Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!husc6!uwvax!uwmacc!edwards
From: edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: portable code
Message-ID: <506@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Nov-86 09:23:01 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.506
Posted: Fri Nov 14 09:23:01 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Nov-86 03:07:35 EST
References: <653@moscom.UUCP> <569@hoptoad.uucp> <11569@watnot.UUCP>
Reply-To: edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards)
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 57
Keywords: Programming experiences

In article <8448V6M@PSUVM> V6M@PSUVM.BITNET writes:
><>
>
>I usually grade the programs such that
>1.  the program must work if not it is rejected outright.
>2.  then enforce style and intent of the structures defined.
>3.  let the student resubmit until it is working and well structured.
>4.  use a checksheet for each program and have the student submit it each
>    time.  always use the same sheet until the code is accepted.
>

   Those are a good theoritical set of rules, probably applicable to
 courses like English, or a foreign language. I myself in English 101
 had to at times rewrite a paper until it was grammatically and formally
 correct, and what not.

 But in Computer Science that is not always easy to do. In the earlier
 classes programs are small, but the knowledge level and experience
 of students is also small. Programming is usually a time consuming
 task. Sure for those whose only interest (or only class is that one
 Computer Science class) they have plenty of time to do it. Or at
 Universities like Madison, Graduate Students can some time get credit
 for taking undergraduate computer classes, where their load is 3 classes
 and the undergraduate is 4 classes, and usually undergrads must take 5.
 There are severe time constraints, at least for the undergraduates
 who are fighting with the grad students for grades.

 Now I had a class in operating systems, with a mixture of grads, and
 undergrads. The programming assignment was the same as the previous
 N operating systems class of semesters gone by. Our Prof decide that
 he would make it different. In previous classes once they completed
 a project everyone was given a correct solution to proceed on with
 the building of the next part of a toy operating system, in our class
 we were supposed to use our own code from stage 1.

  Do you get the picture, if your code did not work for part 1, it wasn't
  going to work for part2. Even if your code did work for part 1 it
  still may not work for part2. And so on. You could potentially get
  to the last part and have the entire thing blow up on you because of
  some thing you did in the previous sections.
   Some people had friends who had already taken the course before,
  some people had taken the course before and had dropped midway,
  some people were good programmers and got the problem right the
  first time (maybe by luck or by asking the right questions, or just
  by being themselves). And to top that off, the computer lab decided
  to put the brand new beta test release of 4.3 on the VAX, we experienced
  load averages usually in the 30's, sometimes higher. After submitting
  a job you had to wait 30 + minutes ( on an interactive terminal ) for
  it to compile and link and this was usually at any time in the day !!!

  Needless to say it was an experience.


  mark
-- 
    {allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!edwards
    UW-Madison, 1210 West Dayton St., Madison WI 53706