LAB 05 QUESTIONS SOLUTION

Answer the questions below according to the lab specification. Write
your answers directly in this text file and submit it to complete the
lab.


PROBLEM 1: C Bit Operations in Collatz
======================================

  Examine the program collatz.c which performs a similar computation to
  a Lab01 code except that this version uses bitwise operations in the
  function collatz_bitwise().  Examine the locations labeled with
  comments and shown below and describe the equivalent "normal"
  arithmetic that is happening at each postion.


A
~

  ,----
  |   int neg_mask = 0x1 << 31;     // Shifts 0x1 31 bits to left. int neg_mask = 1*2^31
  |   if(n & neg_mask){             // If only similar bits between n and negative mask are
  |     return -1;            // last digit, return -1 
  |   }
  `----


B
~

  ,----
  |     if(n & 0x1){                // if n is a max digit (1111111) and 0x1 (00000001) do..
  |       ...                       // else..
  |     }
  |     else{
  |       ...
  |     }
  `----


C
~

  ,----
  |       n = ((n << 2) - n) + 1;   // shift n 2 bits to the left (n * 2^2) - n) + 1
  `----


D
~

  ,----
  |       n = n >> 1;               // shift n 1 bit to the right (n/2^1)
  `----


PROBLEM 2: C Union and Float Bits
=================================

A
~

  Compile and run union.c to see what floating point value is printed by
  the lines.
  ,----
  |   flint.in = 0xC378C000;        // assign an int value
  |   printf("%.4f\n",flint.fl);    // print as a float value
  `----
  Show the float value and explain why it has a well-defined value
  despite no assignment of `flint.fl = ...;' appearing.

  -248.7500, because each field in a union is at the same memory address.

B
~

  The subsequent loop
  ,----
  |   flint.in = 0xC378C000;        // assign an int value
  |   ...
  |   for(int i=0; i<4; i++){       // print chars individually
  |     unsigned char c = flint.ch[i];
  |     printf("%d: %02x '%c'\n", i,c,c);
  |   }
  `----
  prints values of the bytes associated with `flint' as chars and
  hexadecimal numbers.  Show its output and explain why the hex digits
  appear in a different order from the constant flint is set to
  initially.
    
  0: 00 ''
  1: c0 '�'
  2: 78 'x'
  3: c3 '�'
    This is because of little-endian ordering.



C
~

  The lines
  ,----
  | int mask = ~(0x80000000);
  | flint.in = flint.in & mask;
  | printf("%.4f\n",flint.fl);
  `----
  modify flint again. Show the resulting floating point output and
  describe why it has the shown value.
  
  248.7500, because each digit is inverted, leading to the negation of the symbol.

PROBLEM 3: GDB
==============

A debug_scramble.c
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The file debug_scramble.c has a short problem which requires the
  correct number to be given as a command line argument. An array is
  filled with values and then scrambled. The command line must
  correspond to the "positive" response. Due to the array scrambling it
  is not apparent from the source code which array location contains the
  positive response.

  Use the debugger to determine the location the positive response.  For
  each of the steps below, write the commands to issue to do the items
  listed.
  1. Compile debug_scramble.c with debug symbols turned on
gcc -g debug_scramble.c
  2. Start gdb with the resulting program
gdb -tui ./a.out
  3. Set the arguments of the program to just 0
set args 0
  4. Set a breakpoint at a line in debug_scramble.c after the scramble
     loop
break 39
  5. Run the program
run
  6. Print out the array after stopping at the breakpoint
print arr
  7. Locate the positive response
0x555555554a38 "you betcha"
  8. Change the program arguments so that it is the correct index
set args 10
  9. Re-run the program and continue to the end
run


B debug_long.c
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The file debug_long.c has another short debugging problem.  It
  requires an input string which is interpreted similarly to a
  demonstration code at the top of code.  The correct input will elicit
  the affirmative response.

  To determine the correct input take the following approach.
  1. Break after setting the variable `lng' to its large, mysterious
     value
  2. Print the bytes of long NOT as a number but interpreted as an array
     of characters (string). This can be done in `gdb' by coercing the
     types as in:
     ,----
     | print (char []) varname
     `----
  3. This should shed light on the correct input.