All About Homework

Please do not leave assignments for the last minute. The assignments are non-trivial and will require significant effort. Please take the time to design your programs carefully. More programming problems arise from improper design than anything else, and the time you spend on design will be amply repaid by shorter coding and debugging phases. So please think the design and interfaces through, and—as always—try to find the simplest way to do the assignment (within the limits given in the assignment, of course)!

Turning In Homework

All homework is due at 5:00pm on the due date, unless noted otherwise on the assignment. When you turn in an assignment, you must turn in the program itself, suitably commented, and named as the homework instructs. Please turn it in on Canvas.

Asking for Help

I do not mind being asked for help; indeed, I welcome it because it helps me know what students are finding difficult or confusing, and sometimes a few words about the problem in class will clarify the assignment immensely. When you come to me, or send me a note, asking for help, please show me whatever you have done to solve the problem, because the first question I will ask you is “What have you tried?” I don’t think you’re wasting my time. I ask because understanding how you have tried to solve the problem will help me figure out exactly what your difficulty is and what I can do to help you. I’ll do everything I can to avoid solving the problem for you. When I give you help, my goal is to help you solve the problem yourself.

What I Look For In Programming Exercises

When I grade your programming exercise, I will use approximately the following weighting:

Design of program 30%
Correctness, clarity of output 50%
Style (names, use of white space, commenting, robustness, etc.) 20%

We will vary these weights as needed. Please note that correctness is not enough for a perfect score.

Late Homework

As this is a graduate class, I expect that you can manage your own time. So if your homework is occasionally late, I will assume there is a very good reason. (If the reason is a serious one, like a medical reason or a family emergency, I’d appreciate your letting me know.) I will not deduct points without warning you. If this becomes a problem for an individual or the class, I reserve the right to begin imposing penalties, so please do not abuse this!

Also, I will not post my answers until all homework has been turned in, so it is to your classmates’ benefit, as well as your own, not to be too late.

Grade Appeals

If you feel that there is an error in grading, please come see me I’ll look over it (and possibly talk with you about it). However, don’t dally; please make your request within one week of when the grades were made available.

Matt Bishop
Department of Computer Science
University of California at Davis
Davis, CA 95616-8562 USA
Last modified: Version of September 20, 2019 at 3:42PM
Fall Quarter 2019
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