CPSC 231: Assignment 5 (Worth 4%) Monday June 7

New Concepts to be applied for the assignment

1. Problem decomposition through the use of functions and procedures

2. One dimensional arrays

Writing a grade management program

For this assignment you are to write a program that allows a course instructor to track and manage a list of grades for a small class.  For the full version the program will allow the user to: enter a set of grades for the class, to display the class list and some statistics about the performance of the class as a whole.

Grading

Assignments that receive a "C"

The program will allow the user to enter in the grades for a class with a maximum size of 25 students.   The list of grades will be stored in two one-dimensional arrays: one array will store the percentage value, the other grade will store the corresponding letter that the percentage corresponds to. 

Mapping of percentages to letter grades

The user can enter the enter the grades for smaller class size by entering a negative value for a grade.  The negative value is not counted as one of the grades.  You must write a function or procedure that will allow the user to enter the grades.  You will then write another procedure that will display the list of grades.  If there are fewer than 25 students in the class then the number of grades that the program displays will match the current class size (see the sample output below).

As shown above, the output of the program must be formatted into three columns that are right-aligned.  Percentage values are displayed with a maximum of two decimal places of precision.  Also if the class is empty (i.e., it has no students in it) then the program will indicate that the class is empty rather than displaying an empty list.  Assignment submissions must follow also follow good coding style and must be fully documented.  

It is okay if you wish to write additional functions or procedures (besides the two listed above) in order to complete your assignment, in fact you will probably find it essential.  How you wish to structure the remainder of your program is up to you, just make sure that your solution is guided by good design principles e.g., avoid putting all the code into a single function or procedure (especially the main procedure), each function or procedure should have a well defined task that gives it a purpose.

Additional capabilities

Implementing features #1 - 3 will yield a grade increase of two "steps" (e.g., "C" to "B-").  Implementing feature number #4 will yield a grade increase of one step.  These extra features can be implemented in any order and in any combination that you wish.  Implementing all four features will yield a grade increase of seven steps ("C" to "A+").

1. Compute the average grade: Implement a function or procedure that will determine the average grade for the class.  For non-empty classes the average grade will be also be shown when the display procedure is called.

2. Find the minimum grade: Implement a function or procedure that will find the lowest grade in the class.  For non-empty classes the minimum grade will be also be shown when the display procedure is called.

3. Find the maximum grade: Implement a function or procedure that will find the highest grade in the class.  For non-empty classes the maximum grade will be also be shown when the display procedure is called.

4. Increase the class size from 25 students to 50 students.  In order for you to receive credit for this extra feature you must hand in two versions of your assignment, one with a maximum class size of 25 students and one with a maximum class size of 50 students.  Hint: There is a hard way of doing this an and easy way.  Think back the lecture when I first talked about writing programs and good style for a clue as to what the easy way is.

Other submission requirements

1. Good coding style and documentation:  They will play a role in determining your final grade for this assignment.  Your grade can be reduced by a letter step or more if your submission was implemented using bad style conventions (e.g., "A" to "A-" for employing poor naming conventions for identifiers, insufficient documentation, the use of global variables or non-modular design).

2. Include a README file in your submission:  For this assignment your README file must indicate what grade level has been completed (e.g., A, B or C).  This will allow your marker to quickly determine what he or she must look for and speed up the marking process.

3. Assignments (source code and the README file) must be electronically submitted via submit.  In addition a paper print out of the source code and README must be handed into the assignment drop box for the lab that you are registered in (located on the second floor of the Math Sciences building).  Electronically submitting the assignment allows your marker to run the code in order to quickly determine what features were implemented.  Providing a paper printout makes it easier for your marker to read and flip through your source code.

Sample Executable

You can run a sample executable called "grades" which can be found in Unix in the directory: /home/231/assignments/assignment5