Homework 7 Solution

This is an exercise in being able to read  and  make sense of someone else’s code, cleaning up and documenting  that  code, and writing up both  a guide for a user and a guide for a later programmer  who would need to modify the code.

You are to work in groups.  Groups will be assigned.

The  code as it is actually  does compile and  execute correctly.   I didn’t make any modifications to break  the code.  I did, however, remove most of the comments.

This code is the code I used for simulating wait times at the polling place. That  should give you some strong  indicators  for what  the code does, and I have not changed any of the variable names.  So this is genuine code. I have also uploaded  the 240 assignment from the summer that  was the simplified version of this code.

You might notice  that  there  is dead  code that  is never executed.   You could indicate  that.    You might also notice  that  there  are input  values or internal  values that  are never used.  You could indicate that.  This happens a lot with code that  is developed for a purpose, under a deadline, and then the developer moves on to something  else rather  than  taking  the time to clean things up after the fact.

The user guide should read as directions to a naive user who will use the code.  This should tell the user what  input  data  is needed, what  format  the input  needs to have, and so forth.  The user guide should also explain what the output is and how it could/should be used.

The  system  guide  should  read  as  directions  to  a  competent potential maintenance  programmer  who might  need to modify this  code six months or a year  from now after  everyone else on the  project  has  moved on to  a different job.  This  should be written  as high level documentation of what modules exist, what part  they play in the overall code, what input they need and output they produce, and such.  Reading the system guide, a competent programmer  should be able to sketch out what the big pieces of the program are, so that  she/he  will know better  how to make sense of the more detailed documentation you will write for each of those modules.

You  are  strongly  encouraged  to  keep  your  own personal  log of group meetings  and  communications.    This  will document your  participation  in your group in case there is any dispute  at the end.

You are to submit a group bundle of your work for this assignment.  This

 

 

 

 

 

can come from anyone in the group; I don’t need a separate  copy from each person in the group.  The code part  should come as would any of your pro- gramming  assignments.  The user and system guide can be a text  file, a doc file, or pdf.

You are also to submit  to me personally by email a summary  of how the group functioned, addressing the question of what your part  was, what other people did, how well the group functioned, whether all members contributed or not,  and  so forth.   If you wish, you can submit  your personal  log as an addendum,  but the primary document is your written  self evaluation  and the evaluation  of the other members of your group.

Everyone in the group will get the same grade for this assignment unless it is totally  clear from your individual self-evaluations that  one or more people in your group were total  deadbeats.  If I have to, I will look at the logs that are submitted in order to try to adjudicate  discrepancies or disputes.