CS615A - Homework Assignments General Information


Unless stated otherwise in the individual assignment, the following applies:

- All homework assignments are to be done exclusively on the command-line.

- For assignments asking you to submit written text:

  - Submit a single plain ASCII test file, created on a Unix system.

  - Your text should be clearly structued and easily readable.  Spell-check
    your text and ensure proper grammar.  Consider the recommendations given
    here: https://www.netmeister.org/blog/the-art-of-plain-text.html

  - Include lessons learned and difficulties you had to overcome.


- For programming assignments:

  - Functionality of the program meeting the specification is necessary,
    but not sufficient for a good grade.  Your code also must meet all of
    the following requirements.

  - Code that does not compile or contains syntax errors will receive 0 points.
    Before you submit anything, make sure to test it.  Even if you just make
    a one-character change in the last minute, test it before submitting the
    source code.

  - Code needs to be readable.  The clearer the code is structured, the
    easier it is to read, which means the easier it is to understand and
    the easier it is to grade and give partial credit if something is not
    working as intended.

  - Code should contain _useful_ commentary _where necessary_.

  - All programs should exhibit standard unix behaviour with respect to return
    values, handling of errors, handling of stdin, stdout and stderr,
    command-line flags etc.

  - All programs should follow the principle of least surprise for the user.

- When submitting files, please always name them *exactly* as requested.  That
  is, if the assignment specifies that the file to submit should be named
  "$USER-hw1.txt", then any submission named "cs615a-FullName.hw1" or similar
  will be penalized with 5 points.

- When submitting multiple files, always submit a tar(1) archive of a
  directory named after your username.  Do not submit .zip, .rar, or other
  archives.

- When submitting documents, always submit plain text ascii files.
  Do not submit .doc, .xls, .pdf, .mov, or other unsuitable formats.

- The due date is always given in the date format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS,
  according to our systems local time (EST or EDT), using a 24 hour clock.
  The due date is always fixed, and no late submissions are accepted.