University of Toronto - Spring 1997
Department of Computer Science

CSC 148H: INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE



Old Announcements -- Weeks 3 - end of term


Wednesday 30 April: Leftovers

All unreturned assignments and tests are now at the CSSU office, room 106 of the Engineering Annex. The CSSU holds irregular office hours, which are posted on their door.

Wednesday 23 April: Please check your marks

All term marks for 148 are now posted on thec corkboard near my office. Be sure to check that your marks have been recorded correctly. Report any errors to me by bringing the relevant marked item to show me your correct mark.

Wednesday 23 April: All assignment 3's are available

All assignment 3's are now available in the boxes outside my office.

Wednesday 23 April: Assignment 3a is marked

Assignment 3a has been marked. You can check the list of marks on the corkboard outside my office, or read your email on cdfpc.

Thursday 17 April: About the exam

There are two versions of the final exam: one for OOT students, and another for C/C++ students. When you arrive at the exam, make sure that you write the appropriate one! Each exam says "OOT" or "C/C++" on the front cover, on the back cover, and at the top of every page.

Thursday 17 April: Some A3's are ready

About half of the Assignment 3's are marked and can be picked up from boxes in the hallway outside my office. More will appear there this afternoon and/or tomorrow. Feel free to drop by to see if yours is there.

I will post an announcement here when I know that all of them are ready.


Thursday 10 April: The final, and end of term stuff

Information about end of term administrative details and the final exam is now available.

Friday 04 April: Questions about the OOT assignment 3

I (Diane) have been receiving a lot of questions in email from students in Professor Holt's and Professor Fich's classes about the OOT assignment 3. My own class is using a completely different assignment (not just the same assignment in a different language), so it is best to address your questions to your own professor.

Friday 04 April: Opportunity to get involved

The Compuer Science Students' Union (CSSU) is now accepting nominations for next year's Executive. If you plan to go on in computer science, think about getting involved in the CSSU. Being the First-Year Representative is a great place to start. Click here for more information.

Thursday 03 April: For Diane's class: very important

There is a problem with our grades file. Students in Diane's class: If your assignment was marked by Wentao He, you must hand it back in so we can ensure that your mark was recorded correctly. To find out who marked your assignment, look for the marker's signature. Wentao He signed his marking slips with "He".

You can hand your assignments back in to me at lecture, or in my office.


Thursday 03 April: C++ Assignment 3 -- testing List

As mentioned in lecture, you should write a small driver so that you can test your List class separately from the simultation program. Why? Because it will be hard to make all your interesting cases occur in the context of the simulation.

Question: To make testing of the List class easier, can I change the details of the Person class?
Answer: Yes. As long as you keep the interfaces all the same, it's ok to simplify details of the Person class to facilitate testing of the List class. Be sure to explain what you have done in your testing strategy, and show where you changed the code.


Wednesday 02 April: Hint for C++ class

Many of you have noticed that the lecture slides contain a section on recursive binary search tree operations. You will probably find some of these helpful for your tree implementation of the List class. But you cannot blindly translate the code from OOT to C++. Watch out particularly for how parameters are used, and keep in mind that parameters work differently in OOT than in C/C++.

I suggest that you trace the OOT code to see the general algorithm that is being used, and then write it yourself in C++.


Wednesday 02 April: Seeing the A2 markers

Due to unexpected circumstances, there is a change to the times when you can talk to markers of assignment 2:

Wednesday 02 April: Waiting for stuff?

I have a backlog of requests for special consideration, remarking etc. on my desk. I hope to start ploughing through them today. As each is taken care of, I give it to the student's professor for returning in class. So if you're waiting to get something back, you can expect to get it in lecture. If, for some reason, you don't get it back before classes end next week, you'll be able to pick it up from my office before the final.

Thanks for your patience.


Wednesday 02 April: Due date for assnt 3

Question: The OOT assignment 3 says only: 
        Due:     Week of 7 Apr 97
Is it due on the usual Thursday before 6:00 pm?
Answer: Yes, the usual.

