Lab 12: Scheme Data Abstraction
Due by 11:59pm on Wednesday, April 13.
Starter Files
Download lab12.zip. Inside the archive, you will find starter files for the questions in this lab, along with a copy of the Ok autograder.
Topics
Consult this section if you need a refresher on the material for this lab. It's okay to skip directly to the questions and refer back here should you get stuck.
Data Abstractions
Data abstraction is a powerful concept in computer science that allows programmers to treat code as objects. For example, using code to represent cars, chairs, people, and so on. That way, programmers don't have to worry about how code is implemented; they just have to know what it does.
Data abstraction mimics how we think about the world. If you want to drive a car, you don't need to know how the engine was built or what kind of material the tires are made of to do so. You just have to know how to use the car for driving itself, such as how to turn the wheel or press the gas pedal.
A data abstraction consists of two types of functions:
- Constructors: functions that build the abstract data type.
- Selectors: functions that retrieve information from the data type.
Programmers design data abstractions to abstract away how information is stored and calculated such that the end user does not need to know how constructors and selectors are implemented. The nature of abstraction allows whoever uses them to assume that the functions have been written correctly and work as described. Using this idea, developers are able to use a variety of powerful libraries for tasks such as data processing, security, visualization, and more without needing to write the code themselves!
In Python, you primarily worked with data abstractions using Object Oriented Programming, which used
Python Object
s to store the data. Notably, this is not possible in Scheme, which is a functional
programming language. Instead, we create and return new structures which represent the current state of the data.
Example Data Abstractions
Rational
Recall that a rational number is any number that can be expressed as p / q, where p and q are integers.
; Creates the rational number n/d (Assume n, d are integers and d != 0)
; Note that the constructor simplifies the numerator and denominator.
(rational n d)
; Gets the numerator of rational number r
(numer r)
; Gets the denominator of rational number r
(denom r)
; Adds two rational numbers x and y
(add-rational x y)
; Multiplies two rational numbers x and y
(mul-rational x y)
Trees
Below is a Scheme-ified data abstraction of the Tree class we've been working with this semester.
; Constructs tree given label and list of branches
(tree label branches)
; Returns the label of the tree
(label t)
; Returns the list of branches of the given tree
(branches t)
; Returns #t if t is a leaf, #f otherwise
(is-leaf t)
Questions
What Would Scheme Do?
Q1: WWSD: Data Abstractions
Let's familiarize ourselves with some Scheme data abstractions!
If you need a refresher on the
tree
andrational
abstractions, refer to this lab's introduction or Monday 04/11's lecture.
Use Ok to test your knowledge with the following "What Would Python Display?" questions:
python3 ok -q abstractions -u
scm> (load rational.scm)
scm> (define x (rational 2 5))
scm> (numer x)
scm> (denom x)
scm> (define y (rational 1 4))
scm> (define z1 (add-rational x y))
scm> (numer z1)
scm> (denom z1)
scm> (define z2 (mul-rational x y)) ; don't forget to reduce the rational!
scm> (numer z2)
scm> (denom z2)
scm> (load tree.scm)
scm> (define t (tree 1 (list (tree 2 nil)) ))
scm> (label t)
scm> (length (branches t))
scm> (define child (car (branches t)))
scm> (label child)
scm> (is-leaf child)
scm> (branches child)
scm> (load tree.scm)
scm> (define b1 (tree 5 (list (tree 6 nil) (tree 7 nil)) ))
scm> (map is-leaf (branches b1)) ; draw the tree if you get stuck!
scm> (define b2 (tree 8 (list (tree 9 (list (tree 10 nil)) )) ))
scm> (map is-leaf (branches b2)) ; draw the tree if you get stuck!
scm> (define t (tree 11 (list b1 b2)))
scm> (label t)
scm> (map (lambda (b) (label b)) (branches t)) ; draw the tree if you get stuck!
Code Writing Questions
Remember that when working with data abstractions, you should not break the abstraction barrier if possible! Later questions will have abstraction checks, where the underlying representation of the abstraction will be changed; thus, attempting to refer to specifics of the implementation will break. Attempt to use the functions you are creating to interface with the classes whenever possible.
Cities
Say we have an abstract data type for cities. A city has a name, a latitude coordinate, and a longitude coordinate.
Our data abstraction has one constructor:
(make-city name lat lon)
: Creates a city object with the given name, latitude, and longitude.
