COMP26020 Part 1– Assignment 2:
Library Management Software in C++
The goal of this assignment is to implement a set of C++ classes that aim to be used in a library management
software. The library holds documents of different types (novels, comics and magazines) with various attributes
(title, author, etc.) and users can borrow and return documents.
library.h has the different classes definitions including inheritance relationships as well as the
prototypes for all classes’ methods.
library.cpp contains the implementations of the classes.
test-suite.cpp, catch.h, and catch.cpp implement a test suite that checks the correctness of the
library code.
We have already implemented everything! The code is 100% functional. Check your gitlab repo or the
Blackboard entry for this assignment.
Wait. What’s the point of this assignment then?
Well, the code was written by someone who only watched some of videos for the first week of C++ and then gave
up. The code is more C than C++, it does not use the standard library, and it does not follow any of the C++ design
approaches. This is not good C++ code.
Your actual goal is to rewrite library.h and library.cpp applying the lessons learnt in the lectures, including:
RAII
new/delete considered harmful
C-arrays, C-strings considered redundant
C++ standard library containers, utilities, and algorithms
Improved type safety
Using linters, static analyzers, and the C++ Core Guidelines to uncover errors and bad coding patterns
You are free to a) add member functions, b) change the implementation of existing member functions, or c)
change private declarations for variables or functions in library.cpp and library.h.
You should not change any other file. Also, you should not change the interface of any public member functions
of any of the classes. The only allowed interface change is changing the type of a function argument or the return
value to an equivalent one. E.g., an int return value that is meant to be used as a true/false value can be replaced
by a bool. A C-string (char *) argument or return value can almost always be changed into an std::string.
Test Suite
To test your implementation you are given a basic test suite in the form of a C++ file, test-suite.cpp. It’s a C++
program (i.e. it contains a main function) that includes library.h. It instantiates/manipulates objects from all the
library classes and performs sanity checks. This program uses the Catch1 test framework and requires two
additional source files to be compiled: catch.cpp and catch.h. You can compile the program manually:
$ g++ test-suite.cpp library.cpp catch.cpp -o test-suite
and execute the test suite with:
$ ./test-suite
1 https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2
You are not supposed to change the test suite and you don’t need to understand the code fully. But if you get
failed tests, it might be useful to check the code that is associated with the failed test in order to understand what
went wrong. Overall, the suite is divided into tests cases enclosed into TEST_CASE() { ... } statements. A test
case will fail when one of the REQUIRE( ) or CHECK( ) statements it contains fails,
i.e. when condition evaluates to false.
To complete the assignment you do not need to understand the content of catch.h and catch.cpp.
The test suite is not comprehensive. Passing all the tests means that a good chunk of the code behaves correctly,
but it does not mean everything is perfect. When marking, an extended test suite will be used that might uncover
problems with the code. So, make sure you do not change the public behaviour of the library code, not even in
minor ways!
Make
For your convenience, we provide a Makefile with a few convenient targets.
To build the whole test suite, while checking the library code for warnings:
$ make
To run the gcc static analyzer:
$ make analyze
If you have access to clang-tidy, run the C++ core guidelines checker and parts of the clang static analyzer with:
$ make guidelines
You can change the three variables at the top of the Makefile to match your setup. CC should point to your C++
compiler. TIDY should point to your clang-tidy (if installed). CXX_STANDARD is the C++ standard version used for
compiling the code. Change it to 17, or even 14, if you are using older compilers.
Deliverables, Submission & Deadline
There are two deliverables: the completed library.cpp and library.h files. The submission is made through
the CS Department’s Gitlab. You should have a fork of the repository named “26020-lab2-S-CPlusPlus_username>”. Make sure you push to that precise repository and not another one, failure to do so may result in
the loss of some/all points. Submit your deliverables by pushing the corresponding files on the master branch and
creating a tag named lab2-submission to indicate that the submission is ready to be marked.
The deadline for this assignment is 02/12/2022 6pm UTC.
Marking Scheme
The exercise will be marked out of 10, using the following marking scheme:
The program is functional, and passes the basic test suite /1
The program passes all extended tests /1
The code takes advantage of C++ capabilities to make the code clearer and more concise /1
The library code follows the RAII principle /1
The library code uses Standard Library containers and data types whenever appropriate /2
The library code uses Standard library algorithms whenever appropriate /1
The library code does not produce significant warnings when compiled with -Wall, -Wextra, or the static
analyzer and it does not suffer from memory errors /1
The library code follows the C++ Core Guidelines (at least the ones that we discussed in the lectures) /1
The code is clear, well commented, and follows good practices /1
Appendix
Class Hierarchy
The library.h header defines 5 classes which are briefly presented below. Note that more detailed information
about the methods is present in the header’s source code in the form of comments.
Document is an abstract class defining attributes and methods common to all the documents that can be
held in the library. Attributes include the document’s title, year of release, and quantity held in the library.
It defines various methods for printing the document’s information on the standard output, getting its
concrete type (novel/comic/magazine), and various getters/setters including methods for
borrowing/returning the document from/to the library.
Novel, Comic and Magazine represent the concrete types of
documents. Each inherites from Document as depicted on the figure
on the right. They differ slightly in attributes: a novel and a comic
have an author, comics and magazines have an issue number, and a
magazines do not have an author. Each class also defines the relevant
getters/setters.
The last class, Library, represents the library i.e. a collection of documents. The documents are held in
an array of Document pointers. The library class defines various methods for actions such as adding,
removing, searching, borrowing, returning documents, printing the library content on the standard output
or dumping it in a CSV file.
Documents/Library Printing and CSV Output Formats
The print() method, when called on a novel, prints on the standard output the novel’s attributed in this format:
Novel, title: Monstrous Regiment, author: Terry Pratchett, year: 2003, quantity: 1
For a comic:
Comic, title: Watchmen, author: Alan Moore, issue: 1, year: 1986, quantity: 10
And for a magazine:
Magazine, title: The New Yorker, issue: 1, year: 1925, quantity: 20
The print() method called on a library containing these 3 documents produces:
Novel, title: Monstrous Regiment, author: Terry Pratchett, year: 2003, quantity: 1
Comic, title: Watchmen, author: Alan Moore, issue: 1, year: 1986, quantity: 10
Magazine, title: The New Yorker, issue: 1, year: 1925, quantity: 20
The dumpCSV() method called on the same library use low level file I/O functions (open, etc.) to