Assignments

Policies

• You have to work on the assignments by yourself.
• Assignments will be posted on the course's web page.
• Assignments should be submitted electronically.
• Assignments are due at class time.
• Late course work.   You can turn in your assignment up to 2 days late, but this will cost you 20% of the maximum grade for every day you are late (e.g., an assignment turned 2 days late can get a maximum of 6/10). No assignment will be accepted after 2 days, and will be given a grade of 0.
• Re-marking.   First, talk to the TA that graded your project. The TAs will hold a special remarking session shortly after assignments are handed back to students. Details will be posted on the course newsgroup. If you are still dissatisfied after talking to the TA, then email me to set up an appointment. You have up to 7 days from the time the marked assignment is available for hand-back to ask for a re-mark. No assignment will be re-marked after this period.
• Communications.   Your best bet for getting questions answered quickly is to post to the course newsgroup. If you think your question is not appropriate for the newsgroup, feel free to email me. Please make sure to include CSC309 in the subject line of your email. Finally, before you email me, please check the newsgroup; your question may have already been answered.
• Cheating/Plagiarism.   The policy of your faculty or school will be in effect. [See Arts and Sciences Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters , also refer to Francois Pitt's "How to Avoid Plagiarism".] You are encouraged to discuss problems with your classmates; however, all work that you submit must be your own. When you submit an assignment with your name on it, you are certifying that you have done the work on that assignment yourself. Remember that the penalty for cheating is always worse than handing in the assignment late. If you are struggling with an assignment, talk to the instructor or the TA's for help.

Tips for getting Good Marks

• Don't submit any compiled code. If you only submit compiled code or bytecode TAs cannot read the source and cannot mark the assignment.
• Make sure you compile and test with the same tools that the markers will be using.
• Ensure that your assignment compiles! If the make fails, the TA isn't required to try to fix it and may give you a failing mark.
• Beware of Java package names. If your submitted code doesn't have the proper directory structure corresponding to the Java package names the build will fail. If you use an IDE to write your Java programs be especially cautious about this when you export the code.
• Don't submit any shared files (like xerces.jar/saxon.jar), submit only what is required.
• Don't use any third-party software other than what is provided to you (eg. don't use another XML parser because you think it's better).
• Document all your bugs/missing features in your assignments in the README file. If the TAs find them on their own it's much worse!
• Use the CSC 309 newsgroup (ut.cdf.csc309h) to ask questions about the software and the assignments, they'll get answered faster that way. Don't post anything that will potentially give away solutions to part or all of any assignment though.
• Write good comments in your code!