From: "Ben Mathew" Subject: Exercise 1 Comments Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 6:41 PM Sorry this took so long to get to you, but here are the comments I had on the first exercise: Some instructions were a bit unclear in the repetition of numbers 1 or 12, also, many were not specific that each number should appear only once. CW or CCW? The students are giving directions for how to make a clock, so is CW really even defined? This is similar to giving a definition for a word and using that very word in your definition :) For the record, only one person actually explained what clockwise meant. Center of what? Many papers had center, but did not specify center of the page, center of the circle, etc. Around the circle - most papers said to place the numbers around the circle, but as many of you saw in drawing your clocks, around the circle could mean anything, closely around? around one side? or evenly spaced x inches from the outside perimeter of the circle. It is quite alright to be overly specific, just try not to be overly wordy :) And, following that bit about specificity, it was also good to either a) give relative sizes for ALL the shapes and numbers involved, or b) give exact sizes for ALL the shapes and numbers involved, but doing neither left a lot of leeway for chaos. Arrows - are they straight, wavy, curved? (Thanks to Kiri for that suggestion) Several papers would say to place the numbers 1 - 12 at 30 degree intervals consecutively. Were those consecutive 30 degree intervals, or consecutive numbers? Either way, both needed to be explained. Just as the numbers needed to be oriented correctly (12-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11), it was also necessary to specify that the 12 was at the top of the clock. Also, the numbers were supposed to be space out evenly around the outside of the circle. In my opinion, the biggest problem, which I would relate to learning to program - some of the explanations of steps were unclear and they seemed to assume some knowledge of what a clock is. However, the person receiving these instructions wouldn't know what a clock is. Likewise, as Kiri said in lecture Monday, the computer doesn't have any knowledge of the problem, and so just as you are required to enter the solution to the problem in a manner that the computer understands. It is also important to be clear in your explanation such that the person receiving the problem understands. Scenario: 20 years from now you have worked your way up to manager. You need a fresh CS 100 recruit to code you a program that does something. You know exactly what this something is you need. You've been doing it by hand for the past 20 years to get promoted, but now your company wants it on computers. So it's your responsibility to describe to this new programmer what it is you need. The better you are able to communicate this, the more that programmer, who has never performed this task, will be able to resemble that task in his code. Lastly - a note on grading, the grades were mixed, and this was only the first assignment, so don't worry if you received a zero. If I felt that there were no significant improvements in the ambiguity of the of the instructions then you would receive a zero. If you have questions, whether it be about your grade, or any comments, please come to me during my office hours and we can discuss them. - b