CMSC 23500 - Handing in assignments

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When to hand in

Assignments are published on the Chalk site by Thursday morning. A notice will be sent to the course mailing list when the homework is available. Assignments are due by 7:00pm the following Wednesday.

What to hand in

There will be two types of assignments: "paper and pencil" assignments and programming assignments. Both must be submitted electronically through hwsubmit (described below) and as a hard copy. The hard copy must correspond to the version submitted electronically.

"Paper and pencil" assignments

Although these assignments do not involve writing programs, don't take the "paper and pencil" description literally. You must write up your solution in an electronic format such as plain text, Postscript, or PDF (do not submit Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, or similar files). Before handing in a "paper and pencil" assignment, make sure you do the following:

  1. Submit the textfile through hwsubmit before the due date.
  2. Print a hard copy. Staple all pages in order. Make sure your hard copy includes your full name on it.
  3. The hard copy does not need to be handed in by the due date (there is no need for you to run from the Maclab/dorm/etc. to the TA's office after submitting your assignment through hwsubmit). However, you must get it to the TA before the start of class on Thursday. You can hand it in at the beginning of class, or drop it off in his office before then.

Programming assignments

Before handing in a "paper and pencil" assignment, make sure you do the following:

  1. Submit the your program code through hwsubmit before the due date.
  2. Print a hard copy of your code. An easy way to print code from a UNIX system is using the enscript command. This command will automatically format the code for you, and can handle most programming languages. For example, to print out SQL code, you could run enscript like this:
    enscript hw6.sql -P printer_name -Esql
    Where printer_name is the printer you want to send the code to. See the enscript man page for more details on using this command, and for a list of languages that enscript can handle.
  3. If required by the homework assignment, print a transcript of interactions that exercise your program run on required data.
  4. Staple all your pages in order: code first, program output second. Make sure your hard copy includes your full name on it.
  5. As for "papel and pencil" assignments, the hard copy can be handed at any time before the start of class on Thursday.

How to hand in: hwsubmit

hwsubmit is a UNIX command that will allow you to submit your homework directly to the TA. hwsubmit is available if you log into any of the department's Linux machines, including those in the Maclab. Make sure all the files you want to hand in are inside a directory, and then run hwsubmit like this (where dir_name refers to the directory you want to submit):

hwsubmit cmsc23500 dir_name

For example, assuming that you are currently inside your home directory, and that you placed all the files for a particular assignment in directory /home/myusername/hw01, you would run hwsubmit like this:

hwsubmit cmsc23500 hw01

The hwsubmit command is used in other CS courses, so there is a chance you have already used it. If you're unfamiliar with it, don't wait until five minutes before the homework deadline to find out if you're using it right. During the first week of classes, the TA will be glad to assist you in making a "test submission" so you can verify that you're using hwsubmit correctly.

At this point in the CS major's track, you should be familiar with UNIX, and with using the CS Linux machines remotely. If you need a refresher, please take a look at the Practical Information page.

Policy on late submissions

Late submissions will not be accepted

Policy on collaboration

Programs, homework and examinations are to be completed without collaboration with any other person. However, you may discuss with your colleagues the general nature of the solutions to programs and homework problems. Violations of this policy will be reported to the College Dean of Students. In addition, the student will receive a zero grade on the program, homework or examination.

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