Monday 31 March: For Diane's class

As suggested in class, I will be using this week's tutorial for a lecture instead. My students should go to the lecture hall on Wednesday (April 2nd) at 1:00.

Thursday 27 March: C/C++ Assignment 3 -- Questions and Answers

Question: Are we to assume that a binary search tree's structure is as described on pgs. 287-288 of the lecture notes booklet?
Answer: Those slides define what makes it a binary "search" tree. Yes, you are to use these sorts of trees. That means that all of your operations must maintain the properties of a binary search tree.

Question: Should the nodes in our trees have parent pointers?
Answer: No. B.S.T.'s do not normally have parent pointers. They were used on assignment 2 because you didn't know recursion yet, and they allowed you to move up and down the tree without it.

Question: For part 1, instructions say not to alter interface to "List" class. Does this mean we cannot change names of member functions of the class, or does it only mean we cannot change the "List" class name itself?
Answer: You can change private data members and/or private member functions, but you should not change either the class name nor the public members. Think of it like this: Is there any program that would work using the old List class but would not work using yours? If so, you have changed the interface. Here's an example program: 

        List myList;
That little program wouldn't work if you changed the name of the class to RevisedList or something.

Question: In part 1, when revising "List" member function "get_next", how do you know whether to return a pointer to its left child, or a pointer to its right child when both exist for a particular parent node? I was assuming that the child node with the lower index number was to be returned, but I'm not sure if that's right.
Answer: It doesn't matter what order get_next returns the elements in. It must stick to some order though (eg preorder), otherwise there'd be no way to make sure client code could iterate through a list.

Note that there are private member functions in the List class, such as "add_to_head", that only make sense as operations on some sort of linked list structure. They are just helper functions. When you switch over to the binary search tree version of the class, you can replace all of these helper functions with your own -- ones that make sense for a binary search tree. This will not constitute changing the interface to the List class, because these are all private member functions.

Question: For part 1, should "List" class member function "print( )" print the binary search tree contents in the shape of the tree (as was done in asmt. #3a)?
Answer: I think that would be a bad idea. It would betray secrets about your implementation details (i.e., the fact that you're using a tree), and that's no business of the client code.


Thursday 27 March: C students: submit source code, not executable

One student just asked whether he should submit executable or source code for assignment 3a. Submit source code -- your .c file.

Thursday 27 March: Revised office hour list

The roster for TA office hours has been updated to show which TAs are covering the final office hours this term.

If you want help with assignment 2, you'll need to go to an OOT or C/C++ TA as appropriate. (Remember that the OOT and C/C++ sections of the course are doing entirely different assignment 3s.) The roster shows which TAs are which.

Note that we have added some extra TA office hours (not included in the list on the course info sheet) for the last weeks of term, and that we have put two TAs on some slots.


Thursday 27 March: Assignment 2 and Midterm 2

If you didn't get your assignment or midterm back, you can get it at Diane's office hours. (Note that there are no office hours tomorrow due to the holiday.)

If you disagree with or are confused about your midterm 2 or Assnt 2 mark, click here to find out what you should do. You must address any concerns regarding these marks by Friday 04 April.


Tuesday 25 March: Miscellaneous re the warmup recursion assnt (A3a)

Question: Are we, students in C section, also supposed to name our file of assignment 3a as "3a.t"?
Answer: Students in the C section should use the filename "3a.c". Sorry about that mistake in the handout.

Question: In the C starter code, the comments to function smallestBiggest talk about `num' but the argument is called `value'. What's up?
Answer: The comment and the code are out of synch That's an edit-o. :-)

Question: If there is no value bigger than the given one, is the function supposed to return (that value minus 1), or the special value (-1)?
Answer: The former. The special value -1 wouldn't be an appropriate answer in this case because it's possible that the tree contains negative numbers. So to be sure everyone understands, here's an example. If the values in the tree are 

        3 14 -8 22 25
and you asked for the smallestBigger of 50, the number 49 should be returned.

Question: I was just wondering if we're allowed to insert additional functions and procedures into the starter code. It's not absolutely necessary but I think it would be convenient.
Answer: Yes, you may add a helper function or procedure.

