Week 14 Comments


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Week 14 Comments

You've now done procedural programming, seen functional programming, and seeing object-oriented programming this week. Which one do you like best, and why?
If you had a choice, which one would you like to learn more about?
What's confusing, interesting, or darn aggravating about object-oriented programming?

A word to start the week with

Grades for Pre-Quiz 3 are looking good, but grades for Quiz 3 are looking less good. Looks like a combined average in the low 70's. Let me give you a sense of what I was looking for, so that you can understand your grade:

Why should a large website with many authors be interested in databases? I was looking for something about authors adding stories to the database, and then generating HTML from the database stories. This was about applying the ideas of database being standardized and being possible distributed.
Are there programs that we can't actually write? Are there problems that can’t be solved with an algorithm? Name one that we’ve talked about in class. The only problem we talked about that can't be solved is the Halting Problem. The optimization (song) problem and the Traveling Salesman Problem CAN be programmed – but for large enough input, they won't stop in your lifetime. You can't even write a program that solves the Halting Problem.
What's the difference between an interpreter and a compiler? Both are programs that accept other programs as input. An interpreter simply does whatever the input is. A compiler translates the input program into a machine language (or equivalently, assembly language) program.

Hopefully, these sorts of issues will get sorted out better in the final exam review. (However, I do predict that those coming to class did better on the quiz than those who don't.)
Mark Guzdial

Comments?

I always come to class, but those concepts were still really hard to grasp for some reason.

I've never missed class either, if you specifically wanted those questions to be answered your way, then that was impossible. i concentrated so much on the pre-quiz questions.

What kinds of answers did people come up with that they thought were reasonable but weren't above? If I was imprecise in my questions and there were other valid interpretations, then we'll change the grading criteria. Mark Guzdial

I honestly just didn't have enough time to complete my answers. I was trying to be thorough, but that was only possible on one of the three short answer questions.
Lauren Biddle

I thought that you meant the authors of the webpages within the website! Those are authors. I didn't realize that you meant authors of books. In fact, those types didn't even cross my mind. I guess I was thinking of authors to websites because it seems that this class lately (or ever much, really) hasn't been about book authors. I answered as if the authors would be glad that a database would group their pages together and be easy to find through a database. I figured that that would have implications also for a visitor to the webpages within the website. Also, I haven't run across a website where book authors would want to put the text of their stories online if they were also trying to sell books. Maybe if you'd phrased the question to something to the effect of authors being interested in putting the text of their work online. I focused on the "large website with many authors" portion of the question.
Rebecca Phillips

I did mean authors of the webpages within the website. I gave the example of how CNN.com worked in class – lots of reporters generating stories in a database, with some program weaving the stories together into a website. Mark Guzdial

I think that quiz was exceptionally hard. You should either A) put the exact things from the pre-quiz on the quiz or B) make them completely different from the start. Since quiz #1 was so similar to pre-quiz #1, I thought they all would be like that. I obviously thought wrong!

I feel that for #2 the first question is kind of weird. When you say a program that you can't write I thought that you meant a program that you can't try to write at all to solve the problem. So I said no because I felt that you could write a program but it would just keep running and running without ever stopping. I did however say that, yes, there are problems that can't be solved with an algorithm and an example was the Halting Problem. I thought the 2 questions (in #2) meant totally different things and I didn't really understand what the first question was asking. I also was not sure if what you meant by a program that can't be written at all was related to the prequiz question where you ask about a problem that can't be written or solved within a reasonable amount of time. So if I looked at it that way I thought it was a trick question and so I said no because you can write it but it would take forever. I also feel that it would be better to tell people the exact time the quizes would be collected instead of just saying there's one minute left. We never really know how much time we have and so it's harder to pace yourself appropriately. I'm sorry that I am blabbing; I probably could have said this in one sentence if I was telling you this in person.
Natalie Cohen

I see both your points, Natalie. I should have been more consistent with time on the quiz, and announced time frames; and I can see how Question #2 is confusing. It's too late to get regrades, but I may weight this quiz less since it was confusing. Mark Guzdial

I agree that the class has not been consistant at all in similarities between pre-quizes and quizzes. The first was exactly the same, and even the first test was exactly the same as the midterm review, but by the second test and second and third quizzes they have gotten increasingly different, so we don't know how to study for them.

"Exactly the same" is hard to determine. To the TA's and myself, the match was quite close, but we're still learning for this class what a good match is. That's why there's a leniency factor in the grading for this term. I expect the final to match the review pretty closely. That said, do still read the problem. Very few problems will be exactly the same between the review/pre-quiz and the exam/quiz. Mark Guzdial

Amen brother!

Homeworks 5 and 6 are really time-consuming. There are not that hard exactly, but to make it all come together has gotten really difficult. I know that we are nearing the end of the class, so the material should be challenging, but I wish that we had more guidance in class on these two homeworks. Lauren Biddle

I'm happy to answer questions on HW5 and/or HW6. But this IS exactly what we're talking about these days. We spent all last week talking about functions because functions are a tool for getting code to come all together. Write a function for each part of your movie, Lauren, where each takes a canvas and a frame number as input. Now, put both functions inside a frame loop. You can test each function separately and make it work, then integrate it. That's why we're talking about functions and objects – to give you more tools to make HW5 and HW6 easier. (BTW, I'll introduce more drawing tools in class this morning that will give you more flexibility in HW5 and HW6.) Mark Guzdial

I didn't really think HW5 OR LAB5 was that hard. I am enjoying this part more than just coding to manipulate a picture.!!

I agree. I had no trouble with hw5. It was just copy and paste from the slides. I have trouble understanding why everyone was so confused.

When are out grades from the pre-quiz and the lab going to be posted? I have been compulsivley checking since wed.

Quiz and lab grades should be up already. If yours is not, please email your TA and cc me so that I can follow up. (It may be that the TA entered the grades but just accidentally missed one or two.) Mark Guzdial

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Comment Areas-Spring 2003 last edited on 30 January 2006 at 6:41 am by r80h18.res.gatech.edu