Author: Stan Eisenstat
Subject: Comments on the grading of Qsort
Date: Sunday, 19 Apr 2020, 16:30:08

Comments on Qsort
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. See below for a complete description of how the grading script works.
   You can retrieve your grade sheet using the command

     % /c/cs223/bin/retrieve 4 GradeSheet

   All deductions from the number of tests passed are noted at the end of
   that file.  Lateness penalties will be assessed separately.

2. If your source file(s) did not contain your name and netID, I deducted 1
   point if both were missing and 0.5 point if only the name or netID was
   missing, when I entered the score in the grade file.

3. If your log file did not contain a statement of major difficulties, I
   deducted up to 1 point (depending on the extent to which your session log
   contained such information) when I entered the score in the grade file.

4. Your statement of major difficulties should have been 100 words or
   longer (i.e., at least eight 80-character lines, excluding the listing
   of those with whom you discussed the solution) and should include
   assignment-specific details.

5. If your code did not make, I created a Makefile.CORRECTED and deducted
   1 point when I entered the score in the grade file.

6. You can save time by stopping and seeking help when you run into problems
   that you cannot resolve in 30 minutes or so.  Starting early (hint!) means
   that you are less likely to be near the due date when this happens.

   If you spent 38 hours or more on the assignment (the median was 19.00
   hours), you may want to meet with me for ways to reduce the time.

7. If any part of a specification is unclear or confusing, please let me know
   so that I can correct it.

8. When debugging, it helps to have small examples where code fails, since it
   is easier to trace the flow of execution using a debugger, print statements,
   or with a listing.

9. Please use the unsubmit command to remove any files that are not part of
   your ultimate solution.

A. The class web page has links to scatter plots of #Passed vs #Lines, #Passed
   vs Time, and Time vs #Lines.  Please let me know if you see any trends in
   this data.

B. Seven of solutions did not implement quickSort correctly, as judged by the
   sequence of comparisons executed (see Tests/xQuick.pl).  The penalty ranged
   from -2 to -6 points depending on whether or not the inflated number of
   comparisons allowed QsortH to pass Tests #403 and #404.  To ensure that
   Tests/xQuick.pl was working correctly, I constructed short inputs for each
   of these codes where the sequence of comparisons is not consitent with
   quickSort.


How the Grading Script Works
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Before the grading script ran the final test script it ran "make Qsort"
   using the -std=c99, -pedantic, and -Wall options (whether your makefile
   specified them or not).  If gcc issued any warnings, it printed the
   message

     checkwarn: warning messages from gcc -c -std=c99 -pedantic -Wall

   under the header

     ***** Checking for warning messages *****

   near the start of the grade sheet, and I deducted 1 point from the score
   that appears on the grade sheet when entering that score in the grade file.

2. After running the tests, the grading script checked for files submitted
   after the due date.  If you submitted a LATENESS file, it subtracted the
   number of days you requested from the number of late days.  If the result
   was still positive, it printed the number of late days and a listing of
   all files and their submission dates.  The lateness penalty (5% per day or
   part thereof) was applied when I entered the score in the grade file.

3. Next the grading script looked for a makefile.  If it did not find one,
   it printed a warning message

     checkmake: no makefile

   under the header

     ***** Checking makefile *****

   near the end of its output, and I deducted 1 point from the score that
   appears on the grade sheet when I entered that score in the grade file.

4. Next the grading script printed the submission logs for your file(s)
   (excluding the log file and the makefile), showing the revision numbers,
   the times of submission, and how many lines were added and deleted.  If
   the ratio of the number of hours reported to the number of submissions
   was sufficiently large, or if the number of lines in an initial
   submission or a lower bound on the number of new (not just changed)
   lines in some update was sufficiently large, it printed a warning
   message:

     checkrcs: too few submissions: NN in HH.HH hours

   or

     checkrcs: too few resubmissions: large submission(s)

   under the header

     ***** Checking RCS files *****

   near the end of its output.  In extreme cases I deducted up to 2 points
   from the score that appears on the grade sheet when entering that score
   in the grade file.  In the future I will both raise the 2-point cap and
   deduct points in less extreme cases.

5. Next the grading script searched your log file for the one line that
   contains the string "ESTIMATE" and your estimate of the time required
   made prior to writing any code.  If it did not find such a line, it
   printed a warning message:

     checklog: no line with ESTIMATE

   under the header

     ***** Checking log file *****

   near the end of its output, and I deducted 0.5 point from the score that
   appears on the grade sheet when I entered that score in the grade file.

   If it did not find such a line even when case was ignored, it printed a
   warning message

     checklog: no estimate of time spent

   and I deducted 0.5 point from the score.

   If it found more than one line containing the string "ESTIMATE", it
   printed a warning message:

     checklog: multiple estimates of time spent

   and I deducted 0.5 point from the score.

6. Next the grading script searched your log file for the one line that
   contains the string "TOTAL" and the total time that you actually spent
   prior to writing any code.  If it did not find such a line, it printed a
   warning message:

     checklog: no line with TOTAL

   under the header

     ***** Checking log file *****

   near the end of its output, and I deducted 0.5 point from the score that
   appears on the grade sheet when I entered that score in the grade file.

   If it did not find such a line even when case was ignored, it printed a
   warning message

     checklog: no total of time spent

   and I deducted 0.5 point from the score.

   If it found more than one line containing the string "TOTAL", it printed
   a warning message:

     checklog: multiple estimates of time spent

   and I deducted 0.5 point from the score.

7. Finally the grading script may have printed a list of certain files,
   including:

   * A file named Makefile.CORRECTED, which means that your code did not
     make.  In such cases I deducted 1 point from the score that appears
     on the grade sheet when I entered that score in the grade file.

   * A file named LOG.CORRECTED, which means that your log file did not
     have an estimate and/or a total in the proper format.  The
     deduction(s) were taken as above, and where possible these values
     were taken from the corrected log so that they could be reported.

--Stan-