Programming in Perl - CSCI 2962

Announcements

December 12th

• Final grades have been submitted. You should be able to get them from SIS tomorrow or Friday. Grade distribution for the course is as follows:
  41 A's - 21 B's - 7 C's - 9 D's - 2 F's - 2 AU's - 1 I
• Don't forget to pick up your midterms and/or finals from my mailbox in AE 117 before Friday.

December 11th

• At long last, HW4 has been completed grading. All of your grades, along with your final course grade, are now online, using the link above. I urge you to check your grades immediately - as I will be submitting final grades to the registrar around 2:30pm Wednesday afternoon. If you see a discrepancy somewhere, it is VITAL that you contact me ASAP.

December 7th

• Based on the varied answers I saw to question 4 on the first page of the exam, it's obvious to me that the question was worded badly, and that many people did not understand what I was asking for. Therefore, I've made this question a bonus question as well. Anyone who got it right earned 4 points, while those who got it wrong did not lose anything. This is not shown on your actual exam, but is corrected on the online grade report (ie, your online grade will be 4 points higher than the grade written on your exam).
• All Final Exams have been graded. Check your grades online. If you don't have a grade for the exam, you didn't turn one in to me. The exams will be inside my mailbox in the lounge on the first floor of Amos Eaton. Also, sometime tomorrow afternoon I will put the remaining midterm exams in my mailbox for those who did not pick them up previously. I'll leave the exams there for one week. Anything not claimed by Friday, 12/14 will be trashed.
• Homework 4 has not yet been completed. My goal is the end of the weekend.

December 5th

• Solutions (PDF) to today's final exam. Note that there is, of course, More Than One Way To Do It^TM for virtually every question.
• The final exam grades will be recorded as they are corrected. You may check your grades online regularly to see if yours has been graded yet. Likewise for HW4. An anouncement will be posted when all exams and homeworks have been corrected.

December 3rd

• If you haven't submitted questions for the final yet, by all means, do so. I will continue accepting submissions up until I go to make the 83 copies of the final exam to handout on Wednesday.
• Justin informs me that homework 3 has now been corrected and returned to everyone who submitted. If you did not receive a grade for HW3, email Justin immediately.

December 1st

• Thus far, I've received very few questions for the final exam. Please make sure you get your questions in by Sunday night at the latest, to have full opportunity to earn bonus points. Remember, any question I use on the final is guaranteed 2 points, and any 'good' question can receive a maximum of 5 points (it is possible to receive bonus points without a question actually being selected for the final).

November 28th

• Questions (PDF) and Answers (PDF) from today's review session.
• As was pointed out in class today, the path for sendmail on the cgi2 server is different than on the cgi server. If you're using cgi2.cs.rpi.edu, you need to use the path

  /usr/sbin/sendmail

• Yet another way of eliminating those nasty ^M characters from your file is to use the built-in dos2unix program. It's on both RCS and CS.

November 27th

• A few people seem to have not used an SSH client before. If you have recently downloaded TeraTerm SSH to use the CS machines, you may need to modify the settings to get emacs working. Since it was so long ago since I made the necessary modifications, I'm simply providing my configuration file for you to download. Put this file in the directory where TeraTerm is installed, then open a connection to the CS machines. Emacs should now work fine.

  A couple emacs commands you may wish to know immediately: CTRL-x CTRL-s is "save". CTRL-x CTRL-c is "exit". Others you may find by searching the web for "emacs key commands" or "emacs shortcuts"

• UPDATE: Another way to get rid of the return characters is to upload the file to the CS machine, and then use Unix's built-in "tr" command:

  tr -d \\r <rcsid.cgi> tmpfile
  mv tmpfile rcsid.cgi
    

• A few people are having problems getting any of their files working on the CGI server. Some of these problems have turned out to be the fault of saving the file in Windows and then transferring it to the CS machines. Windows places an extra character at the end of each line, that Unix reads as a ^M. This causes massive problems with the Perl interpreter. The simple answer is "Don't use Windows.". If you insist on using windows, you have a couple options. 1) Find and download the program Textpad, and use the Save as Unix File option. 2) After transferring your file to the CS machines, open it in emacs. If you don't see ^M characters at the end of each line, type ESX x, followed by the command find-file-literally, then enter your file name. You should now see those nasty characters. Get rid of each of them.
  In my opinion, the "don't use windows" option is easier.

