CS212 Spring 2002: Home

CS212: Archived Announcements

January

Thurs Jan 31	The real room	I just a confirmation today -- CS212 is now indeed in Kimball B11 for the rest of the semester.
	explanation	I've been informed from my staff that the engineering registrar and college were not responsible for the screwup. Other people were attempting room swaps and unfortunately CS212 had been left out. Thankfully, the engineering and CS staff sorted out the situation. Actually, I think we're better off in KH B11...it's more comfortable.
Fri Jan 25	Sections	Sections do officially start this coming week, but they'll be really short. I just want the TAs to introduce themselves and answer questions about the course, since the first part of the project is coming on Weds. We also need to check on section counts. If there are 150+ people in CS212, I think that 3 sections will not suffice! So, please go so we can get a head count.
	Lecture	Yes, my request went through! We're moving to Philps 101 for lecture, same time and day. I'm updating the syllabus. Please spread the word.
Mon Jan 21	Sections	Yes, we have no sections this week.
Thurs Jan 17	Website	This entire website is under construction. So, all information is subject to change until further notice. Actually, most of this material is lifted from CS211. I'm in the process of cleaning everything up.

Top

February

Mon 2/25	no lecture this week!	Due to schedule conflicts with everyone on staff, we need to cancel lecture this week. If you need help later this week, do not contact me (DIS) since I'll be at a conference.
	summary of part 3 answers	In the interest of unifying many of our responses to questions, here's a summary, which will be valid as of 10PM tonight: Program 1 of 4.1 has the line *`return (ax#10)`. This should be `( ( a * x ) # 10 )`. The `while` example on Page 9 is missing a `do`. You must allow for comments, which the compiler will "ignore." Try not to mix integer and boolean types. If you have trouble with this, just do the best you can. Of course, since return takes both integer and boolean types, I can't claim that Bali is really strongly typed. To make all of our lives easier, assume that the minus sign in subtraction operations must have spaces around it. Of course, that actually introduces a slight issue in terms of compilation errors, but I think that's a fair tradeoff. No adding to/changing `CS211In` for this assignment. Keep statements generally on one line except for blocks as in control structures. Error checking: To get some credit, bc should at least abort compilation if an error is spotted somewhere. For full credit, report the line number where the error occurred. See `CS211In`** for a special method. For extra credit, suggest how to correct the error. Problem 3? I mean exactly what I wrote. Do all 4 combinations of true and false and ensure that they all generate what you expect. Yes, this means redundancy in your code. I just want to make sure you can do boolean operations. I'm going to post a cleaned up assignment along with the old version later tonight.
	March	Remember that in March the February announcements go to the archive. Where's the archive? Click on the "here" at the top of this document.
Thur 2/21	missing grades?	If you do not have a grade reported or have other problems with submission system, contact Manpreet, not DIS. (Who's Manpreet? See Staff.)
	P1 grading guide	posted along with the solution
	schedule	Things shifted around a bit, so I updated the schedule.
Wed 2/20	grades	See https://www.csuglab.cornell.edu/homework/grades/cs212 for your grades. I've updated the main page for this link.
	section notes	I let this slide. But no more! We're getting some the notes posted.
	solutions 1	I posted the solutions to Part 1. I'm still waiting for a few more files before I can post the grading guide.
Mon 2/18	typo	Program 1 of 4.1 has the line *`return (ax#10)`. This should be `( ( a * x ) # 10 )`**.
Sun 2/17	Part 1 late?	You do not need to e-mail me concerning late submissions for part 1 of the project. We're being rather flexible about the submission because of all the kinds we've needed to work out. The good news is that I think we found them all.
