Technical accuracy is critical in programming;  but acheiving the goal of a program that works involves more than just sitting down and writing code.  It requires a bit of thought, some planning, and an understanding of what you want to accomplish.  You'll achieve more, and with less work, if you first plan your program before you start coding.  Only after you feel that you know where you wish to go with the program, start typing code into the computer.

Code should be documented with comments.  At the beginning of your program you must have at least the following comments:

/************************************************************/
/*   Name:  John Doe                                             */
/*   Class:   CS 340/840 Numerical Analysis I              */
/*   Computer Assignment 1                        */
/*   Due Date:  February 3, 2001                             */
/*                                                                         */
/************************************************************/

The code should contain sufficient comments to facilitate reading your program.

How should your program look?  What are the standards by which it will be graded?  Let's take a look at these issues.

• Was the program turned in on time, i.e., at the beginning of class?  If not, it is considered late and the penalty is 25%.  If it is more than one class period late, the program will not be accepted and your grade is 0.

• If you do not have the beginning comment block as indicated above, the penalty is 10%.

• Does the program have comments to facilitate reading and understanding of your code.  If not, the penalty is 10%.

• Is your program indented and clearly written?  If not, the penalty is 10%.

• Does the program compile?  If it doesn't, the penalty is 50%.

• Does the program have major errors; that is, it runs but does not produce the correct output?  If so, the penalty is at least 20%.

• Have you turned in what was required and answered any supllemental questions?  If not, the penalty is at least 10%.

• Lesser errors have smaller penalties.

• Penalties are cumulative;  so a late program that doesn't compile and has no documentation would only be worth 0% out of a possible 100%.

• Remember, copying other student's programs is cheating and your grade is automatically 0 for the assignment.  Turning in programs retrieved on the web without acknowledgeing the source automatically gives you a grade of 0.  You can get up to 40% otherwise.