Implement a search algorithm that can find a route between any two
cities. Your program will be called find_route, and will take exactly
three commandline arguments, as follows:
Argument input_filename
is the name of a text file such as input1.txt,
that describes road connections between cities in some part of the
world. For example, the road system described by file input1.txt can be
visualized in Figure 1 shown above. You can assume that the input file
is formatted in the same way as input1.txt:
each line contains three
items. The last line contains the items "END OF INPUT", and that is how
the program can detect that it has reached the end of the file. The
other lines of the file contain, in this order, a source city, a
destination city, and the length in kilometers of the road connecting
directly those two cities. Each city name will be a single word (for
example, we will use New_York instead of New York), consisting of upper
and lowercase letters and possibly underscores.
IMPORTANT NOTE: MULTIPLE INPUT FILES WILL BE USED TO GRADE THE
ASSIGNMENT, FILE input1.txt
IS JUST AN EXAMPLE. YOUR CODE SHOULD WORK
WITH ANY INPUT FILE FORMATTED AS SPECIFIED ABOVE.
The program will compute a route between the origin city and the
destination city, and will print out both the length of the route and
the list of all cities that lie on that route. For example,
find_route input1.txt Bremen Frankfurt
should have the following:
distance: 455 km
route:
Bremen to Dortmund, 234 km
Dortmund to Frankfurt, 221 km
and
find_route input1.txt London Frankfurt
should have the following output:
distance: infinity
route:
none
For full credit, you should produce outputs identical in format to the
above two examples.
Suggestions
The code needs to run on omega. If you have not even tried
logging in on omega until the last day, there is a high probability
that something
will go wrong. You may find it convenient to do the code development
and testing on your own laptop or home machine, but it is highly
recommended that you log in to omega and compile a toy program ASAP,
and that you compile and run an intermediate version of your code well
before the deadline. Notify the instructor for any problems you may
have.
Pay close attention to all specifications on this page, including
specifications about output format, submission format. Even in cases
where the program works correctly, points will be taken off for
non-compliance with the instructions given on this page (such as a
different format for the program output, wrong compression format for
the submitted code, and so on). The reason is that non-compliance with
the instructions makes the grading process significantly (and
unnecessarily) more time consuming.
Grading
The assignments will be graded out of 100 points.
40 points: The program always finds a route between the
origin and the destination, as long as such a route exists.
30 points: The program
terminates and reports that no route can be found when indeed no route
exists that connects source and destination (e.g., if source is London
and destination is Berlin, in the above example).
30 points: In addition to the above requirements, the
program always returns optimal routes. In other words, no shorter route
exists than the one reported by the program.
Negative points: penalty points will be awarded by the instructor and
TA generously and at will, for issues such as: code not running on
omega, submission not including precise and accurate instructions for
how to run the code, wrong compression format for the submission, or
other failures to comply with the instructions given for this
assignment. Partial credit for incorrect solutions will be given ONLY
for code that is well designed and well documented. Code that is badly
designed and badly documented can still get full credit as long as it
accomplishes the required tasks.
How to submit
Implementations in C, C++, Java, and Python will be accepted. If you
would like to use another language, make sure it will compile on omega
and clear it with the instructor beforehand. Points will be taken off
for failure to comply
with this requirement.
The assignment should be submitted via Blackboard. Submit a
ZIPPED
directory called assignment1.zip (no other forms of compression
accepted, contact the instructor or TA if you do not know how to
produce .zip files). The directory should contain source code.
Including binaries that work on omega (for Java and C++) is optional.
The submission should also contain a file called readme.txt, which
should specify precisely:
Name and UTA ID of the student.
What programming language is used.
How the code is structured.
How to run the code, including very specific compilation instructions,
if compilation is needed. Instructions such as "compile using g++" are
NOT considered specific.
Insufficient or unclear instructions will be penalized by up to 20
points. Code that does not run on omega machines gets AT MOST half
credit (50 points).
Submission checklist
Is the code running on omega?
Does the submission include a readme.txt file, as specified?
