README.md

[pyp-w1] Extensible calculator

Today you will be coding to build a calculator. Even though that sounds simple, this won't be a regular calculator. You must implement it in a way that users of the calculator are able to "extend" its functionally by adding as many custom operations as they want. For that to be doable, we will make usage of the high-order functions concept we've covered in class.

Operations will be defined as regular functions. There's just one important thing you must have in mind. All operations need to keep the same interface, meaning they all must be executable sending the same parameters. To have extra flexibility, we will assume that all operations receives a variable number or arguments (*args), like the following code:

def add(*args):
    """
    Returns a number representing the sum of all given arguments.
    """
    # your implementation here
    pass

In many cases, operations are simple enough to be implemented just using a lambda:

subtract = lambda *args: pass  # your code here

Operations are independent entities. You should be able to use them outside any other code, even outside of the calculator you are supposed to build. To use an operator follow this logic:

>>> subtract(100, 20, 10, 20)
50
>>> subtract(100, 20)  # must accept variable number of arguments
80

If you reached this point, you should now be ready to start coding your calculator. To create a new calculator you must follow this interface:

>>> calc = create_new_calculator(operations={'add': add, 'subtract': subtract, ...})
{
    'operations': {
        'add': add,
        'subtract': subtract,
        ...
    },
    'history': [
        ('2016-05-18 12:00:00', 'add', (1, 2, 3, 4), 10),
        ('2016-05-18 12:10:00', 'multiply', (1, 2, 3, 4), 24),
        ...
    ]
}

As it's shown in the sample code, a calculator is just a data structure (dict in this case) holding the collection of operations the calculator supports and keeping track of the operation execution history.

Once you have the calculator created, you can start using it:

>>> perform_operation(calc, 'add', params=(1, 2, 3, 4))
10

You must consider possible errors that might occur while using the calculator:

>>> perform_operation(calc, 'something-weird', params=(1, 2, 3, 4))
InvalidOperation: "something-weird" operation not supported.
>>> perform_operation(calc, 'something-weird', params=False)
InvalidParams: Given params are invalid.
>>> perform_operation(calc, 'something-weird')  # params not sent
InvalidParams: Given params are invalid.

As the title of this group work says, the calculator must be extensible. That means, after a calculator is created, new operations can be dynamically added to it. To do that, you must implement the following method:

>>> square_root = lambda ...
>>> add_new_operation(calc, operation={'square_root': square_root})

If at any time you need to know the whole list of supported operations, you can invoke the get_operations method on the calculator, which will return a collection of the operation names:

>>> get_operations(calc)
['add', 'subtract', 'divide', 'multiply']

The calculator must be smart enough to keep track of the list of operations the user has executed since the last reset. For each operation in the history you must record the operation name, the collection of arguments the user sent and a datetime object representing the execution time.

To query the history of executed operations, just call the get_history method:

>>> get_history(calc)
[
    ('2016-05-18 12:00:00', 'add', (1, 2, 3, 4), 10),
    ('2016-05-18 12:10:00', 'multiply', (1, 2, 3, 4), 24),
    ...
]

Reseting the history is also possible by executing the reset_history method:

>>> reset_history(calc)
>>> get_history(calc)
[]

As we keep track of all the operations we execute, it must be possible too to repeat the last executed action. From time to time this is useful to avoid re writing the whole operation command.

>>> perform_operation(calc, 'subtract', params=(10, 2, 3, 4))
1
>>> repeat_last_operation(calc)
1

As a quick summary, this is the interface your calculator must respect:

create_new_calculator

perform_operation

add_new_operation

get_operations

get_history

reset_history

repeat_last_operation

If you want to get some extra points, and have some extra fun you can add a new plot operation to your calculator. This plot operation takes a function expression as a parameter (ie: '-2*x + 4'), and two digits representing the range in which the variable "x" must be evaluated. Example:

>>> plot = lambda *args: ...
>>> add_new_operation(calc, operation=plot)
>>> perform_operation(calc, 'plot', params=('-x**2', -2, 2))
-0 |             ... ...
   |           ..       ..
   |          /           \
   |         /             \
   |        /               \
   |       /                 \
   |      .                   .
-2 | ------------------------------
   |     .                     .
   |    .                       .
   |
   |   .                         .
   |
   |  .                           .
-4 | /
     -2         0              2

Hint: Investigate sympy library