Visit the CS340 Development Environment page for guides on setting up your computer for this course.
MPs will be submitted on the secure upload page. Feedback will be available on the secure feedback page.
Many of the MPs are challenging. Expect to invest significant time over several days for each MP.
Each MP has two goals:
Notably not present is give us working code,
nor learn by looking at working code.
We don’t care if your code works per se: we care if you have learned enough to create working code. Getting working code by any means other than creating it yourself is counterproductive, and likely is also cheating.
This leads to the following concrete policies:
Lecture and reading before coding. Lecture often includes MP-related content. Please review that prior to asking for help.
Design and type all your own code. Search engines, AI systems, tutors, and friends are not permitted sources of MP code.
Share tips, not steps. It is helpful to share tips like
It is harmful to share steps like fseek is helpful.add a
Figuring out the steps yourself is part of your learning experience.for loop that uses fread with a 4 byte buffer, converts to an int, and then fseeks that far.
Always use a debugger. MP0 shows you how to use a debugger. For each subsequent MP, if your code is not doing what you expected it to do, your first step must be run it in the debugger.
Automated feedback may be replaced by human feedback and grade. The most common reason for this is to reduce your grade when a human noticed you submitted code you did not write.
Deadlines matter. They help keep you on track, keep our staff from having to think about too many MPs at one time, and demonstrate that you understand coding well enough to write code within a schedule.
But you might have to miss a deadline now and again. Here is how to handle being late.
If you miss a posted deadline by 24 hours or less, submit anyway. We’ll note that you were late but won’t dock your GPA.
Submissions more than 24 hours late will be ignored. Exceptions are unanticipated external forces approved by the professor.
Note that I have many tests this week
is never an accepted reason to be more than 24 hours late. You are responsible for picking what courses to take concurrently and for managing your time accordingly.
Two assignments require in-class checkoff: MP9 (on November 21st at 2pm) and the Final (on December 17th at 7pm). If you cannot be there for those days, let us know as soon as possible. Most conflicts will not be approved, but some might be.