We will direct you to the appropriate sections of the book so that you can prepare for class and strengthen your understanding of concepts and practical issues. However, this course is about “Advanced C Programming” (a verb), not “The C Language” (a noun). As such, the foundation of your learning will come from practice. If you are good at finding resources online, you may be able to get through the course without purchasing the textbook, depending on your learning style. No assignments will directly depend your having access to the textbook.

1. an ability to read and write C programs that use recursion
2. an ability to read and write C programs that use structures
3. an ability to read and write C programs that use dynamic data structures
4. an ability to read and write C programs that use files

These learning objectives form the backbone for the content in this course. However, they do not pose an additional requirement for passing. Grades are determined solely by the formula in the section below.

Relative to the total:

• Midterm #1 is worth 10%.
• Midterm #2 is worth 12½%.
• Final is worth 15%.
• Quizzes together are worth 12½%. The number of quizzes is not preset. As an example, if we had 6 quizzes during the semester, then each would be worth ≈2%.
• Homework is worth 50% all together. Like quizzes, the number of assignments might change slightly. As of this writing, we are planning for a total of 15 assignments, which would make each worth 3⅓%, on average, but weighted by difficulty.
• Each participation point (including the homework bug bounty) is worth 1% of "extra credit" (not part of the denominator), up to an unlikely maximum of 10%. Most will be in the low end.
• Each bonus point (from assignments) is worth 1% of "extra credit".

The exam score (E) is calculated as the weighted sum of exam 1 (20%), exam 2 (25%), exam 3 (30%), and the unweighted average of quizzes (25%).

Students are expected to be present for every meeting of the classes in which they are enrolled. Only the instructor can excuse a student from a course requirement or responsibility. When conflicts or absences can be anticipated, such as for many University sponsored activities and religious observations, the student should inform the instructor of the situation as far in advance as possible…For unanticipated or emergency absences when advance notification to an instructor is not possible, the student should contact the instructor as soon as possible by email, or by contacting the main office that offers the course. When the student is unable to make direct contact with the instructor and is unable to leave word with the instructor’s department because of circumstances beyond the student’s control, and in cases of bereavement, the student or the student’s representative should contact the Office of the Dean of Students.

Bring the course reference sheet with you to every class.

If you have questions of a personal nature that apply only to you, or require confidentiality, feel free to send email to the instructor, come to office hours, or schedule an appointment to speak at another time.

Always include “ECE 264” in the subject line, and send from your ▒▒▒@purdue.edu email address.

There will be approximately one programming assignment per week. To fetch the starter files (if any), you will run the command 264get hw05 (or likewise for the other assignments) from ecegrid.ecn.purdue.edu. To submit, you will type 264submit hw05 hw05.c (or likewise).

Late work. Deadlines are at 11:59:59 PM according to the clock on ecegrid.ecn.purdue.edu, unless otherwise announced. Due to the number of people taking the class, deadlines must be strictly enforced. Homework submitted up to 24 hours late will be subject to a penalty of 30% of the total possible points. 24-72 hours late will be subject to penalty of 50% of the total possible points. 72-120 hours late will be subject to a penalty of 70% of the total possible points.

Compiler warnings. Code that causes compiler warnings with compiled using gcc v7.1.0 (64-bit Linux) with the flags -g -std=c11 -Wall -Wshadow -Wvla -Werror -pedantic -DNDEBUG. on ecegrid will be subject to a penalty of 40% of the total possible points.

Memory errors. Code that contains memory problems reportable by Valgrind will be subject to a penalty of 40% of the total possible points.

Code quality. Code that violates the code quality guidelines may be penalized 2% of the possible points per rule violated (any number of times).

Automated testers. For some assignments, we may enable automated testing prior to submission, to give you some early warning if it seems that your own testing was inadequate. These do not take the place of your own testing, and will generally not show the full detail about what test failed. Also, they may not include every test that will be used to score submissions. We may add more later, if we discover flaws in some student submissions that were not covered by the tester. Your job is to meet the assignment specification.