Thurs 2/14	hardcopies?	A couple asked were to drop off their hardcopies because of the confusion. DIS's office today.
	submission instructions	My staff worked out the bugs! We've been up and running since noon today. Here's what you need to do: Put each program in a separate text file. Forget about zip files. We want individual text files. Only one person from the group must submit the work. Make sure you followed the instructions in the assignment about listing yourself and your partners in each file at the top in a comment block. Go to https://www.csuglab.cornell.edu/Courses/cs212 (see links on left) Read the instructions on the submission site. If you are denied access, e-mail manpreet@cs.cornell.edu with your full name and Cornell net-id.
Wed 2/13	Part 2	I'm posting it (5:15pm). There are slightly different rules for submitting it, so be sure to read the instructions carefully.
	online submission saga	I'm still waiting to hear back about it. At least most of you read the previous announcements about bringing hardcopy today. Remember that you're responsible for reading the announcements every day. You never know what I might decide to post here....
Tue 2/12	Part 1 due date	Due to a delay in the getting the submission ready (it's almost there!), I'm pushing the online submission date and time to Friday 2/15 at 1:00:00 PM. You must still bring a printed copy of all of your files to lecture tomorrow. The printed and online versions must be identical. You must still submit the files online because we'll be using it for the remaining assignments.
	more submission system	I had to change this -- it is indeed up, but some are reporting access issues. The official date for online submission is Friday (see above). If you get an error, try from Windows (I tried myself -- on Unix, I get an error, but on Windows it's OK!). Some have asked where the system is: see the Syllabus under Homework. When the system is completely ready, I'll add it to the navigation table on the left.
Fri 2/08	BOOM	Those of you who are working on a project or have something really cool you would like to show off, now's your chance! The CS department holds a project fair every year called "Bits On Our Mind" (BOOM). Even if you haven't finished, the entire department and other high-level folks (including President Rawlings who typically appears!) would like to see what you're doing. It's a great chance to meet other students and make contacts with faculty. See http://www.cs.cornell.edu/boom/default.htm for more details.
	schedule	Some topics have shifted around, so I updated it.
Thurs 2/07	P1 format online submission	We're having a delay in getting the submission system set up. If it's not up on Monday, I might give you another a day or so to make up for the lost time. Also, to be safe, I will accept paper submission at the beginning of lecture on Wed 2/13. Assuming we have the system up in time, write each program in a separate text file and zip them together. If you submit on paper, you still must submit online and the submissions must be identical.
	old announcements	Hopefully everyone has seen the "Click here for archived announcements" link at the top of this page.
	lecture notes	posted...actually, a couple links weren't working in Netscape, so I fixed the problem. Some of the files I posted were not given in lecture, though I think you should read them.
Fri 2/01	P1	I just posted the first homework in Assignments. Note that you need the zip file to run the SaM simulator. Unzip all the files (which are Java) and follow the instructions inside the write-up. I suggest that you get started so that you can ask questions about it in section this week.
	correction	I kind of forgot to change the problem numbers on the last page! There are a total of 6 problems (sorry about that--Manpreet and I just caught it today). I'm going to post the corrected version.
	textbook	The textbook, which I just wrote on the Syllabus in "Optional Reading" should be in the bookstore soon. I've also placed two copies on reserve. Read Chapters 1-2. I'm also bringing legal copies (yes, I really got permission!) of some diagrams of computer architecture to give you a clearer picture what SaM's trying to model.

