Condensed some code.

Improved docstrings where possible

Assignment 1/Program.cs

@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ namespace Assignment_1
 {
     class Program
     {
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Flags to set object properties.
+        /// </summary>
         [Flags]
         enum VariableFlags
         {
@@ -21,23 +24,17 @@ namespace Assignment_1
             Undef = 8
         }
 
-        /// <summary>
+        static Dictionary<string, Tuple<string, VariableFlags>> Symbols = new()
-        /// This captures the end-point of each part of an expression (in the stream), to validate the syntax
+        {
-        /// Optionally also captures the parsed string for each expression.
-        /// 
-        /// For this program, a word is considered to be any non-whitespace value bounded by whitespace or the array boundary.
-        /// 
-        /// </summary>
-
-        static Dictionary<string, Tuple<string, VariableFlags>> Symbols = new Dictionary<string, Tuple<string, VariableFlags>>
-            {
                 { "SPACE", new Tuple<string, VariableFlags>(" ", VariableFlags.Reserved | VariableFlags.NoPrint) },
                 { "TAB", new Tuple<string, VariableFlags>("\t", VariableFlags.Reserved | VariableFlags.NoPrint) },
                 { "NEWLINE", new Tuple<string, VariableFlags>("\n", VariableFlags.Reserved | VariableFlags.NoPrint) },
                 { "CARRIAGE_RETURN", new Tuple<string, VariableFlags>("\r", VariableFlags.Reserved | VariableFlags.NoPrint) }
             };
-
+        /// <summary>
-        static List<char> ForbiddenChars = new List<char>
+        /// Characters that cannot appear in a normal string
+        /// </summary>
+        static readonly List<char> ForbiddenChars = new()
         {
             '$', '\\', '\"', '\''
         };
@@ -100,18 +97,15 @@ namespace Assignment_1
                             long pos = source.Position;
                             source.Write(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(s));
                             source.Position = pos;
-                            int g = 0;
                         }
                         // parse the statement or list of statements;
                         // This is done by reading the next word
                         SkipWhitespace(source);
                         long initPos = source.Position;
                         long position = FindNextWord(source, out string word);
-
-                        object statementType;
                         try
                         {
-                            if (Enum.TryParse(typeof(statements), word, out statementType))
+                            if (Enum.TryParse(typeof(statements), word, out object statementType))
                             {
                                 // By turning the result of the command into an action,
                                 // we can defer processing the final result until the end of this control flow
@@ -183,7 +177,7 @@ namespace Assignment_1
                                 {
                                     throw new ParserException("expected a semi-colon", 0, source.Position);
                                 }
-                                
+
                             }
                             else
                             {
@@ -439,26 +433,17 @@ namespace Assignment_1
             /// <returns></returns>
             long FindExpression(Stream s, out string expression)
             {
-                // Expressions are one or more occurances of a variable name or literal definition.
-                // To make logical sense, there needs to be an operator between them. Typically, for strings, this is
-                // the append operator: +
-                // Variable symbols should be evaluated immediately.
-                // Start by ensuring we don't try reading past the end of the stream
-                // Also check for the EoS
-                long realStart = s.Position;
                 string result = "";
+                // iterate through values until we reach either the end of the stream or the end-of-statement
                 while (s.Position < s.Length && !IsNextEoS(s))
                 {
-                    long currStart = s.Position;
                     if (IsNextEoS(s, '+'))
                     {
                         s.Position = FindNextWord(s, out _);
                     }
                     else
                     {
-                        string value;
+                        long val = FindValue(s, out string value);
-                        long firstPos = s.Position;
-                        long val = FindValue(s, out value);
                         if (val == -1)
                         {
                             Console.WriteLine("Could not parse value");
@@ -506,8 +491,7 @@ namespace Assignment_1
                 }
                 else
                 {
-                    string keyValue;
+                    long t = FindExistingIdentifier(s, out string keyValue);
-                    long t = FindExistingIdentifier(s, out keyValue);
                     // Set the key value to result + this read string
                     //keyValue = result + keyValue;
 
@@ -528,8 +512,7 @@ namespace Assignment_1
             }
             long FindExistingIdentifier(Stream s, out string returnedKey)
             {
-                string identifier;
+                long wordEnd = FindNextWord(s, out string identifier);
-                long wordEnd = FindNextWord(s, out identifier);
                 if (identifier.Length > 1 && identifier.EndsWith(';'))
                 {
                     // Remove the trailing semicolon from the parse & backtrack the identifier length one spot
@@ -608,10 +591,15 @@ namespace Assignment_1
         /// <returns></returns>
         static long FindNextWord(Stream s, out string nextWord)
         {
-            StringBuilder newWord = new StringBuilder();
+            StringBuilder newWord = new();
             // Record our current position
             long start = s.Position;
-            // Check if the character at the current pos is whitespace, if so, keep advancing until it isn't
+            // Check if the character at the current pos is whitespace, if so, keep advancing until it isn't.
+            // NB: Whitespace includes carriage returns or line feeds,
+            // so 'set\r\n
+            //    var
+            //    "expression";
+            // should be valid
             char currentChar = ReadChar(s);
             while (s.Position < s.Length && char.IsWhiteSpace(currentChar))
             {