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From: ins_asac@jhunix.UUCP (Stephan Alexa Cooper)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: working programs
Message-ID: <2213@jhunix.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Mar-86 15:17:17 EST
Article-I.D.: jhunix.2213
Posted: Fri Mar 14 15:17:17 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Mar-86 09:23:04 EST
References: <9431@ritcv.UUCP> <244@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: ins_asac@jhunix.ARPA (Stephan Alexa Cooper)
Organization: Johns Hopkins Univ. Computing Ctr.
Lines: 53

In article <244@umcp-cs.UUCP> beth@maryland.UUCP (Beth Katz) writes:
>jeff writes:
>>This article has to do with working programs in CS courses.  In my past 
>>experience with CS courses it seems that alot of u-grads do not get their
>>programs done correctly.
>>
>I'm new at teaching, but I knew a lot of students would be turning in
>programs that didn't work perfectly.  What I didn't know was that only
>four programs out of 29 would pass my tests.  Obviously, the programs
>weren't the only thing that was wrong.
>
>Maybe having students fix the faults in their programs would be good
>for them.  Maybe stressing the need to develop test cases (input and
>output) and checking the program before turning it in would help. 
>Maybe writing better specifiactions would help.  But giving the majority
>of the credit for style doesn't seem to be the answer.

I think having the students fix their programs is a great idea.  A good
practice would be to follow the lead of other courses, and require that to
pass the course, ALL assignments be completed, whether on time or not.
The grade that the student receives for the assignment will be the grade
that his/her assignment earns on the deadline.  This would require the
student who passes the course, regardless of the grade received, to 
actually solved ALL of the assignment problems, and experience debugging
(using test cases, etc.).  I have an elective that does just this.  In
order to pass we MUST do ALL of the homework.  If it's late, we will get
the 0 ('F') for the assignment, but we still have to do it.  If we don't,
we don't pass.

Now, I am not a grad student or a prof.  I guess then, you can see I'm an
undergrad.  But still I support this practice.  After all, it makes me
overcome the assignment, whether by the deadline or not.

As for the majority of grading on style, you've got to be kidding!  I grant,
style is VERY important, but if the program doesn't work, style's not going
to make it work any better.  Pretty programs do not always work best.
How are you going to give a good grade to a program that is supposed to
(for example) manipulate lists of structures (C) if it only looks good,
but doesn't work?  Style should be considered AFTER the making the program
work.  I don't mean "write the program, get it to work, then re-structure
it to make it look good."  That idea is absurd.  I think we can agree that
style should be hand-in-hand with writing the program.  It is for me, in fact
very often it is style that keeps me from just rattling off a program.
What I mean is that in the grading process, style should be that thing which
decides whether the program is an 'A' or 'B.'


-- 

	Steve Cooper
	Johns Hopkins University
	Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
	...!seismo!umcp-cs!jhunix!ins_asac