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From: brian@ut-sally.UUCP (Brian H. Powell)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: "Editing output, is it the only problem?"
Message-ID: <2958@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Sep-85 14:46:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.2958
Posted: Sat Sep 21 14:46:05 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Sep-85 00:11:13 EDT
References: <5560@fortune.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 36

> 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.
=======
> |*  Michael Dove                          *|
> |*  Fortune Systems Corporation           *|
> |*     {ihnp4, ucbvax!dual}!fortune!dove  *|

     I disagree with the part I set apart in "=======".  It's not hard if
the grader is paying attention while grading.  I generally had 40-60 programs
to grade at a time.  Especially if the changes to the student's programs
are as simple as you state.  I remember the flow of the code, not the
identifier names.
     Even rearranging subroutines into a different order isn't hard to catch.
(Though with our Cyber line-editor, moving around subroutines in a file was
almost good enough for a Ph.D. Thesis, so we didn't see that much.)
     I guess it all comes down to whether you're skimming the code or studying
it.  I grade using the latter.  You can tell a lot more about how much work
the student did by studying the code than by studying the output.


Brian H. Powell
		UUCP:	{ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!brian
		ARPA:	brian@sally.UTEXAS.EDU

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