Differences

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--- faq [2010/10/30 14:10] – jxu
+++ faq [2018/04/03 15:09] (current) – jxu
@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 ====== General ======
-====== FAQ about Assignment 2 and 3======
+====== FAQ about Assignments ======
 **Question 1**: We are planning to add a certain additional functionality X to our program for the Assignment. Is adding the additional functionality X allowed?
@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 Answer to Question 1:
-In Section G, Note, of the Assignment 2 description document, it is stated that,
+Please note that the requirements specified in section A. Description of the Problem, are the minimum requirements that must be satisfied by your program. Obviously, there are many other possible details of the program that have been left unspecified. It is your responsibility to make appropriate design and implementation choices concerning the unspecified details of the  program, and justify those decisions."
-"Please note that the requirements specified in section A. Description of the Problem  above, are the minimum requirements that must be satisfied by your program. Obviously, there are many other possible details of the AUCTION program that have been left unspecified. It is your responsibility to make appropriate design and implementation choices concerning the unspecified details of the AUCTION program, and justify those decisions in your report."
+Any decision to add any particular additional functionality X to your program should be guided by the principles above.
-Any decision to add any particular additional functionality X to your program should be guided by the principles in Section G, Note, of the Assignment 2 description document above.
 The marker will judge whether you have made appropriate design and implementation choices or not in adding the particular additional functionality X; and whether your justification of what you have chosen to do and the particular ways you have chosen to do it are valid or not.
@@ Line 36: / Line 34: @@
 There is nothing wrong with the pthread library on RED.
-The best and easiest way to do the assignment, is to follow the advice
+The best and easiest way to do the assignment, is to do the following:
-in the assignment 2 description document:
-   "F. Hints
 . You may start by trying to read and understand the program
       "alarm_mutex.c" in pages 52-58 of the book "Programming with POSIX
@@ Line 54: / Line 50: @@
 The following "gradualist" approach will minimize the chances of getting an unmanageable large number of compilation errors:
-Start with the program "alarm_mutex.c"; each time make just a few changes to make it closer to satisfying the requirements of assignment 2; each time after making just a few changes, try to compile it and run it and make sure that the new version of your code is at least compilable and is at least executable. Always save several previous compilable versions of your code so that you can revert back to a previous compilable version of your code if you experience difficulty compiling and executing the most recent version of your code and/or find it difficult to determine what is possibly wrong with the most recent version of your code.
+Start with the program "alarm_mutex.c"; each time make just a few changes to make it closer to satisfying the requirements of assignment 2; each time after making just a few changes, try to compile it and run it and make sure that the new version of your code is at least compilable and is at least executable. Always save several previous compilable and executable versions of your code so that you can revert back to a previous compilable and executable version of your code if you experience difficulty compiling and executing the most recent version of your code and/or find it difficult to determine what is possibly wrong with the most recent version of your code.
+**Question 4**: For Assignment 2, are we allowed to make modifications to the main() procedure and the alarm_thread function?
+Answer to Question 4:
+You are allowed to modify the main() procedure and the alarm_thread in any way that meets the assignment requirements.
+**Question 5**: We are start writing the code for assignment 2. One issue we found is the
+code you give us has the problem when user input as following:
+alarm> 10 hello
+alarm> 5 world
+alarm> (10) hello
+(5) world
+The message "world" will not be sent back before hello although the time is
+set before "hello". In the book, there is another version of alarm which
+used condition mechanism could solve this problem. Should we implement
+assignment 2 base on that code or just leave this problem and still use the
+code you gave us?
+Answer to Question 5:
+What do you mean by "Should we implement assignment 2 base on that code"?
+Assignment 2 never asked you to write assignment 2 "based on" ANY code.
+The sample code was only provided for the purpose of illustrating some of the concepts discussed in the book related to POSIX Threads.
+No one has ever said that the sample code should be used or can be used to satisfy the requirements of assignment 2.
+**Question 6**: Some members of my assignment group are doing less work / making less
+effort / contributing less. Is this a valid reason for not handing in the assignment before the due date?
+Answer to Question 6:
-**Question 4**: For Assignment 3, can I include the errors.h file that was used in Assignment 2?
+Unfortunately a claim that some members of an assignment group
+are doing less work / making less
+effort / contributing less than some other members of the assignment
+group, is NOT a valid reason for not handing in
+an assignment on or before the assignment due date.
-Answer to Question 4: Yes.
+If any member of any assignment group wishes to receive any credit
+for any assignment,
+that assignment group would need to hand in the assignment
+on or before the assignment due date.