---
title: Eboard 08  Exploring a C Project
number: 8
section: eboards
held: 2017-03-16
---
CSC 282.01, Class 08:  Exploring a C Project
============================================

_Overview_

* Preliminaries
    * Notes and news
    * Upcoming work
* Review of components of a typical project
* Building the Makefile
* Specifying the interface
* Writing tests
* Implementation strategies
* Building libraries
* Writing a utility

### News / Etc.

* I would have liked to have seen more of you work on the project
  (or at least ask questions about it).
* We will continue the project over break.  Please have code ready
  then.

### Upcoming work

* Finish the Arbitrarily Large Integers / Arbitrary Precision Integers /
  Arbitrarily Long Integers project.
* Read about C macros (distributed over break)

### Good things to do

* Singers concerts.
* Baseball games.
* Ultimate matches.

Review of components of a typical library project
-------------------------------------------------

* `Makefile` - Specifies how to build things.
* Documentation 
    * `README.md` - Overall view of the project
    * `DEVELOPER.md` - Internal implementation issues
    * `MANIFEST.md` - List of files and purpose
* `.h` files - specify interfaces and more
    * interface: types, procedures, constants, macros
* Black box tests!  (Don't pay attention to internals)
* Primary code for the library
    * `alint.c` - All of the library routines or
    * `alint-int.c` - Parse/unparse integers
    * `alint-double.c` - Parse/unparse double
    * `alint-string.c` - Parse/unparse string
    * `alint-math.c` - Guess
* Clear box tests!  Get code coverage.
* Sample application built with the library

Critiques
---------

* Don't add files with `git add .`.  Add them individually.

Building the Makefile
---------------------

What should the Makefile look like?

* Settings
* Standard targets
* Additional dependencies
* Anything else of use

Specifying the interface
------------------------

Question: What does this mean?

```
typedef struct ALInt ALInt;
```

We will eventually create a struct called `struct ALInt`.  We want to
use ALInt as an alias for `struct ALInt`.

Writing tests
-------------

Implementation strategies
-------------------------

* Linked list.
* Expandable array.
* Array with size.
* Array with terminator.

Building libraries
------------------

* See PMG

Writing a utility
-----------------

* Calculator (RPN)