Question: I've just finished writing the code for assignment 3a and realized that it took 25 lines to meet the specs. I was wondering if this sounds like it's too long. In other words, should I have been able to produce a working function in fewer lines?
Answer: It can perhaps be done in fewer lines than that. See if you can simplify the logic, perhaps by combining cases together.

The most important thing, though, is that you are using recursion properly, which is an entirely separate issue. You may well me recursing appropriately, but just be having some difficulty concisesly describing how to combine answers to the smaller problems.

Question: Are C students allowed to add 

     #include "bool.h"
to the starter code, so we can use TRUE and FALSE in the "smallestBigger" function?
Question: Yes.

Tuesday 25 March: OOT students

To students in the OOT classes: Please click here to see an important announcement concerning a change to your assignment 3.

You should check that page regularly for announcements concerning your assignment.


Friday 21 March: C++ Assignment 3 is ready

The C++ class's Assignment 3 is now ready -- handout and code. Follow the Assignments and Tests link.

Thursday 20 March: Solutions to Horton's midterm #2

A solution set for Horton's second midterm is available in the course folder in the Engineering library, and on the Assignments and Tests web page. (Note that you need a postscript viwer to see it online.)

Wednesday 19 March: OOT code for Assignment 3

Students in the OOT sections of 148, your starter code for assignment 3 is ready. Click here or see the Assignments and Tests page.

Thursday 13 March: Need to give pre- and post-conditions?

Question: Just a clarification. Are preconditions required as part of the internal documentation? Are postconditions required as well?
Answer: Postconditions are essential to good documentation; they say what the code does. Because this is what a programmer would normally write in their comments above a subprogram, many programmers do not label them as postconditions. Postconditions can be written in plain English

Preconditions are also very important for good documentation, because they identify the conditions under which the code will (and will not) do it's job. They also can be written in plain English (e.g., "num must be positive"), but because they provide a special alert, I like to actually label them with the word "preconditions".


Wednesday 12 March: Assignment 3a available

The assignment 3a handout was distributed in lectures recently. If you missed it, check Diane's corkboard for spare handouts. It is also available on paper in the Engineering library, and on this web site under the "Tests and Assignments" page.

The starter code, in both OOT and C, is available on the "Tests and Assignments" page.


Tuesday 11 March: Assignment 2 -- Printing graphics output

Students who have done the graphics bonus question need a way to print test runs that show their graphics output. Click here for info on how to do this on the CDF PCs.

Wednesday 05 March: Getting into a CS program

There will be an advisory session on getting into Computer Science programs: 
        3 - 4 p.m., Wednesday, March 12 in Galbraith 244
You are not required to go -- it's just a good opportunity to have your questions answered.

Wednesday 05 March: Horton's midterm solution

The solution for Professor Horton's exam is now available here and through the Assignments and Tests page. To look at this solution, you'll need a postscript viewer. You will also be able to get the solution on paper in the course folder (Engineering Library).

Wednesday 05 March: Average midterm marks

Averages on the midterms were as follows: 
	Fich (10:00) section:	14.5/30	= 48.2%
	Horton (1:00) section:	16.2/26 = 62.5%
	Holt (6:00) section:	15.3/30 = 51.0%
After all the final exam is marked, we will decide on any adjustments that may be appropriate.

Wednesday 05 March: Fich's midterm solution

The solution for Professor Fich's exam is available here and through the Assignments and Tests page. To look at this solution, you'll need a postscript viewer. You will also be able to get the solution on paper in the course folder (Engineering Library).

Thursday 27 February: Midterm solutions

The solution for Professor Holt's evening exam is available here and through the Assignments and Tests page. Solutions for Horton's and Fich's tests will be made available later.

Thursday 27 February: Assignment 2 handout on the web

The handout for assignment 2 is now available here, on the Assignments and Tests page.

Update Monday 3 March: On Thursday I forgot to put a link to A2 handout on the Assignments and Tests page. It's there now. You can also get directly to the A2 handout here.


