🔄 Processes-N-Pipes: Enhanced IPC Demo with Delays

Welcome to Processes-N-Pipes, an advanced exploration into the realms of inter-process communication (IPC) using pipes. It now features a user-friendly terminal menu and customizable communication delays. This toolkit extends our initial case inversion example to include a variety of operations and demonstrates the effect of delays in IPC, making it a comprehensive educational tool for learners and educators alike.

🎯 Core Functionality

• Extended IPC Operations: Engage with a broader range of operations beyond case inversion, including uppercase transformation, palindrome creation, and random math operations on numbers.
• Terminal Menu: Navigate through the options easily with a simple-to-use terminal menu, enhancing user interaction.
• Communication Delays: Experience the impact of timing in IPC with deliberate delays introduced between parent and child processes, simulating real-world scenarios where processes operate at different speeds.
• Educational Tool: With these new features, delve deeper into IPC mechanics in a clear, engaging manner, perfect for those looking to enhance their understanding of process communication.

🛠 Getting Started

Prerequisites

Prepare for this IPC journey with:

• A GCC compiler or any standard C compiler.
• Basic terminal operations.

Installation & Compilation

Ensure your project directory is structured properly with main.c and utilities.c inside the /src folder and utilities.h inside the /include folder.

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/Processes-N-Pipes.git

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd Processes-N-Pipes

3. Compile the project using the Makefile:

   make

This will compile the source files from the /src directory and place the executable in the /build directory as defined in the Makefile.

Run make clean to remove the compiled objects, test binaries, and the executable when you're done experimenting.

📘 How to Play

After compiling, run the executable to access the terminal menu. You may optionally specify the delay (in seconds) as the first argument:

./build/processes-n-pipes [delay]

Follow the on-screen prompts to choose between various IPC demonstrations. When prompted, enter a message or a number based on your selection. Explore different functionalities and observe the impact of communication delays firsthand.

🌟 New Demonstrations & Features

This version introduces a terminal menu that allows users to select between different demonstrations:

• Toggle and Return a Message: Inverts the case of each character in a string.
• Uppercase and Return a Message: Converts a string to uppercase.
• Palindrome and Return a Message: Creates a palindrome from the input string.
• Perform a Random Math Operation on a Number: Executes a random math operation on a provided number.

Additionally, communications are delayed by default to better highlight process interaction. You can override the default 3‑second pause by providing a delay value on the command line when starting the program.

🧪 Running Tests

Run the included unit tests with:

make test

When all tests succeed, you will see output similar to:

All tests passed.
Menu test passed.
IO test passed.

💡 Contribute & Learn

Dive into the Processes-N-Pipes project! Your contributions—whether new features, bug fixes, or documentation improvements—are a fantastic way to deepen your understanding of IPC and contribute to the learning community.

📜 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

🤝 Support & Questions

Encountered a challenge? Have a question? Open an issue on our GitHub issue tracker for support and guidance.

Embark on your IPC learning journey with Processes-N-Pipes and enjoy the advanced adventure of communication between processes!