The Assignments

You will learn more about programming from the assignments than from anything else we do in class. Keep in mind that the exams are tightly coupled to the assignments. Working on the assignments is tantamount to studying for the next exam. Here is the schedule:

Assignment What You Need Due Date Solutions

A1 (4%) A1.pdf    LOL.py Feb 12, 6pm on CMS Golden.py    LOL_soln.py    Slash2Dash.py

A2 (4%) A2.pdf    Parquet.py    SimpleGraphics.py Feb 26, 6pm on CMS ParquetSol.py    Siri.py

A3 (6%) A3.pdf    Roman.py    Spiral.py SimpleGraphics.py Mar 4, 6pm on CMS RomanSol.py      SpiralSol.py

A4 (5%) A4.pdf    A4.zip Mar 11, 6pm on CMS MyHiveSol.py

A5 (7%) A5.pdf A5.zip Apr 8, 6pm on CMS CloseWordsSol.py

A6 (8%) A6.pdf A6.zip Apr 22, 6pm on CMS A6_solutions.zip The " # BEGIN REMOVE" and " # END REMOVE" comments in the .py files delimit the solution portions of the code. (We use a python program to create the skeletons we give you; it automatically removes said solution portions.))

A7 (6%) A7.pdf (this is now the full assignment)
Files for the recursive part: A7.zip
Files for Part 2: TheLongIntClass.py TheLongDecimalClass.py May 11, 6pm on CMS FlakesSol.py    TheLongDecimalClassSol.py

Recall that the assignments contribute 40% to your course grade. Notice that they are not equally weighted.

Late submissions: the "slip days" mechanism

Every student is given a "bank account" of 4 slip days that can be spent over the semester. Thus, if your current balance is three slip days and you turn in (any part of) A5 two days after it was due, then your new balance is one slip day. It makes sense not to exercise this option until later in the semester when your schedule is more crowded.

One constraint: you can spend at most two slip days on an assignment.

Slip days are counted on the 24-hour marks: if an assignment is due 6pm on the 1st, then assignments submitted between 6:01pm on the 1st and 6:00pm on the 2nd will be charged one slip day; assignments submitted between 6:01pm on the 2nd and 6pm on the 3rd will be charged two slip days. Given the constraint above, assignments would not be accepted after 6:01pm on the 3rd.

Slip days are deducted manually by the graders when they grade an assignment, so your account balance, shown as points in a CMS "assignment", may not be up-to-date.

Once you use up your slip days, any part of an assignment that is submitted after the normal deadline will not be graded for credit: the slip-days mechanism is the entirety of our late-submissions policy. (Since slip days are manually updated, note that CMS will allow you to submit an assignment late; don't confuse CMS "accepting" an assignment with the staff accepting an assignment for credit.

Notes about submitting to CMS

You can upload multiple times to CMS; we grade the last submitted version.

Do not hit "reload/refresh'' on the CMS assignment submission page after the submission deadline passes: this will trigger another upload of your files, which can result in your submission being counted as late. The safest policy is to close the submission tab/window in your browser once you've finished the upload.

If you submit earlier than two hours before the submission deadline, CMS allows you to download your files to check that they are what you think you submitted. We thus strongly suggest that you submit a version early and do this check. (If you want to make changes, no problem: CMS allows you to overwrite an older version by uploading a new version.)

If you want to check that your files are correct during the download blackout window, see the CMS help documentation on checking MD5 hashes.

Course Material Authors: D. Gries, L. Lee, S. Marschner, C. Van Loan & W. White (over the years)