You are encouraged to submit as often as you wish, even if your solution is incomplete. Submitting an incomplete solution increases the chance of receiving some points, in case you run into trouble later on. Also, every submission is backed up, so that we can help you in case of a disaster.

Partial credit. Where practical, partial credit will be given for submissions that meet the base requirements (below), and pass some but not all of our tests.

For new or revised homework assignments, there may be unintended issues (e.g., ambiguities, inconsistencies, typos, etc.). Therefore, we are asking for your help in identifying issues with new assignments early.

The first person to find an report a significant issue—i.e., ambiguity, inconsistency, impossibility, or typos that substantially obscures the meaning—in a homework assignment will receive 1 participation point. Exceptionally insightful discoveries might receive 2 points.

You must post a message to the Piazza forum with EXACTLY this subject (called “Summary” on Piazza):

HBB-HW##: description

Example:

HBB-HW01: Line numbers seem to be off

Homework bug bounty points will be counted at the end of the semester by searching for that subject prefix (“HBB-HW##:”), so be sure to use it exactly.

The instructor reserves the right to determine what constitutes “significant”, “first”, and ”exceptionally insightful”, and to limit the number of points per person per assignment. In other words, please don't spam the board with philosophizing about the meaning of words or silly stuff, but if you find something that might confuse your classmates, call it out.

All exams and quizzes are closed-book, unless otherwise announced.

References provided

An ASCII table will be provided, if any questions depend on knowing the numeric value of characters (e.g., 65 for 'A'). You should know '\0' (null terminator) without a reference.

You will not have access to the reference sheet or code quality standards during any exam or quiz, unless otherwise announced. Some questions may ask you to fill in the blanks in a GDB session (commands or output) or Valgrind output.

Rules

• Bring photo ID.
• Bathroom breaks are not allowed. Please go before the exam.
• Photographs or video recordings may be taken by course staff to document who was present.
• If you finish early and wish to leave, please be courteous and leave very quietly.
• The following items may be kept with you: pens, pencils, erasers (small, non-electronic), clear bottle of water with no label, analog watch (non-digital).
• The following items must be left ≥5 feet (1½ meters) from you or any student: bags, backpacks, purses, phone, laptop, smart watch, calculator, digital watch, any other student's exam.

Electronic devices

Cell phones must be turned off or placed in silent mode—not vibrate—in your bag ≥5 feet (1½ meters) from you or any student, or else left at home.

Using or looking at any electronic device during an exam may result in immediate ejection from the exam, even if there is no evidence that you were using it to cheat. This is because we cannot accurately determine what was on the device (or other item).

Summary

Motivation

The vast majority of students at Purdue do their work honestly and with integrity. The value of their grades and their ultimate degree is based on the expectation that earning a good grade always requires learning the material well, and demonstrating that in a way that can be measured (e.g., exams and assignments). Those who cheat are eroding that value, the reputation of Purdue, and ultimately the value of your diploma.

Cheating is unfair to those who do their work honestly, and even to the few who do not. It defeats the purpose of being a student at Purdue. It also defeats our dual purpose as instructors in this course: (1) to teach you advanced C programming, and (2) to ensure that a good grade in ECE 264 is a dependable indicator of true proficiency in advanced C programming. If students are able to cheat, we have failed at both of those goals. For all of these reasons, we have a very strict stance against cheating.

Definitions

For purposes of defining cheating for this course, the following definitions apply:

