Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Base
Decimal
Binary
Hexadecimal
Base 10
Digits 0123456789
Base 2
Digits 01
Base 16
Digits 0123456789ABCDEF
Figure 6.7
Analysis of number bases
The command line interpreter must provide the user with information
about the current base and representation format. This is a simple extension
of the information provided by the interpreter in the previous prototype.
6.5.2
Design
The design of this prototype is basically an extension of the previous one
with the addition of the classes required to handle multiple number bases.
The structure of the classes identified during analysis is quite similar to
the classes identified in the previous prototype, which were related to
representation formats. Because of this analogy we decide to adopt a similar
approach and to represent the base in use by the calculator through an
object of type
Base
. The resulting class diagram is shown in Figure 6.8.
The class
Base
defines the interface and basic behaviour, which are
common to all the concrete base classes,
DecimalBase
,
BinartyBase
and
HexBase
.
There is an important difference between the number base related class
hierarchy and the representation format related one. Class
Base
can use
generic algorithms to convert between a string and a number; therefore the
subclasses need only define the parameters for such algorithms. In the case of
format the separation is achieved by defining a specific behaviour in the con-
crete subclasses. In the case of the base, it is achieved by customizing the
generic algorithms defined in the abstract class.
The sequence of calls to add a new operand to the calculator is described
in Figure 6.9. The command class calls the
addOperand()
method to add a
Table 6.5
Additional commands
Command
Description
Dec
Switch to base 10
Bin
Switch to binary base
Hex
Switch to hexadecimal base
