CMSC 435 Assignment Submission Policies

Assignment submission policy: Unless explicitly noted, all submitted assignments must conform to this policy. Exceptions will be noted on the assignment's web page. An in-class announcement will be made whenever this policy is changed. Exceptions to any of these policies may be granted by a TA or the professor on a case-by-case basis.

Document file formats: Product development commonly requires that we be able to manipulate a variety of file formats. We try to be pretty specific about what is needed in one or another assignment, but students might reasonably be expected to meet a derived format requirement. When in doubt, ask. Students should be prepared to manipulate at least PDF and Word files.

Languages: Source code must be submitted for any software developed or modified by you. Except as otherwise agreeed to at the time an assignment is made, projects which we can't build and run based on materials and directions you provide are projects not fully submitted, and they are graded accordingly. Decisions about choice of programming languages, platforms and tools are typically made based on what is needed to solve a problem, and thus made by team members as part of the assignment. We don't assign you a "Java programming task"; we give you a problem to figure out. It is not the client or professor's problem if you offer a program which we can't use; if we can't use it, then it does not solve the problem, and it is graded accordingly. Take responsibility for your successes accordingly.

Electronic submission: Unless stated otherwise on an assignment, all submissions will be electronic. Exceptions to this policy may include in-class quizzes, the final exam and assignment cover sheets (discussed below.) Since this practice includes signatures on your intellectual property statements, project agreements and integrity declarations, we will expect you to know and follow fairly standard procedures for digital signing, as will be discussed in class. It is up to you to pay attention to details in order to ensure your materials are in the right place; take responsibility for your successes accordingly.

Repository: Presently we support our class with a Subversion repository for teams to manage documents and programs, though occasionally we use other configuration management tools as the nature of a problem warrants. Access credentials to the repository will be issued accordingly, which you should safeguard and respect. Do not use the repository to store material not related to the course. There is no expectation of personal privacy for materials stored in our repository. Contact the professor before uploading anything proprietary (i.e. which isn't owned by or licensed to us) or confidential. Almost nothing you need to submit should be 'large' in volume, so if you find yourself tempted to (for example) upload an ISO or some framework which would be better if installed directly from a third party, then please stop and let's figure out what we are doing wrong. If it is not something you are actively programming, configuring or agreeing to manage, then the repository is not the place for it. This is not a plain "file sharing" system, it is an active configuration management tool. One of your goals for the class is to learn what is the difference. Ultimately, we would like not to fill the repository with useless junk that will stay there consuming space that I pay for to the end of time.

Time of submission: Assignments submitted electronically must be submitted before whatever deadline is posted with the assignment notice. The time used will be the timestamp at the repository. Any later commits probably won't be noticed (since we pull the materials as of the deadline), and in some cases late commits won't be possible (since we close the repo.) Even when we notice later commits, what is graded will be the last version of the materials as submitted before the deadline.

Cover sheet: A 'cover sheet" must be submitted for any group assignment (performed in the 4-person-groups or the large class project groups.) In some assignments, a physical cover sheet must be submitted even if the assignment was submitted electronically. The purpose of the cover sheet is to certify that all students actually contributed to the work, and that nothing would legally encumber us from using the software. No assignment will be graded until the assignment's cover sheet has been submitted. No credit will be given to students that did not sign the cover sheet. The cover sheet template and example intellectual property agreements used by the class are provided on the course web site for your early consideration. Teams may have the option of not using digital signatures in assignments where this is ordinarily encouraged; in this case, a printed form bearing original signatures may be submitted prior to the posted assginment due date.