Assignment 0

Contents:

  • Overview
  • Internet Requirements
  • Practice Problems
  • Problems to be Submitted
  • Extra Credit

  • Overview

    Topic: Welcome to the course
    Related Reading: none
    Due: 8pm Monday, 10 September 2001

    This "assignment" will not be graded, however we encourage you to complete it as a warmup for future assignments. This will give us a chance to introduce you to the style of assignment descriptions as well as to aspects of the computer system we will use for electronic submission of remaining assignments.


    Internet Requirements

    Every assignment will be submitted electronically and thus will require either an Internet connection or access to Loyola's computer labs. However, in doing the real work before submission, assignments will differ in their reliance on Internet access. Some can be done without any Internet connection others will rely on Internet access throughout.

    For example, this particular assignment requires an Internet connection for submission as well as during the preliminary work, as it involves exploring several aspects of the course web page.


    Practice Problems

    Each assignment will include a collection of "practice" problems related to the course material. Often these will be similar in style to the required work, but perhaps a bit simpler. The purpose of suggesting these problems is to get students headed in the right direction.

    Furthermore, as these problems are not required, students are free to use the practice problems as a source of discussion with other students or through the course discussion group.

    This week, we ask you to accomplish the following tasks:

  • Please log into one of the Windows-based machines in our department labs by using your assigned "User ID" and "password". If this is the first course you have taken an account has been created, and we will provide you with the "User ID" and initial "password".

    If this is your first time logging in, you will immediately be asked to pick a new password.. Follow the instructions and please remember your new password but keep it private. If at any later time you wish to change your password again, while logged in simultaneously press the following three keys: ctrl-alt-delete. At that point, a window should appear with several buttons, one of which is labeled "Change Password" which you can select.

  • Please start a web browser and visit our course web page at www.cs.luc.edu/~mhg/comp150/

    Web browsers can be found on our network from the "Start" button by following a path: Start->Programs->internet-> leading to the browser of your choice.

  • At the top of the web page, there is a link to an online Questionnaire. Please fill out this questionnaire immediately.

  • At the top of the web page, there is also a link to an online Discussion Group. A welcome message has been placed at the beginning of that discussion. Please read it.

  • Problems to be Submitted

    We would like to give you experience in using the electronic submission procedures we will use for all future assignments. For this reason we are going to ask you to create two new text files, submitting them both by different methods. We will ask you to create one file right now, submitting it directly from Loyola's labs. We will ask you to create a second file by the assignment due date, submitting it via the internet if you think you might end up working on a machine outside of Loyola's labs.
  • First, lets create a simple text file which we will then submit. In our department network, you will find several simple word processors, for example by clicking Start->Accessories->notepad. Now type the word "Hello" in the document and then choose to save this in a file named "hi". When saving, the default location should by the folder "MyHome" which is for your user in saving any files you wish during the course. If this is not the default, you can always find this home directory as H:\MyHome on our network. You can close the word processor now, and you should be able to see the file you have saved by locating the folder H:\MyHome on the desktop.

  • Saving this file in your own home directory is for your own use. It is still necessary to officially "submit" the assignment. We will demonstrate the method for submitting files from within the lab. For each assignment in this class, there will be a particular folder on our network where you are to submit your file(s). For example, if your User ID were "aturing" then files for Assignment 0 should be placed in the folder: E:\submit\mhg\comp150\asgn00\aturing\ Please try to open such a folder (using your own User ID). Once this folder has been located you can submit the file "hi" by dragging-and-dropping it from your home directory into your submit directory.

  • Between now and the due date for Assignment 0, we ask that you create one additional text file named "aboutme" which contains a few short paragraphs telling the instructor anything you wish about your background, your level of computing experience, or your outlook for the course. This file will be read only by the instructor.

  • Please submit "aboutme" before the due date. We ask that you try our remote method for submitting files over the Internet, if you expect to be doing some of your work for this course on computers outside of Loyola's labs. We will use the file transfer protocol known as ftp which allows you to access your submit folder from any computer with an Internet connection. (for those interested in learning more, you can actually read about this on page 154 of the Brookshear text, though this reading is not necessary)

    If you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer as your web browser, you can access the submit directories for the class through the URL: ftp://submit.cs.luc.edu/submit/mhg/comp150/. You will immediately be asked for your UserID and password to verify your identity. Now, you can select the folder for the assignment and for your account. If the "aboutme" file has been saved elsewhere on your computer, you can submit it by dragging-and-dropping in into the folder in the web browser. You can also click the rightmost mouse button over the submitted file to rename it or delete it.

    If you use one of Netscape's browsers, they offer some limited support of ftp, though not as conveniently. A user "aturing" can access the submit directories through the URL: ftp://aturing@submit.cs.luc.edu/submit/mhg/comp150/ (you will substitute your own User ID in place of "aturing"). After navigating to your correct folder for the assignment, you should be able to submit a file by dragging-and-dropping. Alternatively, under the "File" menu, there is an option to "Upload File" which will then let you identify the particular file you wish to submit. Unfortunately, with Netscape there is no way to delete or rename a submitted file, so once it is submitted there will be no way for you to re-submit. With any of the other methods, you can always choose to update your submission by deleting the original file and then re-submitting a new version.

    Finally, it is possible to use FTP to transfer files without using any web browser. Most computers will have versions of "ftp" programs already installed. You can generally ask your computer to search for files with the letters "ftp" to find such a program. Then you can connect to submit.cs.luc.edu, provide your UserID/password, and navigate to a directory such as submit/mhg/comp150/asgn00/aturing/ where files can be submitted.

    Additional note: some remote computers may have difficulties recognizing the address 'submit.cs.luc.edu' in the above attempts. If this is the case you should instead replace that part of the URL with the phrase 147.126.2.1. For example, through Internet Explorer, you could try to access the submit directory as: ftp://147.126.2.1/submit/mhg/comp150/


  • Extra Credit

    Each assignment will contain an extra credit portion which can be submitted. Assignments will be worth a total of $10$ points and generally the extra credit portion will allow a student to earn $1$ additional point.

    The purpose of offering these problems is to give direction and challenge to those students who wish to dig a little deeper into particular topics we are studying. Though we offer a token amount of additional credit for motivation, the purpose of attempting the extra credit should not be simply to improve one's grade. In truth, a student hoping to improve a course grade would be much better advised to direct all of his or her efforts into doing the required portion of the homework as well as possible.

    We will start with a true extra credit problem on Assignment 1.


    comp150 Class Page
    mhg@cs.luc.edu
    Last modified: 19 September 2001