CSC120H – Assignments

Overview

Here are the assignment topics, weights, and due dates. The assignment handouts will appear here when they are ready.

Assignment	Probable topics	Weight	Due date	A solution
A1 Handout	functions, if statements, some loops	9%	Thu 9 Feb, 2:00 p.m.	funcs.py, stats.py, urls.py
A2 Handout	strings, files, lists	10%	Thu 8 Mar, 2:00 p.m.	a2.py
A3 Handout	databases	10%	Thu 5 Apr, 2:00 p.m.	a3readdata.py, a3builddb.py, a3query.py, a3part4a.py, a3part4b.py

Extra file for A3: part4clean.webarchive

Notice that the solutions, when they are posted — and it is possible that some solutions will not be posted — are listed as "a solution" rather than "the solution". It is probably safe to say, though "never" is a strong word, that there is never a single correct solution to a programming problem.

Working successfully in a pair

You may work on your assignments either alone or in a group of two. If you are working in a group, make sure to use pair programming just as in the labs. The goal of pair programming is for the two of you to help each other learn the material and to avoid getting stuck with frustrating errors. If instead you split up the assignment and work separately on the parts, you do not get practice on all aspects of the assignment. Sadly, this will become evident on the tests and exam.

Sometimes a student who is working with a partner drops the course in the middle of an assignment. If this happens, the other partner is still responsible for completing the assignment on time. If he or she has been actively engaged in the entire assignment, this should not be a problem; the assignments are designed so that an individual student can complete them. However, if the remaining partner has not been actively involved or does not have copies of all of the work, they will have serious difficulty completing the assignment. Make sure you don't find yourself in this situation: Be active in all parts of the assignment, and make sure that at the end of each meeting, both partners have a copy of all of the work.

How to register your group and submit your assignment

All assignments are to be handed in electronically using MarkUs, a system developed at U of T. You will also use MarkUs to tell us whether you are working in a group or not. Here's how to do both those steps.

Login to MarkUs

Select the appropriate assignment, for example Assignment 1. Now you are ready either to form your group or to submit your work.

Form a group

To work in a group, you must declare your partnership. You have to do this separately for each assignment, so select the relevant assignment and find "Group Information".

Complete your group information by:

Declaring that you would like to work alone.
OR
Forming your group:
- Student1 invites Student2 to form a group for this assignment. You click on "Invite", and when asked, provide Student2's CDF user name.
- If you are Student2, you will find an invitation listed under Assignment 1 (or whatever), and you can click on "Join" if you choose to accept the invitation. You are not obliged to accept it.

If you are going to form a group, you must do so before submitting your work. (Or rather, it will be awkward if both group members have submitted before forming the group. We don't want to receive submissions from both of you.)

Submit your work

You are not obliged to submit your work as soon as you have formed a group, but you should form your group early and make your first submission early, so that you don't have to figure out these processes near the deadline.

Remember that only one person in a group should submit the group's work. Here's how to do it.

Submit each file in the assignment, by choosing the "Submissions" tab and selecting "Add a New File". You can either type a file name or use the "Browse" button to choose one.

Then, click "Submit".