• “Copying” means reproducing any kind of data (including code, text, etc.) by any means (including copy-paste, copying files, hand-typing, etc.) from one source to another.
• “Trivial modifications” – include differences in whitespace, variable names, function order, constant values, or other changes that affect the appearance but not the function or intellectual content of the material.
• “Attribution” means explicitly acknowledging the source of copied content with a comment in exactly this format: /* Credit: <author>, <description>, <url_or_location> */.
• “Authorized sources” include:
  • ✔ code that you have written yourself
  • ✔ starter code for assignments retrieved using 264get
  • ✔ names of C standard library functions (e.g., printf(…)) and keywords (e.g., #include)
  • ✔ any other source explicitly allowed by your instructor (with attribution).
• “Unauthorized sources” include any of the following (unless explicitly allowed):
  • ✘ code from Stackoverflow, GitHub, Wikipedia, or any other web site
  • ✘ code from the textbook or any other book
  • ✘ test cases given in assignment descriptions
  • ✘ snippets provided by the instrucor (unless marked “OK to copy/adapt”)
  • ✘ any other source that is not an authorized source
• “Unauthorized aid” means any resource that provides information or functionality relevant to a quiz or exam that was not explicitly allowed by your instructor. Unauthorized aids include:
  • ✘ hidden note sheets (on a closed-book exam or quiz)
  • ✘ other students' papers
  • ✘ calculator
  • ✘ watch
  • ✘ any other resource not explicitly allowed
• “Cheating” includes doing—or attempting to do—any of the following:
  • ✘ Copying any amount of code from another students' code, the web, a book, or any other unauthorized source, even with trivial modifications. You may use code from the course reference sheet or code that you wrote yourself.
  • ✘ Allowing another student to copy your code
  • ✘ Using any resource on any quiz or exam that is not explicitly allowed
  • ✘ Using unauthorized means to access exam contents.
  • ✘ Using unauthorized means to alter or affect grades, submission timestamps, or submission contents, or anything else that might affect grades.

Copying code and then modifying it to make it appear different is still copying. Modifying the copied code (e.g., changing constant values, variable names, whitespace, etc.) is merely an attempt to hide the evidence of your copying—adding deception on top of plagiarism.

You must write your code from scratch using your brain and the letter and symbol keys on your keyboard. There should be no Ctrl-V (or Cmd-V or right-click anything) or email attachments at any point in the process.

Be careful not to reveal your code to others inadvertently. It is your responsibility to log out when you leave, and guard any printed copies of your work. If we discover two assignment submissions that are identical or very similar, both may be penalized.

Do not share your code on Github or anywhere else, during—or even after—the semester.

Do not copy code written by the instructor—even snippets from lecture or example test cases—unless it is part of the starter code or explicitly labelled as “OK to copy/adapt” (or similar). This provides freedom to discuss closely related problems in lecture or in the online discussion without spoiling the assignment. It also reinforces the principle that “your code” really does mean “your code” (i.e., written by you).

Never send your code by email.

Gray areas

✔ Discussing abstract ideas and high-level strategies about homework assignments using converation and diagrams (e.g., standing at a whiteboard) is allowed and encouraged.

✔ You may help a friend find a bug in their code, if you can do so with them in person on their screen and without editing their code, suggesting specific edits, or causing/enabling any semblance of “copying” (looking and typing, sending code by email, etc.). The best way to stay safe is to help them debug only after you have finished 100%, but that is up to you.

✔ Use your discretion to avoid defeating anyone's educational opportunity (i.e., spoiling their challenge). This should not involve code.

✔ Learning from code on the web or other sources is allowed, as long as you do not copy it by any means (including looking and typing it). Again, learning abstract ideas is allowed, though you should use good judgment to ensure that you learn how to solve programming problems.

✔ Very generic code snippets (e.g., #include <stdio.h>) and the names of library functions should not require any copying. You should know those from memory.

Penalties

Very minor instances (e.g., 1-3 lines of code from the web on a homework) will result in a score of zero for the affected assignment. All other instances will result in an "F" in the course, and a referral to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

Penalties are not the goal, but they are a necessary component of an incentive system to shape behavior. To reduce the need for penalties, we spend time talking about academic integrity in lecture and there are often reminders scattered in assignment descriptions.

The giver and the receiver are equally responsible. The offense is not one's inability to complete the assignment, but rather the erosion of ethical standards.

Penalties will be applied even on the first offense, regardless of how you were doing up to that point. If someone asks you to share your code, your response should be, “No.”

We actively search for evidence of plagiarism and other types of academic dishonesty using a variety of methods.

