CS412-Applied-Algorithms/Foxsays/README.md

# Coding 1: What the Fox Says

This is a fairly easy warmup coding homework designed to get you used to the
mechanics of the questions/homework assignments for this class.

Remember when this went viral?
[Ylvis - The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?) [Official music video HD]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE)

## The Problem

Motivated by solving the ancient mystery you are going to figure out exactly
what the fox says from a transcript of a recording of animal sounds from the
forest. You are working with a team of scientists who have already figured out
what sounds all of the other animals make. Your task is to filter out the known
forest sounds to determine once and for all, what does the fox say?

## Input

The input consists of one line of forest noises given as a series of words
separated by spaces. The next line of input is a number n describing how many
known animal sounds there are. The next n lines describe n animal sounds given
in the format "_[animal name] goes [noise]_".

## Output

The output consists of two lines, the first is the list of sounds in order
uttered by our shy, sly fox. The last line lists the names of any other animals
heard in the recording in the order in which they were first heard with no
animal repeated (the scientists asked you for this for research purposes). The
first line should be formatted "_what the fox says: [whatever the fox did
say]_". The last line should be formatted "_also heard: [space separated list of
animals also heard in order they were heard]_". There should be NO spaces
following the last thing the fox says and the last animal name (just a new line
character).

<table>
    <tr>
        <td>Sample Input</td>
        <td>Sample Output</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><pre>toot woof wa ow ow ow pa blub blub pa toot pa blub pa pa ow pow toot<br>5<br>dog goes woof<br>fish goes blub<br>elephant goes toot<br>seal goes ow<br>horse goes neigh</pre></td>
        <td><pre>what the fox says: wa pa pa pa pa pa pow<br>also heard: elephant dog seal fish</pre></td>
    </tr>
</table>

## Your Task

Your task is to implement two versions of the program solving the code above.
The first version (**cs412_foxsays_list.py**) should **only use** list data
structures. The second version (**cs412_foxsays_dict.py**) must utilize
maps/dictionaries and set data structures to speed up your code as much as
possible.

Gradescope is checking for dictionaries to NOT be in the first version and for a
dictionary to be in the second version.

## Test Cases

Example input/output:

### Test #1:

- Input file: [foxsays_t1_in.txt](./inputs/foxsays_t1_in.txt)
- Output file: [foxsays_t1_exp.txt](./outputs/foxsays_t1_exp.txt)

### Test #2:

- Input file: [foxsays_t2_in.txt](./inputs/foxsays_t2_in.txt)
- Output file: [foxsays_t2_exp.txt](./outputs/foxsays_t2_exp.txt)

There is a unittest file that you can download
([foxsays_unittest.py](./foxsays_unittest.py)) and use to test your program. See
the programming guidelines (located here in canvas:
[CS412_CodingAssignmentGuidelines.pdf](https://canvas.jmu.edu/courses/2112008/files/180153311?wrap=1))
which specifies how to structure your program and also how to use the unittest
file.

You can use a diff program to compare your output to these examples before
submitting to [Gradescope](http://www.gradescope.com/).

## Code Templates for this class

Your python code must utilize this template:
[cs412_code_template.py](../cs412_code_template.py)

## Turning it in

Turn in these two files (cs412_foxsays_list.py and cs412_foxsays_dict.py) to
Gradescope. Here are some larger test files to see how fast your program runs:

- [foxsays_tleader_in.txt](./inputs/foxsays_tleader_in.txt) and
  [foxsays_tleader_exp.txt](./outputs/foxsays_tleader_exp.txt)

## Leaderboard/Speed Check

Your code will be checked for speed and a leaderboard posted within Gradescope.

## Acknowledgments

Problem from Kattis are used under their educational license.

# Lab 3: Empirical Analysis with Profiling

This lab is intended to be started in class, where additional background
information may be provided.

## Requirements

You will need to use a UNIX based system can run shell scripts. **STU** would be
a good resource.

## Goal

Utilize run-time profilers to identify poorly performing sections of a program
and then potential these areas.

## Process

### Part 1

Utilize the two programs from your "What does the Fox Say" homework. Run each of
these with the profiling information from the lecture slides
([cs412_03_EmpiricalAnalysis.pdf](https://canvas.jmu.edu/courses/2112008/files/178177075?wrap=1))
and gather/analyze this information. For the dict version of the program,
identify and try and to improve the portions of your program that take up the
most time.

### Part 2

Using the large examples files from "What does the Fox Say" homework and the
**split**, **wc**, **and head** UNIX commands, create input files of size 200K,
400K, 600K, 800K. To find out more about these UNIX commands, you can use Google
or the man pages from stu.

Write a shell script that performs this work and then runs the dict version of
your program capturing the execution time using the **time** UNIX command.
Create a plot of this run time where the Y axis is the run time and the X axis
is the input size. The shell script only needs to run your work and produce the
plots (it does not need to do the file manipulation, you can do that on your
own).

An example python script for creating the plot is here:
[line_plot.py](./line_plot.py)

## Deliverables

- A PDF (described below)
- Python script to create your plot
- Shell script to run your test cases

> Eclypse's Note: Did not need to submit a Shell script

Create a single PDF that contains the following information with two separate
sections (one for your list and one for your _dict_ versions of the HW 1). Each
section must showcase the results/output of 2 _cProfile_ runs. Then create a 3rd
section within the PDF that discusses the slowest portions of the _dict_
program. This discussion must include steps you tried in order to improve the
run time performance of your program.

For the 4th and final section, show the plot of your run times and discuss what
type of growth rate is experienced by your program and what portion of the
program you believe is responsible for this.