Tues, 23 Sept 2014, 01:38


My students,

As many of you have undoubtedly realized, the grading script malfunctioned
in grading lab 2, and so a lot of you got 100 when the reality is that you
earned quite a bit less than that.  The reason for the malfunction is not
relevant.  It was way beyond our control.  A grading script that has been
working fine for many semesters all of a sudden malfunctioned.

What is very relevant is the awareness that because of the pace of the course,
I can not hit master reset on the lab 2 assignment.  If I did, we would be far
too crunched at the end of the semester and that is not the learning
environment I want.  So, I have decided to simply give everyone 100 on lab 2,
and move on.

The reality is that my original set of labs for the course did not include
lab 2.  I added it some time ago in order to provide you with insight into
the follow-on lab, which is now lab 3.  I believe that if you have not
mastered lab 2, you are going to have a lot more trouble with lab 3, but if
you get lab 2 to work correctly first, lab 3 will be a lot easier.

So, I encourage you to make sure lab 2 is working correctly before you move
on to lab 3.  We will only require you to complete lab 3.  How you manage
your time with lab 2 and lab 3 is up to you.  What you do about lab 2 is
also up to you.

Because I encourage you to not drop lab 2 until you have successfully
mastered it, I include the following:

To get your lab 2 to work properly with the grader you must go to the lab
page and re-download the new version of the starter code titled “lc3bsim2.c”.
You can then copy all the modifications you made to your original starter code
over to your new starter code.

We have enabled late submission for lab 2 and directions on how to do this
are on the website.

Lab 3 is now posted on the website, so you can work on it when you are ready.

Good luck with the rest of this course.  I am sorry about the glitch in
grading lab 2, but I believe my way to handle it will keep us moving where
we need to be moving.

See you in class on Wednesday.

Yale Patt