XML CO538 Anonymous Questions and Answers Keyword Index

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Keyword reference for out.int

Question 62 (2006):

Submission reference: IN1037

Hi, I've just got started on the assessment but I've come to a problem. Some of my code in my display process is:

    [11] CHAN INT x:
    WHILE TRUE
      ALT i = 0 FOR 11
        in[i] ? x[i]
	  print.stream(0, x[i]?, scr!)

As you can probably tell, I'm just trying to get the outputs working first before I make the animation. So, I'm printing using print.stream for now to debug.

However, the fourth line above is causing this error:

    Error-occ21-q7.occ(145)- I/O list item 1 does not match protocol

I can't work it out!

Answer 62:

The array 'in' is presumably a channel array from the display process header. You should input INTs from CHAN INTs — your code is currently attempting to input into another channel (x[i]), which doesn't make sense; hence the error regarding protocol mismatch. You probably meant for x to be an array of INTs – not CHAN INTs!

However, your use of print.stream is very wrong. That process runs forever, consuming numbers and printing them. So, after receiving its first input from channel in[i], it runs print.stream forever taking numbers from that same channel – assuming you plugged in that channel and not x[i], which is either a channel (as in your code, but which is wrong as there is no process outputting to it!) or an integer (which it should be, but is illegal here!). No data from any other channel would ever be taken.

I've no idea what numbers are arriving on your in[i] channels ... but if you just want to print them, just print them:

   ALT i = 0 FOR 11
     INT value:
     in[i] ? value
       SEQ
         out.int (value, 0, scr!)       -- print the number
         out.string ("*c*n", 0, scr!)   -- carriage-return and line-feed

Note that the above sequence prints one number (see out.int). Using print.stream would lock this process in to the channel and print the whole infinite series of integers that arrive.

Note further that it only makes sense to use an array of values (e.g. [11]INT x:) if you have some need to keep the last reported state from each channel. If you intend to handle them on an individual basis, just use a single locally declared variable (like value in my snippet).

I also question the use of the magic number 11 all over the place — name this as a VAL INT constant at the top-level somewhere.

Keywords: coursework , q7 , out.int

Question 59 (2006):

Submission reference: IN1038

I have the following report process, which is linked to the screen output channel. I want to be able to output the value of the INTs coming in on up and down, but I seem to have a casting issue.

    PROC report (CHAN INT up?, down?, CHAN BYTE output!)
      WHILE TRUE
        ALT
          INT a:
	  up ? a
	    output ! BYTE a
          INT b:
	  down ? b
	    output ! BYTE b
    :

As the screen output only accepts bytes, I have attempted to cast the integers. But when this process is run, the output is simply a bunch of smilies :-) ...

Is there is simple casting issue or do I have to attack this from a different angle?

Answer 59:

If the arriving INT were, say, 65 – then, casting it to a BYTE and outputting it to a channel connected to the main screen channel would print the symbol 'A'. Further, if the arriving INT were, say, 7 – then, casting it to a BYTE and outputting it to an channel connected to the main screen channel would cause the terminal to bleep (since 7 is ASCII code for BELL). Neither of these is probably what you wanted!

If the arriving INT were, say, 65 and you wanted to print the symbols "65" – then:

	    out.int (n, 0, out!)

would do the trick (assuming n is a variable holding the value 65 and out! is connected to the main screen channel).

But I don't recognise this report process in connection with the dining philosophers animation? What are you trying to do here??

Keywords: q7 , cast , out.int

Question 75 (2004):

Hi, can you talk me through what is happening with the outputs here? Thanks very much.

    string; name.length::name; mark
      SEQ
        out.string ([name FOR name.length], max.name.length, out)
        out.int (mark, max.name.length, out)
        out.string ("*c*n", 0, out)

Answer 75:

This code-fragment is not a valid occam process -- to be meaningful it needs a bit more context (in particular the "in ? CASE" above it, since the line starting "string" is part of the tagged protocol input). As for the outputs: in sequence, this outputs the first "name.length" characters of "name", in a field-width of "max.name.length", then outputs the value held in "mark" (again in a field-width of "max.name.length") and finally outputs a carriage-return/newline pair (strictly speaking only the newline bit is required, so you could just write "out ! '*n'" instead (or "out.string ("*n", 0, out)"). See the course library documentation for a detailed description of these procedures. And the related questions about array-segments for information on the "[name FOR name.length]" expression.

