Lovoy

Image from here.

Been a while since I’ve been on here.  Well, I figure I’ll make a post and see if it becomes constructive.

So it’s been half a semester.  How’s everybody been doing?  I have been doing quite well actually.  My project for those who do not know is working with Dr. Cheung in Reece-Fifer (don’t tell me if that’s spelled wrong because I’m not changing it) to analyze the Super Bowl commercials of the past nine years.  Specifically, we are looking at the aspects of awe and humor and how these relate to already established scores on effectiveness and to see what awe and humor types prove the most effective.  It has really been fun so far and I have 2 years left to watch.  Definitely been some good ones and I’ve learned a lot about what makes a commercial affective.  Now all I have left to do is analyze the data in SPSS.  That sounds like fun…

As the title of my post implies, I have become a Twitter addict.  I originally had a Twitter account (zwlovoy) to monitor teachers and their moods and to try to win free stuff (so far got a headset and a mousepad).  Lately, I’ve really been taking a look at it and I like it more than Facebook most of the time.  It’s so simple yet so complex and you really have to think about what you put into those 120 characters.  Most importantly of all, I have learned this: if you get a Google Wave invite, don’t tell Twitter, especially with a #GoogleWave tag.  You will be attacked for invites.  (And since I was invited by another person, I can not give invites.  Sorry)

Speaking of Google Wave, it’s kind of cool.  I’m not real sure what I can do with it but I have learned it’s a great place for storing files.  Note: Be careful and do not try to put all the Sper Bowl commercials of the past nine years in one wave.  You will break Google (actually kind of proud I managed that one).

Wow, writing this blog post was fun.  I’m thinking of starting up a blog just to put random stuff on (like I do now) that’s not linked to CBH (and doesn’t have all these random adds showing up).  I’m just not sure if it would be a constructive addition to the Internet or a waste of time.

Well, that’s it for me.  I’m getting back to the creation of the ultimate Alabama football theme for iPhone.  If anyone knows about iPhone theming and wants a copy, just let me know.  It’s pretty sweet and impressed the AT&T dudes a lot.

Lovoy

What I was expecting when I came back.  Image from here.

So I was just goofing around today on my favorites and noticed that my blog was still there.  Surprised that edublogs had not deleted it to save space and people’s time, I have decided to briefly update it so it stays relevant, current, and not deleted.

So how was everyone’s summer?  I spent mine working.  What kind of work you ask?  Retail Sales!  I worked at The Wharf in Northport selling jeans, shirts, hats, and other things.  It was fun and I think I got a lot of good work experience with it.  So don’t you dare comment on your “rocket science internships” or “nuclear-astrophysicists picnics” that I’m sure most CBHers got into.  I do not want to hear about them.

For fun, I ended up going to Maui.  If you want to learn more about that trip, look at my pictures on Facebook.  If your not friends with me and can’t look at them, then you have yourselves to blame.

So here’s hoping that this semester is a good one.  I must admit that the thought of projects feeds the horror and fear of Death By CBH (DCBH), but hopefully it won’t be so bad.  See you all on Sunday (although you probably won’t read this.  Why did I even go to the trouble?  I guess I’ll never know).

Lovoy

Image from here.

O.K. So after having C++ nightmares and C++ visions during my Econ exam, I’m DONE! Yeah, you herd me! DONE! 100% working.

It turns out that problem was with sort, in that it did not do anything. Big shout out to Lindsey for helping me out with that one. With that fix options 4 and 5 work and I’m done.

I’ve learned a lot from all of this. First, I’ve learned that everything that can go wrong will. My Mac died on me and now I have to get it repaired. Thank God the files were stored on Bama.

Next, I’ve learned the value of working in the lab. With everyone in a small room working on the same problems, solutions come about much more quickly than they do in your dorm room. I guess my computer dying was kind of a blessing.

Finally, I have learned that C++ is extremely hard, but can be understood. While this project has been one of the hardest projects of my life, I feel that I am ready for whatever next semester has to throw at me. Then again, I’m also ready for a vacation.

Till next year y’all.

Lovoy

P.S. Crinson mail is AWESOME!

Well, after some deductive work, I have determined that there are only 2 issues left in my program. The first is that sort does not work. Since sort doesn’t work, option 4 and 5 don’t work since they rely on the entries being in order or else it won’t put the deleted entry to the bottom or put the new ones in their proper place. If you have sort worked out, come down to the lab and lend a hand.

The other issue is the crazy random one from last post. I still have no idea on how to fix it. Maybe it will fix itself once Sort is fixed. One can hope for that anyway. 

EDIT: Just found that the error only effects the very last entry in the system.  SSN 987690532, the last one in the police files, displays fine when I add a record and then display it.  Since sort doesn’t work, my new record is at the end and it becomes the last record, which won’t display anyway since sort doesn’t put it at the top (i ususally use 11111111 for its SSN).  Then Susan White displays.  So it only effects the last record.

If I can get this fixed, I will be done with this forever. Or at least until next year.

