18-649 Project F.A.Q

Last updated January 12, 2009

*Please submit all project-related questions to -- thanks!

Online File Submissions (for projects)

File submissions will be made using the course AFS space.  Handins will be made to the location:  /afs/ece/class/ece649/Public/handin/ .  You should be able to access this space when logged in with your ECE username on any of the ECE systems (e.g. color machines).  There will be a separate folder for each project (e.g. project1).  Within each project folder will be a folder for each group. You will only have permissions to access your group's folder. Your homework submissions will not be viewable by the rest of the class.

File headings:

Each file you submit should contain the following information:

    course name and semester, group number, and the names and andrewIDs of all team members.

This applies to all files that are submitted for a grade, including java code files and any simulation output files.  For automatically generated files, you should investigate the -head option in the simulator.

Late submissions:

Late submissions will be treated in accordance with the course late policy.  If you overwrite or otherwise update a file, the time stamp displayed will be treated as the hand-in date and time for the entire assignment.  If you want to submit a draft and overwrite the files before the deadline that is fine. Technical glitches can (and probably will) occur during the course of the semester.  We will try to be reasonable, but it is your responsibility to submit your work on time.  You should plan ahead enough so that you can turn your work in comfortably before the deadline.  Report any problems with the submission as soon as you are aware of them.  Most technical issues, especially those avoidable with reasonable planning, will not result in an extension of the deadline.

Within each group's folder, there is an “ontime” and “late” folder. You should submit your solutions in the “ontime” folder, which will be locked by the TA's after the assignment is due. The “late” folder is provided in case you wish to submit an assignment after the “ontime” directory has been locked.

If you wish to submit late, you must send two emails. 

• You should send email as soon as you know there will be a late submission.  If the TAs have already graded your ontime submission when they received your email, they will NOT regrade your late submission.
• You should send the second email as soon as your late submission is complete so that the TAs know they can lock your late directory.  The late penalty increases daily, so the sooner you notify the TAs, the better!
• Be sure to send all emails to the staff list, not to an individual TA.
  

Bug Handling Policy

• A zip file or tarball containing your entire source code tree
• The exact command line you were using to invoke the simulator
• Any input files you were using
• A description of how the problem manifests itself and the approximate time during the simulation when it does so

Simulator releases at the beginning of a project

Simulator releases between projects

• Your group is responsible for making their code compatible with the latest release.

• If you elevator will function correctly with the earlier version and you choose not to update it, then you must make a prominent note in your portfolio documentation indicating which version of the code your submission is compatible with.
• As noted above, you are responsible for the correct function of your simulation.  If you choose not to update your code to the latest release and your elevator does not pass acceptance tests (even if it is because of the bug), then you will not receive credit (according to the grade breakdown for that project) for whatever parts failed to execute properly.
  

Useful Tools

Here are some recommendations and links for tools that you may find useful.  Please note that we do not support ANY of these tools or programs ourselves.  If you have a simple question or get stuck, you are welcome to come to the TA's office hours and ask, but our reply is likely to be "go ask Google".  If you are having trouble with department resources (e.g. AFS) on department supported machines, you can also send mail to gripe@ece.cmu.edu

AFS

Most on-campus Windows PCs already have your personal AFS space mounted as a drive letter.  Most on-campus linux machines use your AFS space as your home directory.  We recommend that you use the AFS space for your project development because it is easy to move from computer to computer and share code with your teammates. 

A note on privacy:
You should use the Private folder for your code.  Please read the AFS ece wiki page for information on how to add permissions that will allow your teammates to view your code.  DO NOT put your code in your Public or home directories.  Anyone with AFS access, including people from other teams, can view these directories.

You can use the OpenAFS client to access the AFS space in windows.  Sometimes this can be unreliable.  Another simple way to transfer files to AFS space is the use the 'scp' command (linux) or WinSCP (Windows) to transfer files to one of the color cluster machines like black.ece.cmu.edu (these machines use AFS for your home directory by default).

Version Control

Subversion (SVN) is a version control system that is already installed and configured on most of the campus machines.  Once you create a repository (in your private AFS space), you can check out a copy of the code, modify it, and submit your changes.  The version control system keeps track of all changes made so you can roll back or access earlier versions.  It also helps you resolve conflicts if more than one person has modified the same file.  SVN has a significant learning curve, but if you take the time to figure it out, it can provide significant benefits in helping you keep your code synchronized and up-to-date.

• There is an excellent, free O'Reilly book about SVN that you can read online here. 
  
• TortoiseSVN is a windows SVN client. 
  
• Here is a tutorial for accessing SVN repositories over ssh.
  

Text editors

The cluster machines have vi and emacs / Xemacs, which are useful text editors that can be run on the cluster machines in a terminal or over a forwarded X11 session.  If you have your AFS directories mapped to a local drive letter, you can also used any locally installed editor.  Here are a few suggestions for Windows users:

• PSPad - code highlighting and tabbed interface for editing multiple files
• Xemacs - you can install a local copy which may run faster than the X11-over-ssh version
• Netbeans - (see below)

Java

All the project code development is done with Java.  In order to receive credit, your code and tests must compile and run on the games cluster machines (e.g. chess.lab.ece.cmu.local) as described in the simulation overview.  However, you may prefer to do some of your own development and testing on a local machine.  This may also be helpful if you are somewhere with a slow, unreliable, or nonexistent internet connection or if the cluster is temporarily unavailable.  Here are some links and tips to get you started.

• Java JDK - you can download the Java jdk from here (JDK 6 download).  Note that the latest version is JDK 1.6.  You can get the 1.5 release here (JDK 5 download).  If you use the 1.6 release, just be sure to test your code on the cluster before turning it in to make sure you have not used any classes or features that are not available in version 1.5.0_11.
  
• Netbeans - netbeans is a full featured and powerful Java IDE provided (for free) by Sun.  You can download a Netbeans installer that includes the Java JKD.  Links are here for (Netbeans + JDK 5) and (Netbeans + JDK 6).  Netbeans makes it easy to compile and run the simulator code.  It also has useful features such as code completion, on-the-fly syntax checking and refactoring tools.  Note that Netbeans is fairly memory intensive, so it may not run well on older machines.
  

Here is a short tutorial on how to get the project code into Netbeans:

1. Create a new project.  Choose "Java" from the categories and "Java Application" for the type and click Next.  Choose a location and uncheck the "create main class" option.
2. Navigate to the project directory and find the 'src' directory.  Copy the contents of the 'code' directory from the elevator simulator codebase into the 'src' folder (which should be empty if you created the project correctly).  After the copy, you should see the simulator classes appear in the project navigator in Netbeans.  You may need to expand the "src" folder to see them.
   
3. Right click on the project name in the navigator pane and select 'properties'.  Go to "Run" and set the main class to 'simulator.framework.Elevator'.  Note that you can also set command line arguments here, and specify the working directory (useful if you want to use a folder which contains your test files).  The default working directory is the project directory.

HTML / Webpage Editing

Image Editing Tools

• Dia - simple, free, cross-platform diagram editor
• Inkscape - free, cross-platform vector graphics editor
• Visio - MS windows only.  Not free, but available on the cluster machines.
  

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