CSCI 316 - General Lisp Assignment Submission Instructions

Important Notes

• No Extension Policy: If mars fails to operate normally or becomes inaccessible at any time after 6 p.m. on the due date, the submission deadline will not be extended. Try to submit no later than noon on the due date, and much sooner if possible.

• Partnership Requirement: Each student must write up his or her solutions independently: No two students should submit identical files.

• Problems with File Copying: Do not do this assignment on your own PC or Mac unless you are confident you will be able to copy the file containing your solutions to mars! Problems with copying files to mars will not be regarded as legitimate reasons for late submission! Indeed, it is partly because students occasionally have such problems (e.g., because of forgotten passwords) that you are allowed as many as 3 late submissions this semester without penalty.

File Naming and Preparation

Put a file named your-last-name-N.lsp (where “your-last-name” is your last name in lowercase and N is the assignment number) that contains your solutions in the home directory of your xxxxx_yyyy316 account on mars.

Example: If your name is David Touretzky and you are submitting Assignment 5, your file must be named touretzky-5.lsp and you must enter submit_lisp_asn touretzky 5 at the toure_davi316@mars:~$ prompt.

Last names consisting of two or more words should be hyphenated (as in de-la-cruz).

File Requirements

The file must include:

• A .lsp extension (not .lisp or any other extension)
• Definitions of any helper functions that are used
• A comment at the beginning showing your name
• If working with one or two partners, the name(s) of your partner(s)
• Solutions in the same order as the problems
• Each solution preceded by a comment of the following form:

;;; Solution to Problem N

where N is the problem number.

If you cannot solve a problem, put a comment:

;;; No Solution to Problem N Submitted

File Validation

• Clisp must be able to LOAD the file your-last-name-N.lsp without error on mars. (If you have forgotten how LOAD is used in Clisp, re-read the “Working with Lisp Files” subsection on page 2 of the Assignment 2 document.)

• If LOAD gives a Break ...> prompt on mars, you can expect to receive no credit, even if the only error is a missing or extra parenthesis!

• Incorrectly named functions may receive no credit. For example:

  • If problem 5 is named MERGE-LIST instead of MERGE-LISTS, you may get no credit for that problem
  • If problem 3 is named INCLIST-2 or INC-LIST2 instead of INCLIST-2, you may get no credit for that problem

How to Submit

Step 1: Put your solution file your-last-name-N.lsp in the home directory of your xxxxx_yyyy316 account on mars.

Step 2: Enter the following command at the xxxxx_yyyy316@mars:~$ prompt:

submit_lisp_asn your-last-name N

where N is the assignment number.

Example: For Assignment 5, if your name is David Touretzky, enter:

submit_lisp_asn touretzky 5

Testing Your Submission

If the your-last-name-N.lsp file you are submitting was copied from your PC or Mac, before you enter the submit_lisp_asn command at the xxxxx_yyyy316@mars:~$ prompt, you should test your Lisp functions on mars as follows:

1. Start Clisp by entering cl at the xxxxx_yyyy316@mars:~$ prompt
2. Enter (load "your-last-name-N") at Clisp’s > prompt (where N is the assignment number)
3. Call your functions with test arguments

Verification of Successful Submission

The paragraph on p. 3 of the 1st-day-announcements document that begins with “If when I compute a student’s course grade …” explains how you can verify that you have successfully submitted this assignment!

How to check your submitted assignment for correctness

A convenient way to check your submitted assignment is to use the ckasn command on mars. This command brings up a Lisp prompt where you can verify your submission:

1. At the xxxxx_yyyy316@mars:~$ prompt, enter:

ckasn

1. At the resulting Lisp > prompt, invoke the quickcheck function with your last name and assignment number:

(quickcheck 'last_name assignment_number)

Example: If your name is David Touretzky and you want to check Assignment 5:

(quickcheck 'touretzky 5)

This will automatically check that your assignment was submitted correctly and provide feedback on any issues.

Copying Files from Your PC or Mac to mars

You will not be able to copy files from your PC or Mac to mars unless the PC / Mac is connected to the QC VPN or you are on campus and the PC / Mac is connected to the qwifi-secured wireless network.

Here is an example of how you can copy a file from your PC / Mac to mars (assuming the PC / Mac is connected to the QC VPN or the qwifi-secured wireless network):

If your mars username is toure_davi316, you can enter the following command in a PowerShell window on your PC or a Terminal window on your Mac to copy the file from your working directory:

scp your-last-name-N.lsp toure_davi316@mars.cs.qc.cuny.edu:

To open a PowerShell window on a PC: Type Win-r (hold down the Windows key and type r), then type powershell into the “Open:” textbox, and press Enter.

To open a Terminal window on a Mac: Type Cmd-Space (hold down the Command key ⌘ and press the spacebar), then type terminal into the “Spotlight Search” textbox, and press Enter.

Working Directory Notes

If the file you wish to copy to mars is in another directory (e.g., in ~/316lisp on your PC or Mac), use the cd command to change your working directory before entering the scp command:

cd ~/316lisp
scp your-last-name-N.lsp toure_davi316@mars.cs.qc.cuny.edu: