Non -functional assignment requirements (style and documentation).

Although it won't affect your grade for mini-assignments you should still practice applying good style in your solution as well as writing documentation. It will keep your skills for the full assignments (when you will be graded on these things) and get you used to having good habits.

• General style requirements

• 1: Naming conventions: You should employ good naming conventions for identifiers (variables, constants and even the name of the file containing the program) as covered in the "Intro to programming" section of the course.
• #2: Named constants should be used as appropriate (and if they aren't a penalty will be incurred).

	Yes do it this way!	No. Not this way!
	LEFT = 0 RIGHT = 1 CENTER = 2 if (silverLockPosition == RIGHT):	if (silverLockPosition == 0): #What does 0 stand for???

• #3: The program code should have appropriate white space (specified in the "Intro to programming lecture') and alignment (specified throughout the lecture notes).
• #4: Code is self documenting e.g. Clear expressions (e.g. mathematical, Boolean). Expressions should be clear and simple (break up or restructure complex expressions). Good variable names and the use of named constants are examples of writing self documenting code but specifying clear expressions is important enough to be included in a separate category.
• #5: Your program should follow the 6 rules of thumb for designing user friendly software (distilled from Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics - see the Usability Heuristics in the [Part III of the looping/repetition notes]). e.g. good error handling (such as prompts to the user to enter the required information clearly indicate what is required, good error messages/error handling should be provided for erroneous input) minimizing the user's memory load, being consistent, making the interactions with the program (the "dialog") as simple and as natural as possible, providing clearly marked exits & providing feedback as appropriate. This includes but is not limited to having the menu selections for choosing options being intuitive.
• #6: Of course if a student implements an extreme case of inefficient code (e.g. multiple loops or branches are used when one will do) then penalties may be applied but this is generally rare.
• #7: The program should not employ abnormal termination mechanisms e.g. something such as a 'break' instruction for loops or calls to the 'exit()', 'quit()' functions anywhere in the program.

• Documentation requirements:

  • Header documentation: This should be specified in the header of the program (very top of your program in the form of Python documentation). The basics of documentation were covered in the "Intro to programming" section of the course. Later lectures may specify additional information that needs to be provided in the documentation.

    • Identifying information: All assignments should include contact information (full name, student ID number and tutorial section [Here's a link if you don't know how to find this information]) at the very top of your program.
    • Program version. (version date or version number).
      • Under the version you should specify which assignment features were implemented in that version as specified in the "Intro to programming section"
    • Any program limitations or weaknesses.
  • New documentation requirement starting with A2 and applies to all successive assignments: Just before the header definition of the function: list the features of the assignment (e.g. checking list bounds, displaying the list etc.) that were implemented in a particular function, the return type(s) as well as the type(s) of the arguments. Greater details are provided in the functional decomposition lectures.

