R. Clayton (rclayton@monmouth.edu)
(no date)
As is usually the case when I give an easy assignment, this assignment is
causing more problems than any of the previous, harder assignments. However,
this time I'm not understanding why people are having problems. Never the
less, I've made some modifications to *main.o to help me (and you) figure out
what's going on.
1 The most likely problems people are having are they're copying the files
from the assignment directory into their own directories (to make it easier
to link) and then forgetting to keep their copies up to date with the code
in the assignment directory.
First, because of the updating problem, I recommend that you don't make
copies, despite how much easier it makes things. It's even easier to forget
to update, or to misremember whether or not you updated, and to waste hours
or days trying to find problems resulting from obsolete code.
Second, if you ignore my advice and make copies, it's your responsibility to
make sure you're working with the most recent versions of the code. I do
not recognize any excuse that involves out-of-date code copies. If your
assignment bombs because you were using of-date code, then you have nothing
and nobody to blame but yourself.
I have modified the *main.o files to include a revision string, which you
can find by doing the following
$ strings /export/home/class/cs-509/pa4/solaris-main.o | grep Rev
$Revision: 1.7 $
$
From now on, if anybody sends me e-mail about problems with their code, the
first thing I need to see in their message is either 1) a statement that
they are linking with the code in the assignment directory or 2) the
revision string from both their local copy and the copy in the assignment
directory (if you can't find the revision string in your copy, then your
problem is clear).
If your message doesn't start with either of these, I'm going to return it
with a pointer to this message.
2 The *main.o routines now accept the -d8 debug option. If you want to claim
that my code is generating bad maps, or generating bad solutions, you must
include the output from the -d8 option showing me the map that has two roads
between the same two towns, or the map that has town with a road to itself,
or the check placement of 10,000 towns for a map of 9 downs.
If your message doesn't contain the -d8 output showing me the problem, I'm
going to return your message with a pointer to this message.
3 I've added even more validity tests for the maps I generate. If any of
these tests explode, send me the output that results so I can figure out
what went wrong.
The two people who are currently in touch with me about problems with their
code should resend their messages, following the instructions given in this
message.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Fri May 09 2003 - 15:30:05 EDT