Top

March

Fri 3/29	regrades	Some people have asked. For now, e-mail Manpreet. If we can get this online, we'll let you know.
Fri 3/14	Part 3	I just posted it along with sample "errors." The error handling was a big sticking point in the last assignment, so this time, we're trying to give you bounds on what your "compiler" needs to handle. A couple of the errors are actually a bit repetitive (like "mystery keywords" and incorrect types).
	schedule	I'm not sure if anyone's actually keeping track of the schedule, but I am :-) I updated it with the recent topics. It seems that lecture time is bit more devoted to project conversation than I had originally though, but that's OK.
Wed 3/13	Web updates	We posted today's lecture notes. I lifted some stuff from Lecture 7 because the FBR might seem a bit complicated. I didn't get a chance to do the examples I posted along with the notes, so I recommend that you test your knowledge of sam-code by tracing them in SaM. We'll go over them again in case you have further questions after break. Now that we pretty much finished the FBR conversation, the assignment (Part 3) is written (6 pages -- we covered sam-code for functions in lecture, so there's no need to write 30 more pages). I'm waiting for some TA feedback before posting in case something is unclear. You'll have the assignment before break. As announced in lecture, Part 2 solutions are up. If you're wondering about Hash Tables, they're included as a precursor to CS211 material which appears after break. (You didn't need to use them, as I also explained in lecture.)
Tue 3/12	web servers	I checked with my staff -- they say that the CS212 submission site is OK. If anyone's having trouble accessing, please let us know.
Mon 3/11	lecture notes	Update -- I added some exercises we did in lecture. We'll be continuing the FBR conversation in this Wed's lecture.
Fri 3/8	late policy	Some students are emailing me about being late with their projects. E-mailing files to me is NOT the way to explain your excuse. I have a system in place for leniancy, and that's submitting your work on disk in lecture on floppy. To encourage more students to use that, your disk files and final online submission do not have to be identical, though files submitted late online that are substantially different may not be counted. Work that is submitted late is dealth with on a case-by-case basis (see the Syllabus).
Wed 3/6	submission system/ extended deadline	My TA in charge (Manpreet) had gotten sick, so please forgive the delay in getting it ready. Because of the delay I'm going to give a one day extension on the assignment. The assignment is now due Friday March 8, 1pm.
Mon 3/4	February Announcements	Reminder: February announcements including help on Part 2) have been archived. Click on the "here" link at the top of this page.
	Part 2	There's quite a lively discussion going on in the newsgroup. If you have remaining questions, be sure to skim the posts. I think the biggest concern is the notion of type checking. We are NOT requiring that, though you can earn extra points if you get it right.

