C for Java Programmers: Linked List Project

This repository contains the shell files, solution, and submission tracking infrastructure for the linked list project issued during the tutorial series C for Java Programmers. Before beginning work on this project, please read these instructions carefully, as they will detail how you can start working on this project, get help with your code if something goes wrong, and ensure that you can receive feedback on your work. If you have any questions about this document or any part of the project, feel free to open an issue in this repository so that it can be seen and answered. Thank you!

Project overview

In this project, you are tasked with writing an intrusive linked list, or a list in which the data store the linked list pointers, rather than featuring separate linked list nodes that contain pointers to the data. This approach to writing a linked list has a number of advantages, some of the most significant of which are that it allows a linked list to be easily placed in either static or dynamic memory, and that the list is recursively defined, permitting random access from any point in the list without the need for an explicit iterator. We shall use this linked list, documented in linked_list.h, to implement a simple database of students, documented in student.h. As you work on this project, I encourage you to tackle the linked list functions first, then move on to implementing functionality specialised for the student database.

Getting started

To begin working on this project, fork this repository into your own GitHub account using the "Fork" button in the upper right-hand corner of the GitHub interface. Open a terminal and navigate to the directory in which you wish to work on the project, then run the following command, omitting the leading $ which is used to indicate a shell prompt:

$ git clone https://github.com/your-github-username/c4jp-linked-list.git

Following some diagnostic output, you should now see a new directory named c4jp-linked-list in your current directory. Navigate into that directory, then run the following command to build the project for the first time:

$ make run_test

If all is well, you should now see a test.h transcript containing 21 tests, most of which are likely failing due to the fact that you haven't implemented the project yet. Let's get to work!

Working on the project

This project was developed with the intent to allow you to work on it in a test-driven style, in which you can implement functions to ensure that tests pass in a sequential order. You certainly don't have to implement your functions in the order suggested by the tests, but doing so may prove to be very helpful. It is recommended that you test your program frequently, paying attention to the entirety of the tester output to ensure that subsequent modifications have not introduced any defects into tests that you were passing at a time in the past. You can always run make run_test to build and run your project; if you need to use a debugger to step through your program, debug symbols are enabled in the Makefile and test.h is fully debugger-compatible. If at any point you wish to delete any compiled files, run make clean to do so.

Getting help

If you need some help with your implementation of this project, feel free to open an issue in the project root repository. Use the Help Request template when you open your issue, both to save yourself some typing and to provide some uniformity in how help requests are formatted. Fully fill out the template: failure to do so may result in your issue being closed without being read. I may correspond with you about your issue—please be prompt and courteous in your responses. Once your issue is resolved or after a period of one week of inactivity, you should close your issue or it may be automatically closed for you.

In addition, a full solution to the project is available on the solution branch. I encourage you to not look at this branch until you have finished your implementation, but if you are stuck and need some additional help, you can refer to that branch for ideas.

Getting feedback

Once you have finished your implementation of the project and made your last commit to your fork, open a pull request from your fork to the master branch of the project root repository. I shall leave some feedback on your submission in the form of a code review, but then shall ultimately close the pull request to keep the master branch clean. If you have any questions about my feedback, feel free to leave additional comments on your pull request. I ask that you please refrain from submitting until you have completely finished your implementation, meaning that all tests are passing and you have performed a proofreading round on your code to catch any common stylistic or technical errors. If you do not meet this threshold, your pull request may be rejected without any feedback being given.

Good luck on the project!