Description
In questions (2) and (3), assume that Shape has been typedef’d to a suitable struct.
1. On a particular C system a short occupies 2 bytes with an alignment restriction that it must be
stored at an address which is divisible by 2. Discuss how you would proceed to tighten this alignment
restriction to force a particular short entity to always be stored at an address divisible by 8.
Document any assumptions in your solution. 5-points
2. Describe in English the types of the following variables. Identify any types which are invalid:
15-points
a) Shape* a, b;
b) const Shape *(fs[])(double);
c) const Shape (*fs[])(double);
d) Shape *const p;
e) int (*cmps[10])(const Shape *, const Shape *);
3. A function f() takes a single argument and returns a single value. The type of the single argument to
f() is a pointer to a function which takes an unspecified number of arguments and returns a pointer
to a const Shape. The value returned by f() is a pointer to an array of pointers to functions
which take a single int argument and return a single Shape result. 10-points
a) Give a declaration for f() using auxiliary typedef’s.
b) Give a declaration for f() without using auxiliary typedef’s.
4. Identify bugs and inadequacies in the following function.
/** Return first line read from file named fileName. The
* terminating newline is not returned.
*/
char *
getFirstLine(char *fileName)
{
int maxLine = 1024;
char line[maxLine];
FILE *in = fopen(fileName, “r”);
0
char *p = line;
fgets(line, maxLine, in);
char *p = line;
if (line[strlen(line)] != 10) { //line[] too small, alloc dynamically
char *p = malloc(sizeof(2*maxLine));
fgets(p, 2*maxLine, in);
}
p[strlen(line)] = 0; //replace newline with NUL char
return p;
}
You should assume that all required header files have been included. 15-points
5. Given an instance of class C in a classical OOPL, instances of classes totally unrelated to C can have
public access to the instance variables of C. The techniques discussed in class for simulating OOP
in C in the oo-shapes example and prj1 do not allow such access, limiting access to the instance
variables of C solely to the instances of C. How would you modify the techniques to allow access
similar to public? 10-points
6. How would you extend the techniques discussed in class for simulating OOP in C in the oo-shapes
example and prj1 to allow for interfaces. Specifically, how would you make it possible for a client to
take a Shape and treat is as a DrawableInterface where DrawableInterface will
reference the following functions:
typedef struct {
void (*draw)(DrawableInterface *drawable, GraphicsContext *ctx);
} DrawableFns;
for some graphics context ctx.
For example, there may be a inheritance hierarchy like WireFrame different from the Shape
hierarchy which may also implement a Drawable interface.
Like the rest of the techniques, using a Shape as a DrawableInterface may require that the
client follow certain rules and need not be as seamless as in a real OOPL. 10-points
7. Real OOPL’s protect objects from invalid access. For example, given the Java class:
class Circle extends Shape {
private final double radius;
Circle(double r) { radius = r; }
double getRadius() { return radius; }
}
[For those unfamiliar with Java, the above declares Circle to be a subclass of Shape with all
Circle instances having a single field radius which cannot be changed (final) once the
instance has been constructed (using the Circle() constructor)].
1 CS 451 / 551 Homework 1
With normal Java semantics, is impossible for a client of Circle to change the radius of a Circle
instance once it has been constructed (ignoring reflection which makes a mockery of things like
final declarations).
Since C is not a OOPL, it makes no such guarantees. Show how a client of Circle (implemented as
in the oo-shapes example discussed in class) could modify the radius of a Circle instance after
constructing it. Specifically, you should be able to show how you would achieve something like this:
const Circle *circle1 = newCircle(1); //radius is 1
//your code here (cannot change circle1 pointer)
printf(“created circle1 = circle(radius = %g)\n”,
circle1->fns->radius(circle1));
and have it print created circle1 = circle(radius = 2).
You may assume that the client has read-only access to all the source code implementing
Shape’s, Circle’s, etc. 10-points
8. Some languages permit lazy evaluation. How would you implement a restricted form of lazy
evaluation in C. A motivating example follows:
Consider an array of function pointers used as shown below:
int (*fns[])(int exp) = { … };
int p = …;
int s = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(fns)/sizeof(fns[0]); i++) {
int (*f)(int) = fns[i];
int exp = …; //compute exp(p) for some param p.
s += f(exp);
}
Unfortunately, under some situations, the computation for exp blows up (maybe a division by zero
or referencing a NULL pointer). It turns out that the knowledge needed to implement a check to see if
exp(p) is dangerous is not available at the level of the above code but is available within each
individual function. But since exp is evaluated before the call to the function, using the check within
the function would be too late. This could be avoided by using lazy evaluation of exp.
How would you set things up so as to delay the evaluation of exp(p) until after an individual
function has been able to run the check to ensure that it is safe. You may change both the above code
as well as the interface and implementation of the individual functions in the array. 10-points
9. Discuss the validity of the following statements: 15-points
a) If a C function is declared with prototype void f() but then defined with prototype void
f(int a), then the compiler will signal an error about the inconsistency in the prototypes.
b) The stderr stream need not always be unbuffered.
2 CS 451 / 551 Homework 1
c) It is fine to malloc() a single character at a time.
d) NULL and 0 are equivalent in pointer contexts.
e) In the standard I/O library on Unix systems, there is no noticeable difference between opening a
file as binary versus opening it as text.
3 CS 451 / 551 Homework 1
