', 'B', 'C' as well as the number of disks that will be read from the command line. 'A' will be the source, and 'B' the destination for the N disks. Your program will then display an output consisting of two letters separated by a space, followed by a new-line. For example:
A B
A C
B C
A B
...
- At the end, the program will output an integer equal to the number of moves printed. You are free to decide how to compute this quantity. It just have to be correct.
- When calling the moveDisks function, you may pass the characters and the number of disk through registers, or through the stack. This is up to you.
- You can assume that the user will always be well-behaved and will always pass an integer on the command line, and that this integer will always be larger than 0.
Program Behavior
Below is an example of how your program should behave:
231b@aurora ~ $ nasm -f elf 231Lib.asm 231b@aurora ~ $ nasm -f elf hw9b.asm 231b@aurora ~ $ ld -melf_i386 -o hw9b hw9b.o 231Lib.o cs231a@aurora ~ $ ./hw9b cs231a@aurora ~ $ ./hw9b 1 A B 1 cs231a@aurora ~ $ ./hw9b 2 A C A B C B 3 cs231a@aurora ~ $ ./hw9b 3 A B A C B C A B C A C B A B 7 cs231a@aurora ~ $ ./hw9b 4 A C A B C B A C B A B C A C A B C B C A B A C B A C A B C B 15
Submission
Submit your program on Moodle.
