MIT Scheme Message Passing Abstraction

Question

In a Computer Science course I am taking, for homework, we were tasked with several different questions all pertaining to message passing. I have been able to solve all but one,

Answer 1

Your code has all kinds of mix-ups. :) Let's proceed step by step.

The dispatch bit is almost OK:

(define (make-mailman)
 (let ...
  ...
  (define (dispatch msg)                ;; use short but suggestive var names
   (cond 
    ((eq? msg 'add-to-route)    add-to-route)
    ((eq? msg 'collect-letters) collect-letters)
    ((eq? msg 'distribute) 
       ;; "unsure of what to do here" <<-- Distribute the letters, what else?
                                distribute-the-letters)
    (else "Invalid option")))
  dispatch))

With such objects, a sample call will be (define ob (make-mailman)) and then ((ob 'add-to-route) box1 box2 ... boxn) etc. So add-to-route procedure must be defined this way:

(define (make-mailman)
 (let ((self (list '(ROUTE)           ; each mailman has a route, and a mailbag
                   '(MAILBAG))))      ; use suggestive name here (T, what T?)
  ...
  (define (add-to-route . mailboxes)
    (let ((route (assoc 'ROUTE self))) 
      (set-cdr! route
          (append mailboxes           ; there will be no duplicates
            (cdr route)))
      'DONE))

Right? Same with the letters:

  (define (collect-letters . letters)
    (let ((mailbag (assoc 'MAILBAG self)))
      .....
      'DONE))

Now we can deal with the missing part, distribute-the-letters:

  (define (distribute-the-letters)
    ;; for each letter in my mailbag
    (let* ((mailbag (assoc 'MAILBAG self))
           (mailboxes (cdr (assoc 'ROUTE self)))
           (letters (cdr mailbag)))
      (if (null? letters) ()
        (let loop ((letter  (car letters))
                   (letters (cdr letters))
                   (not-delivered ()))
    ;;   access its address, 
          (let* ((address (letter 'get-address))
            ;; (we assume it supports this interface, 
            ;;   or maybe that's part of a previous assignment)
    ;;     and find a mailbox on my route such that
                 (mbx (find-mailbox address mailboxes)))
    ;;     its address matches the letter's
    ;;     and if so,
             (if .....
    ;;        put that letter into this mailbox: 
               ((mbx 'put-letter) letter)
    ;;            (we assume it supports this interface, 
    ;;             or maybe that's part of a previous assignment)
    ;;     but if not, add letter to the "not-delivered" list
               ..... )
            (if (null? letters)
    ;; having emptied the mailbag, return the "not-delivered" list
              (begin (set-cdr! mailbag nil) not-delivered)
              (loop (car letters) (cdr letters) not-delivered)))))))

We assume that both letter and mailbox objects support the message type 'get-address to which they both return the same comparable address type of object, and that mailbox objects support 'put-letter message.