Electronic sumbission information

Policy for Electronic Submission

You will be turning in your code for programming problems to our "Web Tester" which will run tests on your code and (generally) give you a score immediately. You will have multiple chances to upload your code. This page describes the details of this process.

Number of submissions and scoring

You may submit your code up to 3 times. Code is only accepted through the web tester, not via email.
Each submission must include all procedures for the entire assignment. Any omitted problem or procedure will score 0 points.
The web tester will run a number of tests for each problem, check the values that your procedures return, assign a score for each problem, and compute the total score for your submission. The web tester will automatically deduct late penalties.
Your score for the "electronic part" of an assignment will be the maximum of your submissions. This is the maximum of the total scores, not maximums for each problem.
To encourage you to test your code and get things right the first (or second) time, there will be a 5% reduction in the score of your third submission. Any reduction is rounded up but is at least 1 point.
The written and electronic portions of the assignment are treated separately for purposes of late penalties. Any late penalty on the electronic part of this assignment is rounded up but is at least 1 point.

How it works

First, your code is run through a "syntax checker". In part, this is for the security/integrity of the web tester, but also because certain advanced Scheme constructs are prohibited in the beginning of the class.
- Your code should consist only of procedure and variable definitions. (Except, on future assignments, for loading support code.)
- Your code must pass the syntax check in order be considered a submission.
- The syntax checker is not foolproof --- just because it passes the syntax check does not mean that it will run (or even load) without errors.
- You should read about restrictions imposed by the syntax checker on your code.
Next, your code is checked by a "pretester". This ensures that:
- your file loads without error, and
- all the procedures for the assignment are defined (and that they take the correct number of arguments)
If there is anything missing or wrong, you will get a warning message, but you can still continue the submission. Missing procedures or procedures that generate errors will fail all the tests on them.
Finally, your code is tested.
- You will get your score and at least some feedback immediately.
- In general, random inputs will be used for tests, and the "immediate feedback" will include the test inputs, your procedure's outputs, and the correct outputs.
- Some assignments, however, may use carefully designed test inputs; in these cases, you will not receive the test inputs or your procedure's outputs. Instead, your "immediate feedback" will consist of some general description of the input (e.g., "a taxable income between $26251 and $63550") and some general explanation of why your answer was wrong (e.g., "your answer was a symbol but the correct answer is a number").
  In these cases, you will receive a full transcript of the tests run on your code when the assignment is returned.

Web tester trouble

Sometimes there are problems with the web tester. Sometimes these problems are the fault of the instructor or TAs, despite our best efforts.

If you find some error or have some problem with the web tester, let us know by sending an email to aistaff@cs.rpi.edu. You do not need to send us any code that you uploaded — we already have it! Just let us know which submission you are referring to or about what time you uploaded it.