Lovoy

Yeah, so my clock to tell me to go to the lab for the final help session did not go off (just realized that it’s 7:00 AM and not PM.  I’m just really disoriented today) and now I have absolutely no idea what to do to fix my crazyness. For those of you who don’t know, my error is that while display works fine when you use a smaller SSN, when you use one from the back of the list, you get this:

***** Police Database *****
***** Option 3: Display Entry *****
SSN: ÿ¿ï-àÿ-¿ð ÿ
Name: ¿ï¸ltON Tag #: $Ð
Street: 77002000044008012012WENDY Vehicle Type: (0) ***********
City: ÿ7`L ?ÿ Vehicle Make: (00) ***********
County: (00) OUT OF STATE Top Color: (00) *********
State: (00) ** Bottom Color: (00) *********
Zip Code: ÿüÿ¿ð-(ÿ¿ð

Press ENTER to continue:

I have no idea what to do. It’s also corrupting my delete function. It will work within the function, but as soon as I go back to option 3 to try to look up what was deleted, it shows it like it never disappeared. I have no idea what to do and am starting to freak out. What if I can’t fix it? What does this even mean? Is there something logically wrong with my delete? It looks like this:

bool MasterData::DeleteRecord(int a) {
char last[RECSIZE];
file.seekg(numRecs * RECSIZE);
file.read(last, RECSIZE);
file.seekp(a * RECSIZE);
file.write(last, RECSIZE);
SetNumRecs(numRecs – 1);
file.flush();
Sort();
return true;
}
There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong. At least I don’t think. I SHOULD BE DONE!

Lovoy

Well, after some coding and checking, option 7 works and actually looks good.  That means every option but delete is done.  Logically, it should work, but it doesn’t because of the crazy error that effects the last entry to where it will not print out correctly.  By the way, the last entry prints out correctly in option 7, which uses reportdisplay() even though it’s wrong in option 3 and 6, which uses display().

Following Jaclyn’s advice, I checked MasterData::LoadRecord to see if it has file.flush().  It does.  Also, I do not know how to get to the checkmaster in Darren’s directory, or even to his directory.  Also, do I need to run checkmaster since option 7 prints correctly?

Finally, I know that we need to program knowing the viewing window will be 80 characters wide, but how long will it be?  I thought Jaclyn said something like 25, but there’s no way to get the option 2 tables to fit into those dimentions.  So is it longer or am I in trouble?

Lovoy

P.S. Edublogs is ignoring my ENTERs again.  I WANT MY PARAGRAPHS TO HAVE LINES IN BETWEEN EACH OTHER!!!  \n\n!

Edit: Also, there’s no help session in the lab tonight (Wednesday), right?

1. Increase the width of the codes in my Display function where the codes are 02, not 2.

2. Begin reportdisplay(). Self-explanatory.

3. I put clength instead of codeLength in my program and now I have to fix it. Yay.

4. Study for other classes. Why are there exams in theater? I mean, how many questions can you write on Thoroughly Modern Millie?

5. Assure my parents there is a reason why they stopped having communications from me.

Lovoy

Edit:

6. Fix crazy output from final SSN.  Just when I thought things were getting sane too.

O.K., so through about 2 hours and 100 tests, I have found that my problems in option 3 are cecause of my overloades = in Person.cpp. Here is my code:

const Person & Person::operator= (const Person & a) {
if(this == &a) return *this;
*socsecnum = a.GetSSN();
*zip = a.GetZip();
*myCar = a.GetCar();
name = a.GetName();
street = a.GetStreet();
city = a.GetCity();
stateCode = a.GetStateCode();
countyCode = a.GetCountyCode();
return *this;
}

Now, I think there must be something wrong because mt displays for option 3 end up like this:

***** Police Database *****
***** Option 3: Display Entry *****
SSN: 143-46-6098
Name: Tag #: 58K875
Street: Vehicle Type: (1) 4 DR SEDAN
City: Vehicle Make: (1) ACURA
County: 116455) ************ Top Color: (1) BLACK
State: (-13085828) ** Bottom Color: (9) ORANGE
Zip Code: 35423-0455

Notice that anything not handled by a pointer in the overloaded operator is broken. I have put error checkers throughout option 3 and the functions that use it and this is the only place where things could go wrong. I think.

Edit: Changed my overload to this:

const Person & Person::operator= (const Person & a) {
if(this == &a) return *this;
socsecnum->Set(*(a.socsecnum));
zip->Set(*(a.zip));

myCar->SetTypeCode(a.myCar->GetTypeCode());
myCar->SetMakeCode(a.myCar->GetMakeCode());
myCar->SetTopColorCode(a.myCar->GetTopColorCode());
myCar->SetBottomColorCode(a.myCar->GetBottomColorCode());
myCar->SetTag(a.myCar->GetTag());

name = a.name;
street = a.street;
city = a.city;
stateCode = a.stateCode;
countyCode = a.countyCode;
return *this;
}
Still no help. I’m stuck. Really stuck.

Lovoy

Edit Edit: NEVER MIND! IT WAS THE COPY CONSTRUCTOR. OPTION 3 WORKS!!!

Lovoy

First of all, no talking about the CBH end of the year party.  Ever.  What happens in CBH stays in CBH.

Next, I am happy to say options 1 and 2 work now.  Now my program actually does something constructive.  Yay!

Option 3 only has one function that will not compile and that is the MasterData::Search function.  My biggest problem is that I don’t know which read method to use for binary files.  You can’t just use file >> entry since you have to have something with RECSIZE to limit how far it goes, right?  I have tried using  file.read(record, RECSIZE); from my notes, but the compiler doesn’t like that:

     MasterData.cpp:120: error: no matching function for call to `

        std::basic_fstream<char, std::char_traits<char> >::read(std::string&, const 

        int&)’

     /usr/local/include/c++/3.3.2/bits/istream.tcc:782: error: candidates are: 

        std::basic_istream<_CharT, _Traits>& std::basic_istream<_CharT, 

        _Traits>::read(_CharT*, int) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = 

        std::char_traits<char>]

I guess I wrote down the wrong syntax or something.  Also, the compiler doesn’t like my if (!record) test (record is a string).  I’m hoping to find the right read method so I can get option 3 done.  Then there will just be 5 options to go!

Edit: Just went to http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/files/ and do I have to use a char array for this?

Lovoy