How to be a programmer: Part 1

 Implementing a parsing algorithm:

- You will need to look at state machines. You will need to think about state machines a lot. Your program is basically a state machine glued to a table.

- Basically, a state machine is a computer that knows something about the past.

For example:

for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){

    table[i];

}

Does not know about (i-1). So we can add it like this:

data_prev[n];

for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){

    (check data_prev[i]);

    table[i];

    data_prev[i+1]=set(with i);

}

However, keep in mind that you do not need the data after you are done with it.

data_prev;
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){
    (check data_prev, which was set with i - 1);
    table[i];
    data_prev = set(with i);
}

You can also implement state machines with any kind of loop, while, iterator. Since there is only one version of it running at a time, it is a kind of state machine.

data_prev;

while(temp->next != NULL){

    data_prev = set(with temp);

    temp = temp->next;

}

The set() function basically is there to tell the reader, "you do something with this data that you need". For example, to implement a state machine to check for spaces, you would do:

int wordcount = 0;

int data_prev = 0;

for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){

    if(buffer[i] is a space){

        if(data_prev == 1){

            // don't create a word

        } else {

            table[wordcount] = word;

            wordcount++;

        }

    }

    data_prev = buffer[i] is a space;

}

The intent is that you don't want to create words that are 0 length long. So here, data_prev is basically because you want to create a sandwich between the last space and the next space, and you don't want the space sandwich to be empty inside because that will create an empty word.