eceg431/reflections/projects/7.txt

Functionally, my code for Project 7 (VM to ASM) is the same as Project 6 (ASM to Hack), at least in the beginning. I wrote the program to be very class-heavy, object oriented and well structured- allowing me to bring over the Parser class. The Parser class takes all commands into a list, and allows for iteration through the list. It allows for the command type to be identified and arguments to be separated. The CodeWriter class then writes the assembly commands as strings- they’re parsed by the parser, fed into the translator which then writes the correct sequence of commands into assembly (usually more than one per vm line). The translator creates an instance of parser and code writer, and combines their functionality to write the assembly to a file. Finally, the main function handles the aggregation of it all- taking in a file, verifying arguments, parsing directory contents etc.

My process throughout this was iterative- I used my base from project 6 as a good start. Although it didn’t necessarily build off of the prior project, the process was similar. I started porting the parser, mapping the commands to a lookup list. Then the CodeWriter, which actually converted the commands to their symbols. The CodeWriter took the most time- as I needed to fill in the gaps with pushing and popping from the correct places. The translator just connected the two, so that was easy. Along the way I brought over my main function, changed it to handle directories and updated its usage.
		Functionally, my code for Project 7 (VM to ASM) is the same as Project 6 (ASM to Hack), at least in the beginning. I wrote the program to be very class-heavy, object oriented and well structured- allowing me to bring over the Parser class. The Parser class takes all commands into a list, and allows for iteration through the list. It allows for the command type to be identified and arguments to be separated. The CodeWriter class then writes the assembly commands as strings- they’re parsed by the parser, fed into the translator which then writes the correct sequence of commands into assembly (usually more than one per vm line). The translator creates an instance of parser and code writer, and combines their functionality to write the assembly to a file. Finally, the main function handles the aggregation of it all- taking in a file, verifying arguments, parsing directory contents etc.

		My process throughout this was iterative- I used my base from project 6 as a good start. Although it didn’t necessarily build off of the prior project, the process was similar. I started porting the parser, mapping the commands to a lookup list. Then the CodeWriter, which actually converted the commands to their symbols. The CodeWriter took the most time- as I needed to fill in the gaps with pushing and popping from the correct places. The translator just connected the two, so that was easy. Along the way I brought over my main function, changed it to handle directories and updated its usage.