Homework 1: Learning Makeflow

1. Problem 1: Write a Makeflow to check if "Shakespeare speak" still exists
   1. Prerequisites
   2. Objectives
   3. The Assignment
2. Problem 2: Apply Makeflow to your research
   1. Problem Statement

Use the instructions in the tutorial to install and setup CCTools as required.

Homework 1

Write a Makeflow to check if "Shakespeare speak" still exists

Prerequisites

Completion of the Makeflow Tutorial.

Objectives

At the conclusion of this assignment, students will be able to:

• Decompose and execute workflows as smaller concurrent pieces.
• Write Makeflow scripts for the execution of their workflows.

The Assignment

In this assignment, you will compare the words seen in the works of Shakespeare with the words currently in use in the English language and identify those words that are still in use.

You will compare the words of Shakespeare listed in each of these text files:

• hamlet.txt (29714 words)
• othello.txt (25333 words)
• macbeth.txt (16912 words)
• juliuscaesar.txt (19172 words)
• kinglear.txt (25424 words)

Each file contains all the words found in a work of Shakespeare identified in the filename. For your convenience, each word is listed in a separate line to make it easier to scan and read them.

You will compare the words in each of these files with the dictionary provided in Unix systems (/usr/share/dict/words or /usr/dict/words). If a word is found to exist in the dictionary, you should print the word followed by the string "Art spoken ever and anon!". If not, you should print the word followed by the string "Ne'er spoken ever!".

To complete this assignment, you will create a Makeflow script that decomposes the problem into concurrent tasks. Your script should contain 5 rules, each describing a search of the dictionary for the words in a file, or in other words, one rule per file. You will then run this Makeflow on a cluster as described here.

Hint:

To read each file and compare the words listed in it against the dictionary, you can use this simple python program: shakespeare-compare.py. You will then have this program executed remotely by specifying the filename containing the words to check.

For example, to check if the words in hamlet.txt exist in the dictionary, run:

Create Makeflow rules that check each of the files by running this program.

Problem 2

Apply Makeflow to your research.

Problem Statement

In completing Problem 1, you have mastered the fundamentals of expressing large worfklows using Makeflow!

Now, can you think of one or two instances in your research where Makeflow might be useful?