Wednesday 26 February: Assignment 1 and Midterm 1

If you didn't get your assignment or midterm back, you can get it at Diane's office hours starting tomorrow, Thursday. (Note that Diane's Friday hour is cancelled.) Many people didn't get their assignment back because they didn't write their TAs name on it. Please learn your TAs name.

Averages and distributions of marks on the assignment and test will be posted here when available.

If you disagree with or are confused about your midterm or A1 mark, click here to find out what you should do. You must address any concerns regarding these marks by Friday 07 March.

If you want to discuss how you're doing in the course -- perhaps to get some advice about how to do better, or to help decide whether or not to drop the course -- please see Diane, or your own instructor in office hours.


Wednesday 26 February: Assignment 2 -- miscellaneous questions

Question: Is it ever possible that a house will have NO neighbours?
Answer: You may assume that, in the initial iqaluit map, every house has at least one neighbour. In fact you may assume that there is no house or group of houses that is unconnected from the rest of the town.
Question: Can we (in the C class) use the "bool.h" file from Asmt. #1 to define a boolean type?
Answer: Yes.
Question: For the "HouseCoords" function in Part 1, I'm unsure of how to get the function to return TWO values (x and y coords). Should a struct (in C, or record in OOT) be returned containing the two values?
Answer: That's one way to send back more than one value through the "return" statement in C, or the "result" statement in OOT. However, we also use the word return to just mean "send back somehow". So another way to return values is through parameters/arguments. If you implement the HouseCoords operation using parameters called x and y, then you can use them to send back the two coordinates.
Question: I'm confused about why one would need the function "NumberOfHouses" in Part 1. Why would I ever call it when I could simply write "n" in its place wherever I need n's value in my code?
Answer: Where will "n" be defined in your code? It should be hidden inside your module. In that case, the only good way for code outside your module to get at it is through a subprogram that is part of the module's interface. That's what NumberOfHouses is.

Wednesday 26 February: Assignment 2 -- defining the array of houses in OOT

Question: In Part 1 of the assignment (implementing the ADT for Iqaluit), we don't know how big to make the array of houses until we read in the number of houses from the input. How can you do this inside a Turing module?
Answer: The array declaration must be part of the loose code, so it stays around between procedure calls. The problem is that all the loose code (including the array declaration) is executed before any procedure (such as ReadInfo) is executed. Therefore you can't read n inside ReadInfo and create an array of size n in the loose code.

The simplest solution is to read n in the loose code and read the rest of the input file using ReadInfo. This isn't very elegant. Later in the course, we'll see a better way to do this using classes.


Wednesday 26 February: Assignment 2 -- Properties of the binary tree in part 4

Students have been coming with lots of questions about properties (iii) and (iv). Probably the easiest way to satisfy them is to make sure that: One result of taking this approach is that you always know where the next node would have to go if you needed to add a new node to the tree structure.

Wednesday 26 February: Assignment 2 -- Hint

The tree in part 4 has special properties that all operations on it must maintain. Some students have been asking for help on how to implement certain operations. Here are some hints: It is your job, as part of defining the ADT in part 2, to decide exactly what the necessary operations are. Warning: we are not endorsing the above operations as appropriate for your ADT. We are just suggesting how you might implement them if you decide they are appropriate.

Tuesday 25 February: Do you need an old handout?

All handouts are distributed in class. If you missed class or have lost your copy, here are the places where you can go to get another one:

Tuesday 25 February: For Diane's class

As announced in class, I will be using this week's tutorial for a lecture instead. So my students should go to the lecture hall on Wednesday (the 26th) at 1:00.

Sunday February 23rd: Assignment 2 -- defining the array of houses in C

Question: In Part 1 of the assignment (implementing the ADT for Iqaluit), we don't know how big to make the array of houses until we read in the number of houses from the input. How can you do this in C?
Answer: The simplest solution is to declare an array that you think will be big enough and then use only as much of it as you need. Here's an example with an array of integers: 
     #define MAX_SIZE  100    /* You could choose a different limit */
     int myarray[MAX_SIZE];
You would have to keep track of how much of the array is occupied, so that you can use that number in loop bounds and so on. In your case, the number of houses is the number of occupied spots in the array. You could make it a precondition of your code that the number of houses read in is <= MAX_SIZE.

