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From: hope@gatech.CSNET (Theodore Hope)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Students editing output
Message-ID: <1257@gatech.CSNET>
Date: Sun, 15-Sep-85 16:59:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: gatech.1257
Posted: Sun Sep 15 16:59:33 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 16-Sep-85 03:14:46 EDT
Organization: School of Information and Computer Science, Georgia Tech, Atlanta
Lines: 26

Since the beginning of 1983, the ICS 1400 & ICS 1401 ('Pascal I' & 'Pascal II')
classes have been taught on our department's HP3000.  Back when I worked on
that machine (ugh!) I developed software for submitting/collecting the students'
assignments.  When a student had finished his/her program, he/she would submit
the source file to a special directory.  At a later date, the operator or 
grader (usually myself) would collect all the files of a certain assignment
for a batch run.  The programs' submittal dates were all compared to a date 
supplied at this time, compiled, run with the same instructor-supplied data
file, and the output optionally compared to an instructor-supplied key answer
file.  (This last option, of course, could only be used when a specific output
format was specified.  This was accomplished via instructor-supplied harnesses
which performed the output for the students' subroutines.)  This entire mecha-
nism eliminates the possibility of forged output, and saves the instructor lots
of paperwork considering 200 to 300 students per quarter and about one program
due per week.

Because of the "wonderful" programming environment provided by the HP3000,
a lot of it was kluged.  However, the concept was interesting and successful.
It's been a while since I've worked on it, and I'm glad to know that starting
next quarter (1.5 weeks from now) both those classes will be moved to an ATT
3b20.
-- 
Theodore Hope
School of Information & Computer Science, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet:	Hope @ GATech		ARPA:	Hope%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
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