Penalties may be applied whenever we find evidence of academic dishonesty—even long after scores were posted.

If are unable to finish a homework, cheating will only make things worse. If you copy code—even just half of one assignment—you will fail this class.

There are no penalties for discussing ideas in words or drawing pictures together in a way that does not entail copying. (Use your discretion.)

How to report cheating

Please report any cheating you see or hear about, or requests to share your code. You may notify the instructor in person, by email, or anonymously (e.g., non-Purdue email address that does not identify you, note under door, etc.). In doing so, you will be improving the fairness for the entire class, while also teaching the individual(s) a valuable lesson.

Even if you do not wish to name an individual, we welcome any feedback you may have about how we can ensure fairness and integrity in this course.

Penalties are not the goal. This is about teaching ethical conduct and preserving the intellectual integrity of our academic environment here at Purdue, while preparing you for a career producing intellectual property for hire in a legal environment where any infringement can bring lawsuits and penalties for companies. Also, ethics is a mandatory part of the engineering curriculum, as required by ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology).

To minimize the need for penalties, we spend time in lecture and scatter reminders in assignments. However, enforcement is a necessary component of this effort.

Retraction

You may retract your submission of any homework without penalty by sending email to the instructor with subject line “retract HW▒▒ [264]” any time before the submission deadline.

Students who register late must do all of the same assignments. If you register after any assignment is due, or less than 2 days before the deadline, you may request an extension by providing proof of the late registration to the instructor. The extension is not automatic.

Purdue University is required to respond to the needs of the students with disabilities as outlined in both the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 through the provision of auxiliary aids and services that allow a student with a disability to fully access and participate in the programs, services, and activities at Purdue University.

If you have a disability that requires special academic accommodation, please make an appointment to speak with me during the first week of the semester in order to discuss any adjustments. It is important that we talk about this at the beginning of the semester. It is the student's responsibility to notify the Disability Resource Center of an impairment/condition that may require accommodations and/or classroom modifications.

Purdue University is committed to maintaining a community which recognizes and values the inherent worth and dignity of every person; fosters tolerance, sensitivity, understanding, and mutual respect among its members; and encourages each individual to strive to reach his or her own potential. In pursuit of its goal of academic excellence, the University seeks to develop and nurture diversity. The University believes that diversity among its many members strengthens the institution, stimulates creativity, promotes the exchange of ideas, and enriches campus life.

Purdue University prohibits discrimination against any member of the University community on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin or ancestry, genetic information, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, or status as a veteran. The University will conduct its programs, services and activities consistent with applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and orders and in conformance with the procedures and limitations as set forth in Executive Memorandum No. D-1, which provides specific contractual rights and remedies. Any student who believes they have been discriminated against may visit www.purdue.edu/report-hate to submit a complaint to the Office of Institutional Equity. Information may be reported anonymously.

Among the materials that may be protected by copyright law are the lectures, reference sheet, this web site, assignments, quizzes, exams, and other material presented in class or as part of the course. Always assume the materials presented by an instructor are protected by copyright unless the instructor has stated otherwise. Students enrolled in, and authorized visitors to, Purdue University courses are permitted to take notes, which they may use for individual/group study or for other non-commercial purposes reasonably arising from enrollment in the course during the semester in which the student was enrolled.

Notes taken in class are, however, generally considered to be “derivative works” of the instructor’s presentations and materials, and they are thus subject to the instructor’s copyright in such presentations and materials. No individual is permitted to sell or otherwise barter notes, either to other students or to any commercial concern, for a course without the express written permission of the course instructor. To obtain permission to sell or barter notes, the individual wishing to sell or barter the notes must be registered in the course or must be an approved visitor to the class. Course instructors may choose to grant or not grant such permission at their own discretion, and may require a review of the notes prior to their being sold or bartered. If they do grant such permission, they may revoke it at any time, if they so choose.

// Credit: A substantial portion of this policy document is derived from a template authored by the Purdue Center for Instructional Excellence.