This solution is not ideal; if you don't run out of space, you're probably wasting space. A better solution is to declare the array as a pointer, and defer allocating any actual space for it until you know what you'll need. At that point, you can use malloc to grab the right amount of memory. Example: 

     int *myarray;      /* No memory is reserved for it yet. */
     int n;

     /* Later, when you know n, you can get the right amount of memory: */
     myarray = malloc(n * sizeof(int));
See King, section 17.3 for details.

In Turing it's much simpler; you can do things like this directly: 

     var n: int
     get n
     var myarray : array 1..n of int

Sunday February 23rd: Assignment 2 -- BeginGettingNeighbour

Question: I'm confused about the operations GetAnotherNeighbour and BeginGettingNeighbour.
Answer: The basic idea is that we need some way to loop through the neighbours of a house, in order to implement the "for each neighbour..." line within the while loop of the algorithm. It's easy to loop through a sequence of integers, but there is nothing built into OOT or C for looping through neighbours!

GetAnotherNeighbour(h,h',c) is our way of dealing with this. If you use this operation repeatedly with the same h, it will give you back all the neighbours of h, in some order which you can't control. For example, say house 27 has 10 neighbours. If you did this: 

        GetAnotherNeighbour(27,n,c)
        print n and c
        GetAnotherNeighbour(27,n,c)
        print n and c
        GetAnotherNeighbour(27,n,c)
        print n and c
        GetAnotherNeighbour(27,n,c)
        print n and c
you would have printed out 4 neighbours of house 27, along with the costs for paving between each of them and house 27. Since GetAnotherNeighbour returns the special value 0 if there are no more neighbours, you can make a loop to keep calling GetAnotherNeighbour until there are no more. (Note: C students should probably use -1 for this special value, since they will probably count their houses starting from 0.)

Can GetAnotherNeighbour return the same neighbour more than once? Not unless we call BeginGettingNeighbours, which will allow us to start all over (and hence to get neighbours that we may have gotten before). For example: 

        BeginGettingNeighbours (27)     (Get ready)
        GetAnotherNeighbour(27,n,c)     (Get and print 2 neighbours of 27; they will
        print n and c                    not be the same as each other)
        GetAnotherNeighbour(27,n,c)
        print n and c
        BeginGettingNeighbours (27)     (Start over)
        GetAnotherNeighbour(27,n,c)     (Get and print 2 neighbours of 27; they will
        print n and c                    not be the same as each other, but could
        GetAnotherNeighbour(27,n,c)      be repeats of the 2 neighbours retrieved
        print n and c                    above)
BeginGettingNeighbours must also be called before the very first time we use GetAnotherNeighbour.

What should BeginGettingNeighbours do? Whatever is necessary to allow GetAnotherNeighbour to keep track of which neighbours have been returned and which haven't.


Friday 21 February: Office hour cancellation

Diane's office hour on Friday, February 28th is cancelled.

Saturday 15 February: Assignment 0 is marked

Your assignment 0 mark has been / is being mailed to you now. Students who do not get a perfect mark will receive an explanation of where they lost marks. The test cases to which this explanation refers will be posted here next week.

Saturday 15 February: Copies of Assignment 2

The assignment has been out for more than a week now, so I hope everyone has a copy. If you don't, or if you have lost yours, you can get a new copy from the envelopes on my corkboard (outside SF 2302), or from the course folder in the Engineering Library. The assignment will also be available later on the web.

Thursday 06 February: Midterm next week

As written in the course information sheet, the first term test will be held in tutorial next week.

For Prof. Holt's evening section, this test will be at 8:10 in your tutorial on Tuesday 11 Feb. The test for the evening section will cover all material covered in lecture, except for the material on proofs done this week.

