#ifndef _UTILITY_H
#define _UTILITY_H

/* utility.h
 * coded by Alex Gruenstein for CS107, TA: AndyG
 * This is the interface to a useful memory allocation
 * function (GetBlock) and a useful macro (New) */

/* macro: New(type)
 * This is a macro written by Eric Roberts for cs106 that
 * simplifies memory allocation.  It is used to
 * allocate memory for a given type (eg a struct).
 * usage: struct myStruct *m = New(struct myStruct) */
#define New(type) ((type) GetBlock(sizeof *((type) NULL)))

/* function: GetBlock
 * this is a modified version of the function developed
 * by Eric Roberts for cs106.  It is an error checking
 * wrapper for malloc().  It ensures that the memory
 * could be allocated, and if not it halts the program
 * via the assert macro.  
 * it returns a pointer to free blcok of memory in the heap 
 * of a given size (in bytes) */
void *GetBlock(unsigned int size);


/* function: CopyString
 * this is a utility function supplied by cs107 that I have
 * modified slightly.
 * it places a copy of a string in memory that it allocates
 * on the heap
 * returns: a pointer to the new string */
char *CopyString(const char *s);
#endif