cpkenn09y / marsrovers

Creating a MarsRover simulation for a coding challenge

Mars Rover

Mars Rover that is able to accept commands and move around on a grid.

Design Aspects:

From the beginning I knew that I wanted to make my code as modular as possible:

• Create a CommandParser that turned the user input into a usable format

• From there, create the Grid module that can have MarsRovers placed on it

• Create a MarsRover class that can maintain the state of each Rover and execute the provided commands

• Create an ApplicationController that uses the different modules like lego pieces to make the overall application run

• I constantly strived to keep each module as a separate entity with little to no intertwined dependencies

• Single responsibility and object oriented design were a very high priority for me throughout the project

• I wanted the code to be able scaleable and therefore made sure to only commit code that was extensively tested: TDD'd!

• Constantly built the next smallest thing until the whole application was realized.

• It was also important to me to create a visual representation that allowed the user to get visual feedback that the application was working

Assumptions Made Along Way:

• The CommandParser would be a key component to the functionality of the application

• A scaleable MarsRover application would need to be able to have multiple rovers be instantiated and commanded

• I had initially thought that the value '5 5' would mean that I could easily represent the grid as an array with 25 units. However, I later realized that my Grid would have to represent the actual nodes meaning I would have to have 36 nodes.

As an illustration, I drew out a 3x3 box, made up of 9 small squares. I learned along the way that my initial design had to be reworked. Each array unit would have to represent the 12 nodes that compose the 3x3 box.

Once I restructured my code to encompass this change, it became possible to represent the rovers moving along the axes of my grid.

To Run the Application:

1. From the Terminal, go into the root directory
2. Copy and Paste the Following Code:

• ruby mars_rover_application.rb

For funsies:

Run with three rovers:

• ruby mars_rover_application.rb 3_rovers.txt

Run with eight rovers:

• ruby mars_rover_application.rb 8_rovers.txt

To Run the 40 Tests:

1. From the Terminal, go into the root directory
2. Copy and Paste the Following Code:

• rspec mars_rover_application_spec.rb application_controller_spec.rb rover_command_parser_spec.rb grid_spec.rb mars_rover_spec.rb