Students in the day sections will have their test on in their tutorial on Wednesday 12 Feb, at 10:00 for Fich's section, and 1:00 for Horton's. Fich and Horton will discuss the test in lecture tomorrow.


Thursday 06 February: Test runs in C

Click here for instructions on how to produce printed test runs in C for assignment 1.

Wednesday 05 February: EXTENSION on Assignment 1

Due to the problem with printing C assignments (see below), in addition to the other glitches, the assignment 1 deadline has been extended until 6:00 pm Friday. This extension applies to all St George students, regardless of whether they are in a C or OOT section.

Students who hand in the assignment by the original deadline (6:00 Thursday) will receive a 10% bonus. No assignments will be accepted after the Friday 6:00 deadline.

Please pass the word on to other students who may not have seen this announcement.


Wednesday 04 February: Problem with Print C Assignment

Print C Assignment apparently was not designed for programs with multiple source files, so you won't be able to use it as it is to produce test runs for this assignment. We're working on a solution to this problem right now, and will announce it here. (If you know how to redirect input and output under DOS, you can use that to create test runs. We're just trying to come up with a simpler method.)

Tuesday 03 February: Part D of Assignment 1

Question: Do we add the preconditions/comments to the time.h (header file) or to the time.c (implementation file).
Answer: Add your preconditions/comments to the time.h file (for C students) or the time.tu file (for OOT students).
Question: The instructions are slightly hazy on the question of whether we are allowed to improve the actual code.
Answer: Don't improve the code. Your preconditions are meant to simply document the conditions under which the code, as it is currently written, will work.

Tuesday 03 February: Advice re Assignment 1

Now is a good time to step back and assess where you are on the assignment. If you feel confident that you'll finish all of the parts (including producing nice, organized test runs, packaging everything up nicely, etc.), great. If you're not confident of this, don't panic. The assignment was designed to be modular, so that you can complete recognizable parts even if you don't get all of it done. (And you can see from the marking scheme roughly what the parts are worth.) The important thing is that you leave yourself enough time to produce an organized package to hand in, and that you use test runs to demonstrate clearly what you did get working. If you got something partly working, describe the remaining bugs and the missing parts in your Bugs and Missing Features section of the report.

We know that dealing with someone else's code takes a lot of time, especially when there are bugs. We took this into account when designing the assignment, and will take it into account again later if we find that marks were unexpectedly low on the assignment. You may be happy to know that for assignment 2, you will get to write all of the code yourself from scratch. Freedom!


Tuesday 03 February: How to produce printed test runs for assignment 1

In the PC lab environment, you will find both a "Print C assignment" icon and a "Print OOT assignment" icon. They both work the same way. You are asked to specify the name of the program/source file, and the name of one or more data files. Here's how it works in the simplest case, when if you specify just one data file:
  1. Your program is run, but every input statement that would normally take input from the keyboard (statements like plain "get" in OOT, or "scanf" in C) take their input from your data file instead. This means that you must have already created the data file, and stored in it exactly the inputs for your program that you would normally type in from the keyboard. Note that input statements that specify a file (statements like "get" with a stream number in OOT, or "fscanf" in C) still take their input from the file that they specify. So the Load operation in your program will still read appointments from the "apptcal.dat" file.
  2. Then your program is printed, along with, the data file, and all output that would normally go to the screen. This is part of what you should hand in.
What will not be printed automatically is any input file that your program explicitly reads from (using statements like "get" with a stream number in OOT, or "fscanf" in C) or any output file that your program explictly writes to (using statements like "put" with a stream number in OOT, or "fprintf" in C). You'll have to print these separately. For your current assignment, the only such files are the original apptcal.dat file, and the new apptcal.dat file that you may have created (if one of the commands given to the program was a Save command).

If you want to run your program on several sets of input commands, you can specify a number of data files when using "Print C/OOT assignment".


Tuesday 03 February: Cover Sheet for Assignment 1

The assignment cover sheet is available here. Please fill it out and attach it to the outside of your envelope when you hand the assignment in. Or, handwrite the same information, in the same format on the front of your envelope.