We also have the following selectors in order to get the information for each city:
(get-name city)
: Returns the city's name(get-lat city)
: Returns the city's latitude(get-lon city)
: Returns the city's longitude
Here is how we would use the constructor and selectors to create cities and extract their information:
scm> (define berkeley (make-city 'Berkeley 122 37))
berkeley
scm> (get-name berkeley)
Berkeley
scm> (get-lat berkeley)
122
scm> (define new-york (make-city 'NYC 74 40))
new-york
scm> (get-lon new-york)
40
All of the selector and constructor functions can be found in the lab file, if you are curious to see how they are implemented. However, the point of data abstraction is that we do not need to know how an abstract data type is implemented, but rather just how we can interact with and use the data type.
Q2: Distance
We will now implement the function distance
, which computes the
Euclidean distance between two city objects; the Euclidean distance between two
coordinate pairs (x1, y1)
and (x2, y2)
can be found by calculating
the sqrt((x1 - x2) ** 2 + (y1 - y2) ** 2)
. Use the latitude and longitude of a city as
its coordinates; you'll need to use the selectors to access this info!
You may find the following methods useful:
(expt base exp)
: calculatebase ** exp
(sqrt x)
calculatesqrt(x)
(define (distance city-a city-b)
'YOUR-CODE-HERE
)
Use Ok to test your code:
python3 ok -q city_distance
Q3: Closer city
Next, implement closer-city
, a function that takes a latitude,
longitude, and two cities, and returns the name of the city that is
relatively closer to the provided latitude and longitude.
You may only use the selectors and constructors introduced above and the
distance
function you just defined for this question.
Hint: How can you use your
distance
function to find the distance between the given location and each of the given cities?
(define (closer-city lat lon city-a city-b)
'YOUR-CODE-HERE
)
Use Ok to test your code:
python3 ok -q city_closer
Teachers and Students
In the following questions, you'll be implementing data abstractions for students and teachers:
- The
teacher
abstraction keeps track of the teacher'sname
, theclass
they teach, and thestudents
enrolled in their class. Specifically, ateacher
'sname
andclass
are atomic symbols, and theirstudents
is a list ofstudent
objects. - The
student
abstraction keeps track of a student'sname
and number ofclasses
attended. Specifically, astudent
'sname
is an atomic symbol, and theirclasses
is a list of atomic symbols representing all classes attended. For example, if a student had attendedcs61a
andastronomy
, theirclasses
list would be(cs61a astronomy)
.
You can find the constructors for these classes below:
(define (student-create name classes) (cons name classes))
(define (teacher-create name class students) (cons name (cons class students)))
Q4: Teachers and Students: Selectors
Implement student-get-name
, student-get-classes
, teacher-get-name
, teacher-get-class
, and teacher-get-students
. These functions take in a student
or teacher
abstraction, and return the relevant attribute; for example, student-get-name
takes a student
as input, and returns the name
.
(define (student-get-name student)
'YOUR-CODE-HERE
)
(define (student-get-classes student)
'YOUR-CODE-HERE
)
(define (teacher-get-name teacher)
'YOUR-CODE-HERE
)
(define (teacher-get-class teacher)
'YOUR-CODE-HERE
)
(define (teacher-get-students teacher)
'YOUR-CODE-HERE
)
Use Ok to test your code:
python3 ok -q teacher_student_selectors
Q5: Students: Attend Class
Implement student-attend-class
. This method takes in a student
and a class
as input, and returns a new student
abstraction with the class
list updated to reflect the class
attended.
Be sure to keep the abstraction barrier in mind!
(define (student-attend-class student class)
'YOUR-CODE-HERE
)
Use Ok to test your code:
python3 ok -q student_attend_class
Q6: Teachers: Hold Discussion
Implement teacher-hold-class
. This method takes in a teacher
as input, and emulates holding a class. Specifically, the function should return a new updated teacher
, where all student
objects in the teacher
's students
list have updated class
lists to reflect their attendance.
Be sure to keep the abstraction barrier in mind! Feel free to use any of the functions implemented in previous parts of this lab. You may also find the
map
function useful.
(define (teacher-hold-class teacher)
'YOUR-CODE-HERE
)
Use Ok to test your code:
python3 ok -q teacher_hold_class
Submit
Make sure to submit this assignment by running:
python3 ok --submit