Keywords: out.int , out.string , array-segments

Question 27 (2004):

When I run `./q1' I get the following error message:

    KROC: Range error / STOP executed (signal 4)
    KROC: Fatal error code 1, core dumped
    Abort (core dumped)

Could you give me some hints about what's wrong with my code ?

    [snip]
    out !  BYTE x
    out !  BYTE y
    out !  BYTE z
    out !  BYTE avg 
    out !  BYTE '*n'
    [snip]

Answer 27:

The above outputs will definitely cause the problem. If the value in `x' were 0, this will output an ASCII-null -- which produces nothing on the screen, not the character `0'. If the value in `x' were 65, this will output the character `A' -- since 65 is (I think) the ASCII code for `A'. It will definitely not print out the string "65"! If the value in `x' were 1000, this will crash your program as you cast `x' to a `BYTE' -- occam BYTEs only take values between 0 and 255 inclusive. None of this is what you want!

Your `out' channel is connected (from its instance in your `q1' process) to the top-level `screen' channel. To print INT values to such a channel, you must convert them to the characters (BYTEs) coding the decimal digits that we use to represent them. This is not trivial. Fortunately, there's a ready-made PROC in the course library that you can use to do this -- out.int. Suppose we invoke:

    out.int (x, width, out)

where `x' has the value 1234, say, and `width' is 6. This outputs ` ', ` ', `1', `2', `3', `4' to the `out' channel. The `width' in the argument list is the field width -- it outputs spaces before the number to make it that many characters wide (which is useful if you want to print right-justified columns of numbers). Have a look at `examples/test_utils.occ' for examples of using it -- and, of course, the model answers to Q1 from the exercise sheet.

To output strings, there is another library PROC. For example:

    out.string ("hello world", 0, out)

outputs `h', `e', `l', etc to the `out' channel. In this example, the field width, 0, happens to be less than the number of characters in the string -- in which case, it is ignored. If we had use a field width of 20, say, than 9 spaces would have been output first (making 20 characters in total).

Keywords: output , out.int , out.string

Question 90 (2003):

For Q7 I am trying to use the `INTTOSTRING' routine in "convert.lib", so that I can directly output the id of a philosopher to the screen, rather than have a load of IF statements and duplicated code.

Currently I have:

    INT g:
    [5]BYTE string:
    INT n:

    INTTOSTRING (g, string, n)

but get "fatal symbol referencing errors" when I try to compile. It seems the compile goes ok, but the error occurs at linking.

I'm assuming we need to convert integers to []BYTE or CHAR at some point in the display process, or is there another way?

Answer 90:

Firstly, you don't need to use routines from Inmos libraries. Technically there's nothing wrong with them, though (some are particularly useful, like the routines that turn REAL64s into strings).

The linker is probably failing because you're not linking in the convert library -- you reference it from your code, but don't include it at compile time. The `course.lib' is special in this respect -- KRoC/Sparc (on raptor) automatically adds the `-lcourse' option when compiling programs. To get the Inmos conversion library linked in, just:

    kroc myfile.occ -lconvert

There may be inter-library dependencies, so other libraries might be needed too. `string.lib' is another (`-lstring' on KRoC's command-line).

Back to the main point, if you want to output an integer to the screen, just use `out.int'. This is in the course library and has been mentioned/ described many times in lectures and seminars. If you really want to turn INTs into an array of BYTEs, a better approach would be to use the code from the course library's `out.int', which is available on raptor in:

    /usr/local/courses/co516/libsrc/utils.occ

There are not many IFs, and hardly any duplicated code, though.

Keywords: out.int

Question 31 (2003):

I'm a bit confused about the `out.int' and `out.string' PROCs in `layout.max.chans' in Q4. Are they already defined somewhere, because I can't seem to find them. Or are we meant to define these two PROCs ?

Answer 31:

They are defined elsewhere -- in `course.lib' to be precise, so you must not define them yourself -- doing so will result in linker errors when it finds two copies of each (one from the course library and one from your code).

These two PROCs just write INTs or BYTE-arrays to a BYTE channel, aligning in the given `field' (2nd parameter). Writing `out.string' is easy, `out.int' less so. You can find the code for these on raptor in:

    /usr/local/courses/co516/libsrc/utils.occ

Keywords: out.int , out.string , q4