Tuesday 03 February: Assignment 1 -- PackAppts in the C code

I wrote on Friday that function PackAppts in apptcal.c (linked list version) was probably not correct. Note that PackAppts is not called by any of our code. You have permission to do whatever you like with it, including ignore it. If you are going to use it, you should take a look at a new version, available through the Assignments and Tests page, or by clicking here.

Monday 02 February: Assignment 1 -- Sample output

Click here to see what output from the View Week and View Day operations might look like.

Monday 02 February: Assignment 1 -- A Copy procedure for the OOT code

Procedure "enqueue" in queue.tb calls procedure "Appointment.Copy", which doesn't currently exist in appt.tb. Click here to get a Copy procedure.

Monday 02 February: Assignment 1 -- Input file format for C code

The C code (for LoadAppt in appt.c) expects the apptcal.dat file to say "fixed" if an appointment is fixed. The data file originally posted said "true" instead. This won't stop your program from running, but it will never consider any appointment to be fixed. A revised data file is available on the C code page, or by clicking here. (Note that the OOT code does use the string "true".)

Friday 31 January: Assignment 1 -- Miscellaneous questions

Question: I can see why I need to use footnotes when doing a View Week operation in the linked list version of the program. But what about when doing a View Day operation? Can I just use as many rows of output as I need to print the appointments that occur in a 30-minute time slot?
Answer: For both View Day and View Week, and for both the array and linked list implementations, you are to use one row of output for each 30-minute time slot. This means that the linked list version of View Day will indeed need to use footnotes as View Week does. Question: Should view week list the current day in the first column or should it always put Monday in the first column.
Answer: View week should begin with the current day. For example if today is Thursday, begin with today's appointments, and follow with tomorrow's, Monday's, Tuesday's and Wednesday's.
Question: Part B says that the order of all previously booked appointments should not change. Am I correct in assuming that the movement of non-fixed appointments is limited only to the vacant spaces before the next appointment?
Answer: Non-fixed appointments can be pushed forwards or backwards in time, but only up to the point where they "bump into" a fixed appointment. This means that the order of the elements in your linked list will not change. As a result, performing a Fit operation will never require altering the structure of your linked list; you can just change the start times and end times of some appointments in it.
Question: Does all of the input come from a file or can it come from the keyboard?
Answer: The program is meant to be interactive, so that most input comes from the keyboard. When the user requests a Load operation, however, input is taken from the file apptcal.dat. When you hand in your assignment, you will need to produce test runs that show what the user input was. This leads us to the next question ...
Question: C students only: What is the recommended method for printing test runs using Borland?
Answer: I'll get back to you on that.
Question: C students only: Can the Roberts libraries be used for the bonus question (mouse stuff)
Answer: Yes.

Friday 31 January: Assignment 1 -- the OOT code


Friday 31 January: Assignment 1 -- the C code


Friday 31 January: Assignment 1 -- Hint for C students

In queue.h we define a type for queues: 
     typedef struct queueType {
         elementType elements[MAX_LENGTH];
         int head;
         int tail;
         int size;
     } Queue;
As a client of the queue code, your apptcal.c code can now create its own queue. Whenever you want to do anything to your queue, even just examine it, always use the functions that queue provides for you (enqueue, etc.). Never go look at the pieces of the struct. This would make your code dependent upon the particular queue implementation currently used. Your code might no longer work if that implementation were changed.

Another advantage of sticking to this rule is that you don't have to be aware of how the queue is implemented. It is a lot easier to write your View Week operation, for example, if you can ignore the details of how the queue works, and just assume it does its job somehow.


Thursday 30 January: Assignment 1 -- What's a queue?

For the linked list version of View Week, you are to use a queue. We don't expect that you already know what a queue is. In short, a queue is a lineup: things enter at the back and leave from the front, as you would when lining up to use a bank machine, for example. To find out more, read 6.1-6.2 of BHH, or 7.3 of Standish, as suggested in the handout. If, after reading this, you are not clear on what a queue is, drop by to office hours.

Wednesday 29 January: Assignment 1

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