Software Requirements Specification

Programming Assignment 3

Mad Lib

Due Friday, October 22 by 5pm

Introduction

Purpose: This program will play a game with the user.  The user will provide a series of words and numbers and the computer will use those words to produce a Mad lib style story.  Mad libs consist of a text with blanks.  The player is asked for a specific series of words and the reader fills those into the story for the blanks.  See the web site:  http://www.eduplace.com/tales/ for some examples. 

Objectives - At the conclusion of this exercise the student will demonstrate that they can:

• Use an editor to create a java source file from scratch.
• Write java code to create an attractive user interface.
• Write java code to perform basic arithmetic calculations and String manipulation.
• Use the proper next???? method from the Scanner class.
• Use the NumberFormat or DecimalFormat class to properly format currency values.
• Create methods in a class and use them in a different class
• Use decision structures to manipulate data and prevent errors.
  
• Do everything necessary to create, debug, and run a java program.
• Use comments to delineate each section of the program.
• Adhere to a Style Guide.
• READ AND FOLLOW DIRECTIONS!!!!!

Deadlines

• Submit: October 22 by 5pm into the stu submit system.
  
• Report: October 25 by the beginning of class. A 20 points/day late penalty will apply for each of the 2 deadlines. If the submit is late, the report is due the next class or lab session day after successful submission.  Programs will not be accepted after 7 days late.

Prerequisites

You have covered the material in Chapter 2, 3, and 5 of Gaddis.  You will want to reference Chapter 10 on String methods as you work the PA.

Starter Files

MadLibDriver.java

MadLib.java

Program Behavior

Your application must do these things:

1. Your program will prompt for and read five input values.  These are:
1. A person's name (String)
2. A person's gender (String)
3. A color (String)
4. An animal (String)
5. A number (int)
6. A time (String)
7. The name of a sound (String)
8. And an action verb (String)
   
2. Your program must display the story (specified below) with the missing elements filled in by the input or calculated values.
3. All output must be properly formatted.
   

Output

1. Output the heading,  "Welcome to the CS139 Mad Lib game" followed by the newline character.
2. Output a blank line.
3. Prompt for the input values. Output the newline character after reading the each input value and before the next prompt. Note: your input will be on the same line as the prompt.
1. Your first input prompt must be the String, "Enter a person's name: "
2. Your second input prompt must be the String, "Enter the person's gender: " 
3. Your third input prompt must be the String, "Enter your favorite color: "
   
4. Your fourth input prompt must be the String, "Enter an unusual animal: "
5. Your fifth input prompt must be the int, "Enter a whole number between 1 and 13: "
6. Your sixth intput prompt must be the String, "Enter a time: "
   
7. Your seventh input prompt must be the String, "Enter a sound: "
8. Your eighth prompt must be the String, "Enter a past tense action verb: "
   
4. After reading all of the input values, output a blank line then the story as follows:  The values in square brackets [] are the substitutions.  The story must be formatted as shown. NOTE: you must have newline characters after each of the lines shown here. In other words, your story should have a title, a new blank line, and then the body which is exactly 5 lines long.
   

Example

Explanations for numbered items above:

1. If the name ends in an s, add es. (Example - rhinocerous, rhinocerouses)
   
2. If the name ends in ey, just add s. (Example - monkey, monkeys)
3. Otherwise if the name ends in y, change the y to ies (Example - butterfly, butterflies)
4. All other names will have an s added to the name (Examples, dog-dogs, moose-mooses)
   

Inputs and error checking

1. Gender must be entered as M, m, F, or f. Anything else constitutes an error. You should immediately output the error message, "You entered %s. Using \"F\"", where the substitution will be the value that they entered. You should assume female if the gender is entered incorrectly.
2. If something other than a number is entered where we are asking for a whole number, you should immediately output the error message, "You entered %s. Using 1", where the substitution will be the value that they entered. You should assume 1 if the number is entered incorrectly.
3. If a number is entered that is outside of the range 1 to 13, you should simply use 1 if the number is less than 1 and 13 if the number is greater than 13.
   
4. All other values can be used as is.
   

Additional Program Requirements

1. You must have a story driver file named MadLibDriver.java. This will be given to you. It will create a MadLib object and call the tellStory method. tellStory will do all of the input and output for the story.
   
2. You must have methods to handle Item # 2, 5, 6, 11, 12, and 13 from the explanation list above.
3. You must have a method to check if the number entered is outside of the range 1 to 13. The method should return the number that we will use for the story.
4. Your program must include an acknowledgement section acknowledging help received from TAs or reference sources. You do not need to reference receiving help from the instructor.
5. If you received no help your acknowledgement section should have a statement to that effect.
6. Your program must conform to standard Java programming standards and the additional standards for this class. See the Style Guide for your class.

Suggested Approach

1. Start with the tellStory method.
   
2. Create a variable for each of the substitutions in the story above.
   
3. Initialize each to a fixed value for the particular story you want to build.
4. Create the output of the story, substituting your variables declared in step 1 where appropriate.
5. TEST! Look for spacing, punctuation types of problems.
   
6. For each of the variables in the list that is just using what the user enters, create the prompts and reads to fill in those values.
7. TEST! Look for spacing, punctuation problems.  Remove the hardcoded initialization.
   
8. For each other value, create a new variables as needed. For example, to choose He/She, you need to have a variable for gender and a variable for the He/She word chosen.
1. If required, create the new prompt and read lines.
2. Create the method to do the transformation of the value.
3. TEST! the method in the story.
9. As it is the most complex, save the plural method for last.
10. You are welcome to have a friend help you test the final product before submit, as long as that person is not in any of the CS139 classes.
    

Honor Code

This work must conform to the JMU Honor Code and the specific requirements of this class. NO help may be provided by another student to another student. Authorized help is limited to your textbook, the TA’s for any CS139 section, and the professor for your section. See collaboration policy.

Grading

• Your program will be evaluated both by its correctness and conformance to the required elements.
• You will achieve a grade of 70 for a program that runs correctly and produces exactly the required output in the required format.
• You will achieve 10 points for submitting your test data.
  
• The remainder (20) will be based on your conformance to the Style and other requirements of the assignment. Review the Style Guide before submitting your program and the grade sheet which is produced by the submit system.
• All grades will be based on 100 points.
• You may submit any number of times. The only one I will count is the one that corresponds to the hardcopy report that you turn in.
• The hardcopy that you turn in will be the formatted version that I will check.  Make sure it has no line wraps or other spacing issues.
• Successfully submitted programs that are late will be graded, then the point penalty assessed for each day late.
• For submissions after:
  
  • Oct. 22 - 5 points
  • Oct. 24 - 15 points
  • Oct. 25 - 25 points
  • Oct. 26 - 35 points
  • Oct 27 - 45 points
  • Oct 28 - 100 points

HINTS

• Begin early. This program is fairly long and you will want to work on it bit by bit. Students run into trouble by waiting too long to start the program.  
• Understand the problem at hand.  Make sure that you follow the requirements precisely.  Don't add additional "flourishes".  You will be downgraded.
• Design a top level algorithm.  Don't worry as you are designing that you might not yet know how to do input or format output.  Design as if you have those tools.  You will get them before it is due.
• Design your substeps, at least the ones you can do now.  Fill in the others as we cover material in class or you study it in your book.
• Your top level algorithm can be used as step documentation in your program.  Start there.