General Project Information

The programming assignments will be graded according to the following criteria (of roughly equal importance):

completeness ; does your program implement the whole assignment?
correctness ; does your program provide the right output?
efficiency ; have you chosen appropriate algorithms and data structures for the problem?
programming style (including documentation and program organization) ; is the program well designed and easy to understand?

All assignments will be handed in electronically; see below for instructions. In general, you will need to put every assignment in a separate directory containing both your source code and your write-up.

We will strive to return assignments and homework within one week of the due date. Grades will returned to you via e-mail to your CS department account. If you do not want to read this account on a regular basis, be sure to forward it to an account that you do read regularly. If you have any questions about your project grade, see the TA within one week of receiving your grade.

USING THE TURN-IN SCRIPT

The turn-in script will recursively copy all files and subdirectories of your current directory to a location in the course's account. Please avoid running it at your home directory or any other directory that contains files irrelevant to the current project. For any problems while using it please contact the TA with an email (sending the script's output will help).

You may turn-in your project as many times as you need. However, only the MOST RECENT submission will be graded.

DO NOT FORGET to submit a README file (text only) with your code, and include your name and e-mail address in the README file. Check the project's page for information related to the contents of the README file.

INSTRUCTIONS:

* From the undergrad network:

Go to the directory that contains ALL the files that are related to your current project.
Run the script: /u/cs256/bin/turnin .

* From the grad network:

Go to the directory that contains ALL the files that are related to your current project.
Run the script: /u/cs456/bin/turnin .

Upon successful completion you will get an output of the form:
TURN_IN has completed successfully.A log of files submitted has been sent to your mailbox.
You will also receive through email a message with subject ``Project submission confirmation'', which will contain a listing of all the files you submitted.

While if your project is submitted late, you will get the following output:
TURN_IN has completed successfully.A log of files submitted has been sent to your mailbox. Note that this project has been submitted late.
Also, you will receive through email a message with subject "Late project submission confirmation", which contains a listing of all the files you submitted.

NOTE: This turnin script program only works well on Linux system. Please use a linux machine to submit your work.

General README instructions

In the directory you turn in, you must have a text-only file called README, in which you will cover AT LEAST the following:

Your name (and your partner's name, if applicable) and the project number. If you interacted significantly with others but are not partners, indicate this as well.
A list of all files in the directory and a short description of each.
HOW TO COMPILE your program.
HOW TO USE (execute) your program.
A description of the structure of your program and the algorithms that you used.
In case you have not completed the project, you should mention in significant detail:
- what you have and have not done,
- why you did not manage to complete your project (e.g., greatest difficulties)
This will allow us to give you partial credit for the things you have completed.
Document any bugs of your program that you know of. Run-time errors will cost you fewer points if you document them and you show that you know their cause. Also describe what you would have done to correct them, if you had more time to work on your project.
A clear description of any extensions or special features of your project. This will be used for assigning extra credit.

Note: The last four items need not be contained in the README itself. Instead, they can be included in a ps, or pdf file contained in the directory. Do not submit a MS Word document. 456 students: Your writeup is expected to be a thourough discussion of the project, and such a discussion is likely to need more than pure text. i.e., expect to turn in a .ps or .pdf file.

Extra Credit

There will be opportunities for extra credit on the assignments. Extra credit will be considered after making the first cut at letter grades for the course. If you're near the top of your bracket, or the amount of extra work you've done is particularly large, you can expect it to push you up a grade.

No Late Assignments

It is my strict policy not to accept late assignments. Exceptions will be made only under the most dire of circumstances. Note, however, that I am extremely generous with partial credit, so turn in what you have.

A suggestion: if you are not going to have the project completed on time, take the time to work on your writeup (as described above). It is possible that you will get significant (up to 50%, or possibly more) credit even if your program does not work. Trust me, 50% is much better than 0%.

A better suggestion: don't wait until the last minute to start/complete your assignments. If you do, you will not be able to ask questions of the instructor or TA's. If you do, it is possible that the lab machines will crash and you will not be able to complete the assignment (note: machine failure does not automatically guarantee an extension).

Academic Honesty

Student conduct is governed by the College Academic Honesty Policy, the Undergraduate Laboratory Policies of the Computer Science Department, and the Acceptable Use Policy of Academic Technology Services.

The following are additional details specific to CSC 256/456.

Exams in CSC 256/456 must be strictly individual work.

Collaboration on homework and programming assignments is encouraged at the level of ideas. Feel free to ask each other questions, brainstorm on algorithms, or work together at a blackboard. However, copying code or written text is NOT permitted. If you copy code or text for any reason, you will get zero points for that portion of the assignment.