Returning program to pre-triggered state - c

Question

First this gets triggered:
if ((temperatureChannel[channelID].currentTemperature > temperatureChannel[channelID].highLimit) | (temperatureChannel[channelID].currentTemperature < temperatureChannel[channelID].lowLimit))
activateAlarm(channelID);
Activate alarm is triggered, then from there:
void activateAlarm(int channelID);
{ while (temperatureChannel[channelID].currentTemperature > temperatureChannel[channelID].highLimit || temperatureChannel[channelID].currentTemperature < temperatureChannel[channelID].lowLimit)
{
logSubsystem(temperatureChannel[channelID].currentTemperature);
}
}
Then alarm screen is triggered with following case:
int logSubsystem(int currentTemperature)
case 'F': //if user input is 'F'
case 'f': //if user input is 'f'
currentTemperature--;
printf("your current exceeded temp is %i\n \n", currentTemperature);
if (currentTemperature <= 100 || currentTemperature >= 50);
compareLimit();
break; //exits loop
How do I set up this function so that if the user decrements with F and gets the current temperature to below the limit (<100, or >50), then it will return back to the compareLimit function and the requirement for the high limit/low limit triggered state will be FALSE, returning the program to its original pre-alarm state?

Answer 1

I think you would benefit considerably from thinking a lot about how your program flows. Right now, what I can deduce of your program flow is:
You have an outer loop that checks the temperature, on at least one channel ID. Inside that loop, you have the if statement you first showed us.
Then activate alarm does some other stuff, but loops until the temperature goes down, calling logSubsystem.
logSubsystem then presumably gets some kind of user input, and from there, you want it to call to your initial function, presumably called prepare limit.
The problem with this is that none of these functions ever complete. They all call each other, and you'll eventually get a stack overflow. Nice, since that's the name of this site, but not something you want to aspire to.
What you basically need is a state machine. You need something that keeps track of values, looks at those values, and calls functions that return that operate on those values. There should only be one loop, and it should do all the control of what happens based on what those values are. The good news is, you have all of this in place already. temperatureChannel is keeping track of the values for you, and you have while loops a-plenty.
Let me give you my suggestion of the way I suggest your program should flow:
bool checkTemperatureValuesOutOfRange(int channelID) {
// this is just a convenience, to make the state machine flow easier.
return (temperatureChannel[channelID].currentTemperature > temperatureChannel[channelID].highLimit) || // note the || not just one |
(temperatureChannel[channelID].currentTemperature < temperatureChannel[channelID].lowLimit);
}
void actOnUserInput() {
char input = // ... something that gets a user input. It should check if any is available, otherwise return.
switch (input) {
case 'F':
case 'f':
temperatureChannel[channelID].currentTemperature--;
break; // This doesn't exit the loop - it gets you out of the switch statement
}
void activateAlarm(int channelID) {
// presumably this does something other than call logSubsystem?
// if that's all it does, just call it directly
// note - no loop here
logSubsystem(channelID);
}
void logSubsystem(int channelID) { // Not the current temperature - that's a local value, and you want to set the observed value
// I really think actOnUserInput should be (an early) part of the while loop below.
// It's just another input for the state machine, but I'll leave it here per your design
// Presumably actually logs things, too, otherwise it's an unnecessary function
actOnUserInput();
}
while (TRUE) { // this is the main loop of your function, and shouldn't exit unless the program does
// do anything else you need to - check other stuff
// maybe have a for loop going through different channelIDs?
if (checkTemperatureValuesOutOfRange(channelID)) {
activateAlarm(channelId);
// do anything else you need to
}
I'm sure you can see lots of differences between your code and mine. Here are some key things to consider:
All the functions now return. The master while loop calls functions that check status, and calls function that change status.
I would highly suggest acting on the user input as part of the master while loop. It's just another input to the state machine. Get it, act on it, and then check your statuses. You presumably need to have some input from the user, otherwise you'll never get in a bad state in the first place.
Right now, activate alarm happens every time. With the code you showed, that's fine - because logSubsystem was all that was being called. If you only want the alarm to ring once, keep a boolean tracker inside temperatureChannel[channelId] that says if the alarm rang, set it true within activateAlarm, and then reset it to false based on the return value of checkTemperatureValuesOutOfRange.
Rather than leaving yourself in the activateAlarm/logSubsystem area, you return each time, and check your values each time to see if you're still there. This is the key point - your functions should be fast, and not monopolize your processor. Make each function do just one sort of thing, and have all the control come from within the master loop.
I made a lot of changes to your code, and I don't know if you're allowed to make all of them, but you'll need something similar to this. It's much more robust, and gives you room to grow all around.