CSCI 2720			Data Structures			     Spring 2004

			 Project 3 Questions/Answers



Q1: I was trying to set my dictionary and tried using the '\octal()' but
    got an error about \o isnt a correct escape command.  

A1: Probably this only works if your include files give access to a library 
    function octal( ) which produces the octal representation of its input.
    Rather than trying to find that, you can use '\0'+i instead of '\octal(i)'. 


Q2: how can my program read text, such as a file name, from the command line?

A2: read section 6.1.7 of Stroustrup on Command-Line Arguments.


Q3: how can my program create a file of a particular name to write to?

A3: you need to associate an ostream with that file name, as discussed in 
    section 21.5 of Stroustrup on Files and Streams.


Q4: how do I get my code dictionary started?

A4: your code dictionary should be an array of strings, either the new
    type from <string> or else a two field struct, one field of type unsigned
    char * (pointing to where the array of characters is actually stored) and 
    the other of type int to give the length of the string.  If the string str
    is at index i in the dictionary, then i is the code.  Here i is an unsigned
    short int, so consists of two bytes, say H and L, where H is the high order
    (most significant) and L is the low order byte.  They should be read into 
    the coded file (such as the .lzb file) in that order, H then L.

    That means you should start off the dictionary by by having the index
    j entry consist of the string of length one containing the character '\0'+j,
    for j = 0, ..., 255.  When you think of j as a code (for 0 <= j <= 255)
    then H will be '\0' and L will be '\0'+j.