EE150 - Fall 1996

Programming Assignment #3
Questions and Answers

Are the functions mentioned on the assignment sheet available ?

Yes. You can save them directly from the assignment using Netscape and "SaveAs" and then copy the bits you want. As well, the time utilities are available in the file "timutils.c" which you can download by clicking on it and then saving using "SaveAs".

Does the output produced by our programs have to exactly match the output shown in the handout?

Not precisely, but within a space or so, yes.

I was just wondering if on part 2 of part B, if the program is supposed to loop, or if the program is supposed to stop after one reading.

Unfortunately the assignment was not specific about this. It is probably good form to have it loop until some finishing condition, such as a ctrl-d. However, since the assignment is not specific you would not lose marks as a result. Such things, however may fall into the bonus category.

Instructor Comment.

October 11 : Assign 3 was updated for a typo - the reference to 5 provided functions was slightly messed up in that the last two were not displayed properly - this has been corrected. PLEASE NOTE - style, including comments will account for between 20 and 30 % of your grade on subsequent programming assignments. You may look at the style comments on this page for some simple guidelines.

Hey ... Don't cheat - the penalties won't be worth it, plus you'll fail the class too.

For part 2 of the assignment #3 due on friday are we supposed to include the "help functions as part of our code or are we supposed to compile them into a special file and compile them seperately and join them as in part 1?

When we test your functions we will compile in the functions. Therefore you may place the given functions separately.

For the error check bonus of part B, what do you mean by clever?

We asked for a clever idea/method meaning to produce a more time efficient, smaller code or ingenious way of coding the given functions "helper" functions, for example, perhaps encoding a function that could encorporate error checking as well as the function that it should perform... or maybe create a single function that could perform more than one function (that it was originally designed for).. I don't want to make this answer too detailed because that is also part of the cleverness... the student should try to think of a method without one being "handed" to him/her I hope this helps...

For assigment #3 part 2b "bonus" what kinds of error checking are you referring to? is an error something such as an even number of "some garbage"

An error can be an out of range number or nonsensical input (ie chars when ints expected). A perfect program would always recognize junk. Do the best you can. It is better to handle some errors than none.

For part 1B you include a time that ends before it starts, and we can't do this unless we have done the Bonus error checking. Does that mean we have to do the Bonus?

Yes in fact for part 1B you will have to do this, for part 1A you dont. The bonus comment was a bit of a mistake.

Are we supposed to label the files for part 2 of the assignment as numbers1.c and numbers2.c or draw1.c and draw2.c? in the assignment body you say to call them by the "draw" names, but in the grade intsructions> you say to turn in numbers1.c and numbers2.c.

Another type in the assignment online. Use numbers1.c and numbers2.c.