November 26th

• As grades for HW3 are going out, keep in mind that all questions and comments concerning your grade should be directed to Justin, despite the fact that email containing your grade will claim to be from me (which is a result of how the CGI program to automate grade reporting was written).

November 24th

• A few people appear to be having issues with their CS accounts. A step-by-step set of instructions on how to get your files on the web can now be found on the HW4 FAQ page.
• Because some people are having these problems, I strongly suggest you at least get started putting files online, if only a simple Hello World CGI script, as soon as possible, to be sure you know what you're doing come Sunday at 8pm when you actually start the homework...

November 20th

• The final exam on 12/5 will be open-book, open-note. You may use the Camel, the Llama, another Perl text, the class notes, and/or your own notes. You may not use calculators, PDAs, laptops, or another student.
• Following the example of the great Dr. Robert Ingalls, I've decided to let you, my fine students, help create the final exam. You can receive a maximum of 5 bonus points on the final exam by submitting to me a question that would be appropriate for the final. Here's how this works:
  Think of appropriate questions for the final exam. Keep in mind all the topics we've covered in the 2nd half of the course - Regular Expressions, Functions, Classes, CGI Programming - as well as the fact that the final is open-book, open-note. Email to me one or more questions to ask, along with the answer(s). If I decide to use your question on the final, you will receive a minimum guarantee of 2 bonus points. "Good" questions can receive a maximum of 5 bonus points. You may submit as many questions as you wish (but please, only one email from each person), but only 'the best' question from each submission will receive bonus points (however, I may decide to use more than one of your questions on the final - which would give you a distinct advantage coming into it).
• No, homework 3 has not yet finished being graded. Justin is working on it. We'll let you know when it's done...
• Don't forget that our next class on 11/28 will be a review session. Come prepared with questions to ask. Also, please be absolutely certain to bring at least one #2 pencil, as I will be handing out course evaluations.

November 19th

• Many people have been asking me how to get anything on the web from their CS accounts. First, use an SSH client to log into solaris.remote.cs.rpi.edu. Then, if it doesn't exist, create a directory named "public.html". Yes, that's "dot", not "underscore". Then make this directory world-readable. You can do this by issuing the command

  chmod o+r public.html

  from your home directory. Then, any time you create a file inside this directory, you must make this file world-readable too. Use the same process as above.

November 14th

• After debugging for about two hours, I found the error in the cookie example. I forgot the two commas in the textfield() function in the do_form() subroutine. Hooray for Perl....
  Here are the various CGI scripts from today's class:
  • Text file upload: View Execute
  • Image file upload: View Execute
  • Email script: View
  • Cookie Example (corrected): View Execute
• Homework 4 FAQ is now available. Check it requently.

November 13th

• Homework 4 is now available. Due Sunday, December 2nd, 11:59:59pm EST

November 10th

• Here are the CGI scripts we looked at in class Wednesday:
  
  • Background color example: Execute View
  • Inputs example: Straight HTML View CGI Execute CGI
  • Small example demonstrating CGI Shortcuts: Exectue View

November 8th

• I've now posted my solution to HW3. As always, realize that since this is Perl, your code may (in fact, probably will) look vastly different.
• Justin will soon begin grading your homework 3 submissions. Please direct any concerns about your grade to his CS email address: mcguij2@cs.rpi.edu

November 7th

• UPDATE:To access your CS account, ssh to solaris.remote.cs.rpi.edu. To transfer files to/from your account, use the proticol known as scp. Free versions can be found at http://www.freessh.org. Windows users may wish to look at http://winscp.vse.cz/eng/download.php. I strongly suggest you download the stable version 1.0, not the 2.0 beta version. Just as with ssh, you must connect to solaris.remote.cs.rpi.edu with the scp program.
• Slide 20 from today's lecture contained an error that I corrected in class. The updated slides (and PDF file) are linked in the syllabus below
• The time has (finally) come for everyone to begin using their CS accounts. Without them, you will be unable to do any CGI programming. If you do not yet have a CS account, it is vital that you contact me immediately so that I may request one for you. If you have forgotten you CS Account password, email labstaff@cs.rpi.edu as quickly as possible.

