Sun, 9 Oct 2011, 01:37

I have been flipflopping back and forth about sending this to the whole
class because most of you are in fact out of high school and know that 
you don't have your high school teacher watching over you anymore so you
have to be sure to read instructions carefully.

At some point, some students will earn a zero on a piece of work simply 
because they did not bother to read the instructions, and I am sure they
will consider me to be mean for not being understanding.

So, in the interest of trying to make that never be the case, I am including
the following email exchange between me and a student.  At some point, my
TAs and I will not be so accomodating if a student's cry for help could have
been averted if he took the time to read the instructions.

This is not to say I don't want you coming to all of us for help.  Of course
we are here to help you.  But, only after you have read the instructions 
carefully first.

With that as preamble, the exchange:

> > > Dear Professor Patt,
> > >
> > > I just finished writing my code and I was going to test it out, 
> > > but I came across a problem in the simulator. The LC-3 is suppose 
> > > to start at memory location x3000 by default, yet when I load 
> > > my program into the simulator, it starts at memory location x5260. 
> > > I've tried recompiling my code and looking for bugs, but I was unable 
> > > to find anything that would cause the simulator to start at that 
> > > particular memory location. I was hoping you would be able
> > > to give me insight on what the problem may be.
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > >
> > > <<name withheld to protect the student who does not read instructions>>
> >
> > Dear ******************************
> >
> > First question: Was the first line of your program "x3000" as the
> > instructions clearly state:
> >
> > "The first line of your program must specify the memory address of the first
> > instruction of your program. For this assignment, you should place your
> > program starting at *x3000* (i.e., the first line of your program should
> > contain the bit pattern 0011000000000000)."
> >
> > Yale Patt
>
> Alright thank you!
> 
> Your answer solved my problem. All I had to do was write
> 0011000000000000 on my first line of code and now my program works
> perfectly!
> 
> Thanks again for your help.
> 
> <<name withheld to protect the student who does not read instructions>>