Marking and grading

• Naming the file containing your program: You must save your program in a file called "list3.py". Failing to use this exact name will affect your grade by -0.2 GPA.
• What to submit: If your submission won't run using Python 3.x on any computer then it won't be awarded credit. It's up to you if you wish use a graphical program builder other than IDLE (or another development environment rather than a simple text editor) to write/run your programs but regardless you must submit your program in the form of a text ".py" file or files. Also if you run into problems using another editor then you may be "on your own" because we only have the ability to support one development tool which is IDLE.
  • All computer users: Be careful that you actually submit the file containing your program and not a related file, here's one example of a problem: operating systems sometimes create a "lock file" [Description of a lock file for Windows users] [Description for UNIX users - may apply to MAC-OS].
    • Tam's brief explanation of a lock file: These files are created when a file is being edited to prevent multiple users or programs from trying to edit that file. (Names of lock files typically include the file being edited but include a tilde character in the name e.g. the file being edited is 'a1.py' so the lock file is named '~a1.py'. Because the lock files do not contain the actual data take care that you don't accidentally submit the lock file instead of the file (some students have actually done this).
  • Windows users: take care that you don't accidentally submit a [shortcut to a file] instead of the actual file. (Check the file name and compare the file size to your original file. Simply downloading the shortcut file as a test won't work because that shortcut will work on your computer but not on anyone else's machine and this may mean your work won't be graded.)
  • MAC-users: this operating system has an equivalency to Windows shortcuts (e.g. symbolic links but since creating them is a little more involved, typing at a command line "ln -s <target file name>" it's less likely that this problem will come up).
• Before the due date, late assignments or components of assignments/assignment extensions: Due dates/due times are strict and extensions require documentation (e.g. a note from a medical doctor) in order to get permission from the [course instructor]. If/when permission is awarded for a late submission then I will let the marker know that the regular penalty will not be applied. When you ask for an extension you need to specify the name of the TA in the tutorial that you are officially registered. Alternate submission mechanisms to D2L (non exhaustive list of examples: email, uploads to cloud-based systems such as Google drive, time-stamps, TA memories) cannot be used as alternatives if you have forgotten to submit work or otherwise have not properly submitted into D2L. Only files submitted into D2L by the due date/time is what will be marked, everything else will be awarded no credit. The final cut off date after which full assignments will not be accepted is after the [maximum progressive penalty (listed below)] can be applied.
• Questions or concerns about grades after they have been released: Assignments will be marked by your tutorial instructor (the "Teaching Assistant" or "TA") in the [tutorial section] you are officially registered in. If you don't know which tutorial section you are officially registered in then you can find this information in the Student Center in the [PeopleSoft university portal]. When you have questions about marking this is the first person that you should be directing your questions towards.  If you still have question after you have talked to your TA, then you can of course talk to your [course (lecture) instructor] but please indicate in your email that you first contacted your TA before going into your concerns. 
• How you will be graded for mini-assignments.  Similar to many mini-assignments the grading is simple and doesn't require a separate spreadsheet. Instead you can look in D2L  under Assessments->Dropbox and then clicking on the appropriate assignment link.

Collaboration:

Assignments must reflect individual work; group work is not allowed in this class nor can you copy the work of others. Some "do nots" for your solution: don't publically post it, don't email it out, don't show it to other students nor should you verbally discuss it.  For more detailed information as to what constitutes academic misconduct (i.e., cheating) for this course please read the following [link].

Method of submission:

Reminder: You are to submit your assignment using D2L  Here's a UC-IT created [D2L help resource] . Make sure that you [check the contents of your submitted files] (e.g., is the file okay or was it corrupted, is it the correct version, it is the correct file etc.). It's your responsibility to do this! (Make sure that you submit your assignment with enough time before it comes due for you to do a check). If don't check and there were problems with the submission then you should not expect that you can "learn your lesson" and simply resubmit Whatever you submitted into D2L by the final due date (and due time) is what will be marked.

D2L configuration for this course

• Do not use compression utilities (such as zip) or archiving utilities (such as tar) otherwise your submission may not be marked. The space savings in D2L is not worth the extra time required by the marker to process each submission.
• How often can you submit: Multiple submissions are allowed for this assignment: You can (and really should) submit work as many times as you wish before the due date. However only the latest file submitted is the one that will be marked, everything else will be ignored (because it is not fair to your marker to sort through multiple versions of your files).
• What to submit: Python programs only (file name ends in .py)  Any other type of file will be rejected by D2L.

Late submissions for full assignments  when there is no extension granted: Make sure you give yourself enough time to complete the submission process so you don't get cut off by D2L's deadline (or your submission will be automatically flagged as late by D2L and it will be graded appropriately)..

Use of pre-created Python libraries:

Unless otherwise told you are to write the code yourself and not use any pre-created functions (or methods). For most assignments the usual acceptable functions include: print(), input() and the 'conversion' functions such as int(), float(), str(). Look at the particular assignment description for a list of other functions/methods that you are allowed to use and still get credit in an assignment submission. If it's not listed then you should assume that you won't be able use the function and still be awarded credit.