Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site fortune.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!fortune!dove
From: dove@fortune.UUCP (Michael Dove)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: "Editing output, is it the only problem?"
Message-ID: <5560@fortune.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Sep-85 14:45:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: fortune.5560
Posted: Wed Sep 18 14:45:39 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Sep-85 06:26:06 EDT
Reply-To: dove@fortune.UUCP (Michael Dove)
Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA
Lines: 35

Where I went to school, editing output was not as bad a problem as some
others I have seen.  We had a submission system so that when you were
done with the program, you would submit it to this submission program
which would then compile and run your program with the standard data set,
and then store away the program and output for printout by the TA's.  There
were indeed ways around this, but it solved the problem of editing output.
The program you submitted did produce the results that were stored, so your
program had to produce the correct results.  You could always dress your
program up to look liked it worked and produce the correct results.  But
that was usually more work than the original assignment.

The big problem was more of code copying.  People would trace through
the class directories for people who either accidently or purposly
left permissions to their directories and files so the world could
read them.  So you have 20-30 people who would snag a copy of it, spend
30 minutes doing global substitutions of variable names, etc, change
the comments, and turn them in.  It is real hard for an instructor to
notice this so most people got away with it.  Many other bugs in unix
allow people to read a file even if it is unreadable by the world, so
it was a large problem.  The only problem these people had to worry
about was if the person they got this copy from had a good program
originally.

I have never know of anyone who has ever caught, but there were oogles
of people doing it.  It is also one of those things that is hard to
stop.  The question arises, who has the original code?

-- 
/******************************************\
|*                                        *|
|*  Michael Dove                          *|
|*  Fortune Systems Corporation           *|
|*     {ihnp4, ucbvax!dual}!fortune!dove  *|
|*                                        *|
\******************************************/


Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com