Making the project easier

The programming assignment I wrote for the introductory CS class is currently out for test to a few other course staff. Initial feedback, along with my own concerns, indicates that there's too much work at the beginning. One of the handful of functions for students to implement is very finicky and somewhat long, so much so that I'm inclined to split out parts of it into helper functions. Today I decided to just provide that function in the starter code since there's enough other stuff to work on in the segment. As I continue writing up more detailed specifications I'm finding that the later segments are also a lot of work. They might need to be trimmed back as well.

Cleaning started

I'll be moving out of my summer apartment and leaving campus at the end of the week. I hear the landlords on campus tend to be very eager to charge cleaning/maintenance fees, so I want to make sure everything is as clean as possible before leaving. Conveniently, there was a vacuum in the apartment when I moved in, so I started with some vacuuming.

Project out for testing

Yesterday I finished the first draft of the test suites for the assignment students will complete in the fall. I spent today adding explanation and hints to the starter code so students will have an easier time getting acclimated on the first segment. I then wrote some quick documentation for the first two segments and released it to initial testers! Next week I'll work on more complete documentation and start the module management system.

First draft done

Today at work I wrote the last of six test suites for the assignment students will work on over the course of the fall semester. Despite checking the simplest behavior, it was one of the more complicated test suites because the logic implemented by students in its segment gets refactored/rearranged later, so the tests need to be able to find and invoke the student code appropriately. Tomorrow I plan to heavily comment the starter code and put together enough instructions for other course staff to start testing it.

Close to a viable product

Today at work I finished the fifth of six test suites for the fall's project. Since I'm working in the opposite direction students will, the segments get simpler as I go on - this one took only about a day total. Tomorrow I'll at least mostly complete the tests for the very last (first) segment. At every step along the way, I remove the solution code to my last tested segment to create the starter code. Once that's done for this next segment, I'll just need to add documentation and helpful hints, then we'll have a usable assignment.

Not much time left in the summer

My two-month stay on campus for the summer has less than two weeks left. Before I leave, I want to get an early but usable version of my project out for testing. The sub-project of writing the assignment's test suites is almost half done. If I can keep up the pace, all the tests should be finished before the end of July. My full-time appointment continues until the Saturday before classes start, so that's three weeks working from home. During that time, other course staff will be testing the assignment; I'll be tweaking it based on their feedback and working on a system to make sure students who fall behind aren't completely sunk.

Making progress on the main project

A while back, I finished the reference solution to the assignment I'm preparing for a CS class. This week I started in earnest on writing the test suites, which automatically test and grade student submissions. The assignment is broken up into six segments. Two segments now have test suites, including a very significant one that wraps up a lot of work. (I'm working backwards starting from the completed assignment so that I can produce "starter" code for each step as I go along.) That leaves four segments to go, but they're smaller and (hopefully) easier to test.

Now to handle the main project

When writing a programming assignment as I am for the fall, I first write the reference solution, then a set of test cases to make sure a student submission works properly. Quite a while ago I finished the reference solution for the fall's major assignment. The professor returned from vacation today and approved my plan for what aspects to test. I had been working on various other things during his absence, but now I should complete my main task of writing these tests.

Disruption in the routine

This morning I received a text from the apartment company stating that power would be intermittent today. Between when I drink my morning tea and when I make my coffee to take to work, the power did indeed go out. Without coffee to bring along, I bought some at lunch from the bagel shop on the ground floor of the building I work in. When I got back in the evening, the power was still out. I didn't want to open my fridge and I couldn't cook anything anyway, so I walked over to McDonald's for dinner. Some time after I returned, a buzzer started sounding: the fire alarm. Several fire trucks arrived, and after consulting with the electrical workers, they learned that the alarm was just because the fire system ran out of battery. They were able to silence it temporarily, but it's still going now, though everything is fine and people are back in the building. Amid the alarm the electricians got power restored. Fortunately my frozen items seem to be still frozen solid.