Computer Science 60
Principles of Computer Science
Assignments/Grading Policies, Spring 2000

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Assignments

Worksheets

Special Worksheet (MW section only) (officially Olin 1245)

Assignment Policy

Where are the machines?

Room 102 Beckman is where the X terminals connected to our server turing are. If you don't wish to use an X terminal, you may use a secure protocol (e.g., ssh) to get to turing.cs.hmc.edu. Getting acquainted with turing is a good idea, since some software we use will not be available on other machines.

Getting Help

You will get an account on turing. In your home directory you should have a directory named ~/cs60, whose group owner is cs60. If not, the system administrator will create one for you. Access to this directory will thus be by you, the instructor, and the tutors, but preferably no one else. When properly setup, the directory listing is obtained by ls -l and should look like this:

 
    drwxrwx--- 2 yourid cs60  512 Sep 8 20:32 cs60/ 

    chmod 770 cs60

Your ~/cs60 directory lets us help you on problems with code without your having to mail the code. Simply indicate the file name to the instructor or tutor. She or he can connect to the directory and read and write things there. It is a good idea to write all of your code in that directory or one of its subdirectories (a1 to a15).

Submitting Assignments

where filename is the file containing the assignment to be submitted. The file should be an ascii file, that is, it should be source code. The submit system has had problems (though not consistently) with files with more than 80 characters per line. The submission program will ask what assignment this is -- a number [like 6] or a number and a letter [like 1j] -- and then submit the assignment properly. Shortly thereafter (usually a few seconds), you will receive on turing by e-mail an exact copy of what was submitted. You must either read mail on turing or have your mail forwarded in order to get this response. You will notice that some headers are attached, containing certain essential information. These headers are commented out so that compilation of the program is not affected. If what you receive is not acceptable (e.g. becomes MIME encoded because it is more than 80 columns or contains control characters), you are responsible for noticing this immediately, correcting the file, and re-submitting it. All submissions will be kept for archival purposes, but only the latest submission before the time deadline will be graded.

Mail on Turing

To you have your mail on turing forwarded to another machine, create a file named .forward in your top-level directory. (Yes, there's a dot in front of the file name. To see such files, type ls -a.

In your .forward file, put the address to which you'd like the mail to be forwarded on the first line. If you want it forwarded and also wish to retain a copy on turing, include immediately after that address and on the same line:

    ,\yourUsername

Assignment Grading

The assignments will stress programming, though there may also be some paper-and-pencil exercises. Programming assignments help drive home key working concepts and principles. Assignments vary in difficulty and may not be equally weighted. Sufficient information about the programming languages you will be using will be provided in class with some reinforcement in the assignment descirptions themselves. There are considerable online resources for those languages, too, on the references page. You do not have to know these languages when you enter the class. You should, however, have some background in an imperative language such as Java, C++, or Pascal.

Each assignment will be worth 50 points. Partial credit will be given; some credit in each assignment (10-20%) will depend on the legibility and commenting of your code --- basically for "good coding style." The following list describes what we expect in terms of coding style:

• Use of indenting and consistent indenting. Choose an indenting style and stick with it. There will be lots of example code to suggest readable styles.
• Variable names should be balanced between easy to use (short) and easy to understand (descriptive). If you like using one-letter names, be sure to comment what they are! (except for idioms like loop indices).
• Use of whitespace. Code without sufficient whitespace to indicate its high-level structure can become very hard to read. Use liberally.
• Header comments. Be sure to have your name, the file name, the date, assignment number, and any other information you feel might be useful at the head of your assignment files.
• Comments. You should comment each function you write with its purpose. If you have created an unusual implementation, you should also indicate how (in addition to what) you've coded. This comment should be before the function itself. Within your code, you should add comments to describe at a high-level what is going on. These inner comments need not be everywhere, but enough should be included to get the general sense of how your code works.

Programs which do not compile will not receive any points. Thus it is always better to submit a compilable partially-correct solution than an ostensibly fully-done solution which does not compile. The best strategy is to progress from a partial, but working, solution toward a final, complete solution by gradually adding features.

Remember, you can always ask about things before you submit your actual product. There is no reason to lose points on most of the above. You also lose no points or esteem for asking.

Course Grading