Julian Bishop

Jump Into Ruby

Due by midnight on Monday Jan 28th

Objectives

This assignment should get you started on the basics of Ruby programming — assignment (no pun intended), variables, expressions, classes, methods, lists, arithmetic, and extending existing classes. This assignment should also familiarize you with using irb for running code and doing simple testing.

Description

While it might be quite nice to "get your feet wet" with Ruby first, there just isn't enough time in the semester to dilly dally. So let's just jump right on in. Don't worry, the water's fine.

1. Funkonacci Numbers!

   Recall the example from class about calculating Fibonacci numbers. Define the Funkonacci numbers as follows:

   
   

   	0	if n < 1
   funk(n) =	1	if n = 1
   	funk(n - 1) - (2 × funk(n - 2))	otherwise

   
   

   Write a method funk(n) that calculates the nth Funkonacci number recursively. Generate a few Funkonacci numbers. Pretty funky, eh? Now write a second method, fastfunk(n) that calculates the nth Funkonacci number more quickly, using one of the techniques shown in class. Put your methods in a file named funk.rb.

   
   

2. Vegas, Baby!

   
   

   The Boolaggio Hotel and Casino in fabulous Las Vegas, NV spends a large portion of their yearly revenue on playing cards. Business hasn't been too great lately, and the shareholders are looking to cut costs. They've hired you to design a program to replace their aging, obsolete paper playing cards.

   
   

   Your program should include a class Card (or a Struct if you want to get fancy) that represents a card, as well as a class Deck that represents a deck of playing cards. The Card class should have a to_s method that returns a succinct, easily readible String representation of the card. The Deck class constructor should make a deck of 52 playing cards, of rank 2 through Ace, with suits of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. Your Deck class should respond to the following methods:

   
   
   • shuffle, which randomizes the order of the cards and returns the recently shuffled deck. You may not use Array#shuffle.
   • empty?, which returns a true value if the deck has no cards in it, and a false value otherwise
   • deal, which when called with the default argument of 1, deals a card from the top of the deck. If called with an integer argument of 2 or greater, it should return an Array of cards of that size, dealt from the top of the deck. If there are not enough cards, it should deal as many as possible. If the deck is empty to begin with, it should return nil.
   • size, which returns the number of cards left
   
   

   Put your code in a file named deck.rb. When executed (but not when loaded), deck.rb should take one command-line parameter (print a usage message if it isn't a positive integer), and print out that many random cards. If the parameter is greater than 52, it should print out 52 cards. Here is an example trace to give you an idea of how your program should behave:

   
   

   $ ./deck.rb
   usage: ./deck.rb num_cards
   $ ./deck.rb foobar
   usage: ./deck.rb num_cards
   $ ./deck.rb 3
   3s, Tc, 2h
   $ ./deck.rb 15
   Ac, 5s, 7d, Tc, 7h, 8c, Jh, 9d, Qs, 5c, Ts, Jd, 7s, 3d, 6c
   $ ./deck.rb 52
   7c, 5c, 4h, Jc, Th, Ac, 6d, 2c, 9s, Kd, 2d, Js, 6s, 2h, 8h, 4s, 5s, Tc,
   9h, Td, 4d, 3d, Jh, 9c, Ts, Qd, 8s, 3h, Qh, 9d, 8c, 3s, 2s, Jd, Qs, Kc, 
   Ks, 5h, 6h, 7d, 8d, 7h, Qc, Kh, 5d, Ah, As, 7s, 4c, 3c, 6c, Ad
   $ ./deck.rb 5200
   3c, Qs, Tc, Ah, 2c, 8s, 3h, 4d, 7s, 2d, 8c, Qd, Js, Kc, 5s, 7h, 4s, 4h, 
   Jc, As, 5h, 7d, 9s, 2s, 3d, Ac, Ks, 3s, 7c, 9d, Td, Th, 6h, Ts, Kh, Ad,
   Qh, 6s, 5c, Qc, 6c, Jh, 9c, 4c, Jd, 2h, 9h, 8h, Kd, 6d, 8d, 5d
   




3. Set Operations

   
   

   The Array class in Ruby defines some set operations, such as union (|), intersection (&), and difference (-).

   
   

   The symmetric difference of two sets is defined as the set of items that is in exactly one of the sets. This is usually denoted with a small, upward pointing triangle. However, since we don't have that character, add the operator ^ to the Array class such that, if a and b are Arrays, a ^ b returns an Array that represents their symmetric difference.

   
   

   The Cartesian product of two sets is defined as the set of all pairs such that the first element is in the first set and the second element is in the second set. Add the operator ** to the Array class such that a ** b returns an Array that represents their Cartesian product. You may not use the method Array#product.

   
   

   The power set of a set is the set of all subsets of the set (which always includes the empty set). Define a method powerset in class Array such that a.powerset returns the powerset of a. The powerset method must not use recursion. Define another method powersetr that behaves identically to powerset but does use recursion. You may not use the method Array#combination.

   
   

   Put your methods in a file called setops.rb

   
   

4. Optional Extra Credit: More Set Operations

   
   

   The permutations of a set is the set of all possible orderings of the elements of that set. So the permutations of {1,2,3} are {<1,2,3>, <1,3,2>, <2,1,3>, <2,3,1>, <3,1,2>, <3,2,1>}. Define a method permute in class Array such that a.permute returns the permutations of a. You may do this recursively or non-recursively or both! Which do you think is more efficient? How many permutations of n set elements are there? Could this lead to practical problems at runtime? and if so how might we address them? Use the setops.rb file for this method.

   
   

Grading Criteria

Your code will be graded on correctness and style. Please use the naming conventions discussed in class. Unless specifically mentioned in the description, you do not need to do any extensive error or input checking.

Submission Checklist

• funk.rb
• deck.rb
• setops.rb