Lab Instructions

  • Remember that lab attendance is required. If you cannot come, please let us know in advance. Not attending the lab without legitimate reasons will unfortunately receive 0 points.
  • Please don’t bring food and drink to this lab. (For classes in the other room, NH253, this is fine).

Pair programming

  • The basic idea:

    • Person 1 acts as a coder (typing into the code)
    • Person 2 acts as a code reviewer
    • Alternate the roles after each solving each problem
    • Both should discuss how to tackle the problem before coding

  • LOTS of advantages

    • Mutual learning
    • Helps spotting some stupid typos/mistakes we may end up writing (and these can difficult to detect later)
    • While one gives attention to the “tactical” aspect of getting some small stuff done, the other is thinking about the bigger picture, the “strategical” aspect.

  • It takes some patience to just sit and look at someone writing. We are not trained in this kind of attention. But in the end it can be VERY satisfactory.

  • In the end, submit just one copy per pair

    • Put down the names of both members as authors
    • Put down the class A/B
    • E.g., Frodo Baggins (Calvin-ID) A

Don’t forget headers in files

  • At the top of each program file, include something like this:
"""CS 108 - Lab 1.5
Use a simple formula to estimate pi which is
accurate to 6 digits.
@author: Frodo Baggins (123456) A
@author: Samwise Gamgee (654321) A
@date: Spring, 2024
"""
  • The template header is actually:
"""CS 108 - Lab/Homework X.X
Describe the module here. Fix the lab number above and
the name/date below.
Delete the second @author line if working solo.
@author: YOUR-NAME (yourid123) A/B
@author: PARTNER-NAME (theirid123) A/B
@date: semester, year
"""

Grading example for Lab 1

  • Each question carries 20 points
    • Test for documentation (2 points)
      • The file name checking (e.g., Lab1_1.py)
      • A brief description of the program file
      • Authorship (including the section)
    • Correctness (18 points for Lab1.1 and 16 points for others)
    • Code documentation (2 points)
      • i.e., concise and clear comments about the code
        • E.g., print(pi) # print out the estimated value of pi