November 6th

• I will be in my office most of today, starting at 9:30am. If you have questions/problems with HW3, *please* do not wait until 4:00 to come get them answered.

November 5th

• In preperation for Wednesday's class on CGI programming, I've posted the introduction to HTML slides. See the course syllabus below.

November 2nd

• For those of you wondering how much time you might spend on this assignment, I'll give you my statistics. I coded the entire program this morning, spending about 3 hours from start to finish. My code is 318 lines long, including comments and whitespace. Determine how much you think you know Perl better than I do, and allocate the appropriate amount of time to code it...

November 1st

• Here is a working Homework 2 submission, supplied by D.F. Note that this code contains only one example of how to create all the functionality of the assignment. Your project may be vastly different (not to mention vastly shorter or longer).

October 31st

• As announced in class today, I am allowing you to work in groups of 2 on homework 3. If you choose to do this, submit one homework per pair, with both names in the email and as the name of the file.
• Due to internet connectivity issues in class today, I was unable to show you the sample Student class file and main file that uses the class. Here they are.

October 30th

• A sample inventory is now available for Homework 3.
• I have finished correcting and returning homework 2. Please check your grades online to confirm I've recorded what I sent to you. If you have not received your grade, but believe you submitted a homework, contact me immediately.

October 27th

• Homework 3 FAQ available now. Check it frequently.

October 24th

• Due to unforseen circumstances, class is cancelled today. However, I have posted Homework 3, as well as a short mini-presentation covering some aspects of Perl that don't fit well anywhere else. I urge you to look at both

Course Policies

This 2-credit course will run the entire semester, from 4:00pm to 5:50pm on Wednesdays.

There will be aproximately five (5) homeworks assignments throughout the course of the semester. Submission instructions will be included with each assignment. All homeworks will be due at 11:59:59pm Eastern Time on the due date. Homework will be accepted up to 24 hours past the deadline at a penalty of 20% off the homework's grade. Homeworks turned in more than 24 hours past the deadline will be graded a 0.

There will be two (2) exams: a mid-term exam halfway through the course, and a final exam on the last day of class. You will have the full 1 hour, 50 minutes to work on each exam. While the final exam will not be cumulative, the nature of programming will require you to apply knowledge gained during the first half of the course on the final exam

Your course grade will be derived by taking either
70% of the Homework average and 30% of the Exam average
or
60% of the Homework average and 40% of the Exam average,
whichever results in a higher course average for each student.

Your letter grade will be computed based on the following scale:

A

90.0%-100.0%

B

80.0%-89.9%

C

70.0%-79.9%

D

60.0%-69.9%

F

0.0%-59.9%

Do NOT expect a curve or scale. If there are extreme circumstances (ex, everyone in the class is getting an F), I may consider scaling the final grades, but don't plan for it.

Academic Integrity

All homeworks are to be done individually. You may discuss programming style and concepts with your classmates, but you may not work together on an assignment. Do not look at anyone else's code, and do not show your code to anyone else.

When taking the exams, you may use only the resources specifically noted as acceptable. These may or may not include lecture notes, your own notes, the course textbook, or other books. Under no circumstances will these include any other students. Acceptable resources will be noted at least two (2) weeks prior to each exam.

RPI-Speak:

"The definitions and examples presented (in the Rensselaer Handbook) are samples of the various types of academic dishonesty and are not to be construed as an exhaustive or exclusive list. The academic dishonesty policy also applies to scholarly pursuits and research. Additionally, attempts to commit academic dishonesty or to assist in the commission or attempt of such an act, are also violations of this policy. If found in violation of academic dishonestly policies, students may be subject to two types of penalties. The Instructor administers an academic penalty (i.e., failure of the course), and the student may also be subject to the procedures and penalties of the student judicial system outlined in this handbook." -- The Rensselaer Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities

English:

You cheat, you fail -- Paul Lalli

* These topics will not be covered during lecture. It is assumed most of you are already familiar with these topics. I am presenting very basic overviews for those who do not, as these topics will be necessary to carry out certain functions in this course.

The Perl Quotes Page

A great many things have been said about Perl. Many quite funny. Some you will find in your textbooks by the authors, others you may find randomly on the net or in a magazine. If you see something you think might bring a smile to someone's face, by all means, share it with the class: