CSC 325
Fall 2015
Laboratory/Program Report Specifications
The laboratory/program report for each assignment must be submitted electronically via e-mail. The
course number and section, student's name, instructor's name, and assignment number must be provided
in the body of the e-mail. Each submission is due by 11:59 PM on its specified due date (as indicated by
the e-mail sent time field). Submissions with source code that does not compile will receive a zero grade.
Late submissions will be accepted but will receive reduced grades.
The laboratory/program report must contain the following items sent as attachments (all must be
compressed into one file – see pg. 2 for the submission guidelines):
1. Cover Sheet: Includes the assignment number, name and brief descriptive phrase for the project,
student name, date of submission of the report, course number and section, instructor's name.
2. Project Specification: The assignment or a specification you write yourself.
3. Code/Algorithm Design: One or more levels of stepwise refined design documentation, including
data description.
4. Source Code.
5. Visual Studio Solution/Project Files.
6. All Other Files Required by the Project.
7. Project Output.
8. Test/Input Data Set(s).
9. User Manual: The purpose of a user manual is to provide the information needed for a potential user
to prepare a data file and run the program successfully. The manual must contain the following:
a. specification of the source (disk file, keyboard, etc.) and type of input data which the
program is designed to accept, including a statement of any limitations on the amount of
data;
b. a precise description or a diagram of a typical data record;
c. specification of the form of output produced by the program - is it displayed in whole or
in part at a terminal, recorded in a disk file, is it in tabular form, what information does it
contain;
d. statements of any limitations of the program itself - which error conditions are tested,
which ones are not, which messages are produced, instructions for running the program.
Notes:
1. Both problem statement and user manual must be written in clear, direct, grammatical English,
with correct spelling and punctuation and correct use of technical terminology.
2. Items 1 – 3 and 9 can be combined into a single document as long as each of these items is
properly labeled.
3. Items 4 – 6 and often 7 and 8 are included automatically when one follows pg. 2 submission
guidelines.
CSC 325
Fall 2015
CSC 325 Project Submission Guidelines
In order to efficiently use e-mail for the project submission, follow the instructions below as close as
possible.
1. Create a separate folder and a separate Visual Studio project for each lab or assignment.
2. Create a backup folder for each lab or assignment project.
3. Make sure that you compiled all executables and DLLs in the release mode. The only exception
to this rule is Lab 2 which requires all code to be compiled in the debug mode!
4. Prior to submission, copy all files required for the project into the backup folder preserving the
directory structure. This includes all project related reports, design documents, I/O files, etc.
5. Remove the files that are not required for the submission from the backup folder and all its
subfolders (with the exception of Lab 2 submission, all Debug folders should be removed from
the backup folder). The following is a list of file name extensions that may be safely deleted by
the users of Microsoft Visual Studio:
*.obj *.ncb *.opt *.plg *.ilk *.pch *.ipch *.pdb *.idb *.sdf *.exp *.sbr *.bsc *.png *.db *.tmp
*.log *.tlog *.csproj.user *.projdata
You may delete these files manually or, preferably, you may create a batch file (filename
extension .bat) with the following three separate lines (for Lab 2 submission replace (Debug)
with (Release)):
for /r /d %%i in (Debug) do rd /s /q "%%i"
del /S /Q /A:-S /A:-R *.obj *.ncb *.opt *.plg *.ilk *.pch *.ipch *.pdb *.idb *.sdf *.exp *.sbr *.bsc
*.png *.db *.tmp *.log *.tlog *.csproj.user *.projdata *.exe
pause
Then simply execute the batch job from the command-line.
The deletion of *.exe executables was added to satisfy SSU e-mail security requirements.
Warnings:
1.
To prevent deleting OS executables or any installed software make sure that you
execute this batch job only from the backup folder you created in the step 2 above!!!
2.
The remove directories command is copied from the Internet and not fully tested.
Make sure you use only on the backup copies of your projects.
6. Compress the whole backup folder and all its files and subfolders by using WinZip, 7-zip, or
some other popular file compression utility.
7. Attach the compressed file to the e-mail and send the e-mail for the project submission.
8. Always include the course number and section, student's name, instructor's name, and assignment
number in the body of the e-mail.
Note:
1. Never move/copy source files individually. Instead, when performing the item 3 above, copy the
whole Visual Studio project directory into the backup folder.
2. To make sure that your submission is correct, test it by e-mailing to yourself, unzipping and
opening the project inside Visual Studio.
3. Make sure that your submission does not include *.bat files as SSU Outlook based e-mail server
rejects e-mails with embedded batch files. If you need to send *.bat file rename its extensions to
something like *.txt and include into your report instructions on which files were renamed and
what are the proper filename extensions.
4. Make sure that you never use the batch script vscleanup.bat embedded in source.7z archive.
CSC 325
Fall 2015
CSC 325 Late Project Report
Sometimes, for circumstances beyond their control, students are not able to submit a project in its
complete form on time. These circumstances may be completely unrelated to the course, or closely
related, such as "I don't know where to begin". If one of these circumstances occurs, students can still get
full credit for the project, provided they follow the reporting rules for a late project. The rules require the
submission of a Late Project Report once a week following the due date of the project. The purposes of
this report are:
1. To document the reason for the lateness (any is acceptable, as long as it's honest).
2. To focus the student on the project, and on what needs to be done to complete it.
3. To give the instructor sufficient information to help the individual or collective students who are late.
This kind of reporting is common in the business world, where late projects don't cause an F, but may
result in severe financial harm to the company (not the programmer).
To make this report as painless as possible, and to keep it from adding to the students' difficulties, you
may fill out a form reproduced below.
CSC 325
Fall 2015
CSC 325 SAMPLE LATE PROJECT REPORT TEMPLATE
NAME:
DATE:
PROJECT:
PROJECT DUE DATE:
REASON FOR INITIAL LATENESS:
PROJECT RELATED ACTIVITIES PERFORMED SINCE LAST LATE PROJECT REPORT:
(Include number of hours spent on the project, hours spent getting help from other students, tutors, or the
instructor [identify who])
PROJECT RELATED ACCOMPLISHMENTS SINCE LAST LATE PROJECT REPORT:
(Include how much pseudo code written, how much code written, how much syntactic error correction
done, how much debugging.)
WHAT ARE THE OBSTACLES TO PROJECT COMPLETION?
(Include all, even things not understood)
WHAT GOALS GIVEN IN THE LAST LATE PROJECT REPORT WEREN’T ACCOMPLISHED?
WHAT GOALS OVER AND ABOVE THOSE GIVEN IN THE LAST LATE PROJECT REPORT
WERE ACCOMPLISHED?
WHAT GOALS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED BY THE NEXT LATE PROJECT REPORT?
ATTACH THE PROJECT SOURCE FILES, THE LAST OUTPUT FILE OR OUTPUT SCREEN.
MARK UP THESE PRINTOUTS IF THERE ARE ANY AREAS OF DIFFICULTY THAT YOU ARE
HAVING.
ANY QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS THAT YOU ENCOUNTERED AND CAN NOT SOLVE.