Top

April

Mon 4/29	evaluations	We're going to hold course evaluations this week. Given the drop in attendance, I think it's crucial that as many people as possible show up. I know that we've had some ups and downs this semester, especially with the submission system. I'm also going to do a separate evaluation of the project to help us determine the project for next semester. I will take attendance at lecture as a quiz, which I'll use in computing your final grade for the course. I also have a special surprise planned....
	p3 grading	The TAs are about 1/2 way through. If they e-mail you about corrupt files, please respond ASAP. I know that the submission system problem was not your fault, but we really need to finish off the grading. I posted the grading guide along with the solutions.
	grades files	Manpreet restored the correct Part 2 grade file online.
	seeing grades	A few students asked to see their grades because Part 3's are going up soon. I'm setting up something this week with my admin so that you can obtain them.
Thurs 4/25	updated solutions	There was some conversation about Roger missing the ";" in a do-while. I posted the fixed files in Homework.
	online grades	After a lot of scurrying around, we realized what's going on concerning the recent "Part 3" grades. There are no Part 3 grades. You are looking at Part 2 grades, which include adjustments for bonus points. Some students saw new, unrecognized grades and thought they were for Part 3. As I mentioned in lecture, Part 3 grading was delayed because of the corruption issue, which is totally unrelated. We will announce when Part 3's ready. I have asked about getting all grades listed -- the staff's working on adding that capability.
Tues 4/22	resubmission... Part 2	My staff is still working out the system. As it stands, if you're worried or unsure about resubmitting the work, let the TAs contact you if necessary. If they discover a corrupt file, they'll contact you.
Mon 4/21	resubmission...	The staff figured out the bug in the system. Here are the steps: Determine the size of the original file that you submitted. Log onto the submission system. Check the size of your submitted work. The size is displayed on the uploaded page. If the sizes do NOT match, your submission was corrupted. You need to resubmit your original file.
Sat 4/20	submission system garbled...	Bad news... The submission system had a LOT of trouble transfering your files. The TAs are having a lot of trouble reading the files, many of which are corrupted. The TAs and staff are buzzing around like mad, but it's looking like we're going to have to ask that everyone submit everything again as pure text, no zip files...unless 75% of the groups submitted garbled programs, which we really doubt. Since not everything we got is garbled (it seems to be parts of a file per group), we can check for consistency in case people want to take a chance to fix some problems.... I'm really sorry to make you do this, but without non-garbled files, we can't make any further progress in grading. DO NOT RESUBMIT ANYTHING UNTIL WE SAY SO. I'm still waiting for final word from Manpreet.
	schedule/due dates	updated
	P4 test cases	Done. I modified the P3 test cases, as promised. Generally, most of them stay the same. Each file has new cases that deal with functions.
Thurs 4/18	P4 posted	Actually, it's 12:20am Weds night. I just posted the last Part. I followed the feedback from students in lecture today. I still have more test cases to post. I'm going to reuse the ones from Part 3 with modifications to allow functions. I will add a few more test cases to deal with errors that may occur with functions.
Tues 4/16	P3 solution posted	I posted the solution at 5:44 pm.
Sun 4/13	news flash! (submission system)	I have bad news and good news. Bad news: None of us can circumvent the bug in file permissions on the system, and the staff person who has access is out. The good news (from the student perspective, I guess) is that we're forced to extend the deadline because of this. So, the new deadline is Tues 4/16 1:00:00 pm.
Fri 4/12	submission system	Manpreet's almost done. There's a path error (Unix stuff) that's getting resolved.
Wed 4/10	New TA	Because of the large amount of CS211 and CS212 grading (CS212 TAs also grade for CS211), we've gotten another TA to share the work: Jed Liu. I've added him to the staff list. We're currently working out office hours for him.
Tue 4/9	regrades	This method of e-mailing the TAs isn't working as well as I had hoped. So, we're going to try the more "traditional" approach. On a sheet of paper, write down the assignment number, NET-IDs of all the partners, NET-ID of the person who submitted the assignment, and the regrade issue. I'm putting a printable form online in the main topics. Note that any request will mean a complete regrade of the assignment, so you risk lowering your score. I will collect all the pending regrade requests for and "Part" so far in lecture. Do not send further e-mail requests -- the TAs will direct you to this announcement.
	Part 3 reminders	My TAs asked me to post the following reminders: Part 3's due date is 4/15. Follow the grammar in the Part 3 write up. As I noted in the assignment and in lecture, there are some changes from Part 2. For example, 'namedecls' are now considered statements, and therefore belong within '{' '}', not outside like Part 2. No type checking is permitted. Commenting it out is OK. Part 4 will involve trees, so it is likely that many people have to change their code anyway.
	Part 4	Some have already started Part 4. A word of caution: trees are expected because we're looking for elegance. So, you'll be finding that if you're relying on our solutions, you have to make some changes (this is deliberate -- CS211 didn't start trees until one lecture ago, so I wanted to be fair to the students who hadn't seen them before). I might make 2 tweaks to Bali, too: I think we're going to have empty statements (`;`) and empty block statements (`{}`). There's also a strong likelihood of type-checking to make Bali strongly typed now that we have functions with return types.
Mon 4/8	updated P2 solution	Some people for it, so it's posted. See Assignments and the "updated" solution under Part 2. Remik is asked me to pass along a note that all programs should use { } if more that 1 statement is used. He included every possible test file we've used plus more.
	L10 notes	Posted. There are some figures I didn't include, mainly because they were shown in lecture, which you're supposed to be attending....
Wed 4/3	CS Field Session!	The chair of the CS department, Professor Van Loan, will host the Spring CS Field Information Session on Monday, April 8, 2002 at 4:30 pm in Upson B-17. I recommend that anyone interested in becoming a CS major should attend this session.
	typos in test cases	I had to fix repetition(2), types(1), selection(2), and punctuation(4). Everything is set now. As I expected, my TAs did catch a couple things for which I have no test cases. As promised, we won't use those (some have been reported in News if you're curious what I forgot about).
	Assignment 2 solution	Being fixed...
Mon 4/1	Announcement archive	March announcements moved to the archive.
	grading guide	Some people asked to see the entire grading guide, so I posted the entire set of cases and notes in Assignments.
	extension for Part 3?	Maybe -- please don't e-mail about the "conflict" with CS211. We're already aware and discussing the matter. Likely there's an extension, but I won't know until after our staff meeting this evening.
	missing grades?	Students who submitted anything late have to wait to see their grades. We had to study each case and decide on penalties. The grades for these are almost ready.
	due date extension	The CS212 staff all agreed that we should shift the due date to April 15, 1:00:00 PM. I'll mark this down on the assignment's page.
	type checking	No. (Some people are e-mailing and asking for a change.)
	extra points on P2?	Some people asked if they were going to get the extra points that we promised. The graders are going back over the assignments to find "good" type checking (3 points, all or nothing) and a "correction-suggestion" mechanism (1 point for each test case that they used).

Top

May

Top