CS 2500 Online Homework Submission


For the remainder of the semester we will be using online submission for the programming component of all assignments in this course. Instructions for using the homework server are below. We will leave these instructions accessible from the Assignments page for future reference.

Installing the Submission Plugin

Download the plugin to your computer. Use the "File">"Install .plt file..." menu option to install this file. (Or you can ask DrRacket to download the plt file directly from the URL.) Once it completes (it may take a bit) click close and restart DrRacket. If it installs correctly, you will have a CS 2500 Handin button above your definitions window.

Setting up your Account

Your username is your MyNEU account name (for example, Alfred E. Neumann's account is "a.neumann"). Use the "File">"Manage CS 2500 Handin Account" menu option and choose the "New User" tab to set your current account information. Enter your username, choose a password, etc. The "Last4ofID" field should be the last 4 digits of your NEU identity number, but the field is ignored, so it doesn't matter what you enter here. Then click "Add User".

If you notice any other information missing/mistaken feel free to update it and click "Change Info" to make corrections. Note: this information is just for bookkeeping, what really matters is your MyNEU user ID.

Note: the homework server only allows letters, numbers, and periods in user names. If your MyNEU user name contains other characters, just skip them when creating your homework server user name.

Submitting Homework

You will do a mock submission to the "test" assignment with your partner, to get a handle on the process. You can submit what ever you like... just make sure it's correctly formatted Scheme code.

To submit your homework, make sure it is open in the Definitions Window and saved to disk (just in case, for later assignments). Then click the "CS 2500 Handin" button. For pair submissions, enter both your and your partner's usernames joined by "+", as in baggins.f+gamgee.s . Enter either person's password.

Select the correct assignment name (test for testing) from the drop down list. When you are ready, click "CS 2500 Handin" within the popup window. Dr/Racket will report on whether your submission was successful, and might give you an error message. If submission fails, CAREFULLY READ the error message and correct your submission appropriately.

Note 1: You are encouraged to submit your assigments well before the deadline. You may re-submit as many times as you like up until the deadline. We will grade the latest before-deadline submission. It is up to you to make sure that you submit something before the deadline. Technically, the time that matters is the timestamp that the homework server applies once it receives your submission. I.e. it is not your watch or your computer's clock that matters but the clock on the homework server (which should be synchronized to global time). If you submit nothing and then wait until just a few minutes or seconds before the deadline then you are risking not only potential issues with your computer's connection to the homework server but also potential discrepencies between what time you think it is and the actual system time on the homework server. The fact that the homework server accepts your submission does not guarantee that it is on-time; it is only on-time if the server timestamp is before the deadline. You can check the server timestamp as described below.

Note 2: For each assignment, once you have made a submission with a partner you cannot later make a submission alone or with a different partner. Similarly, if you make a submission alone, you cannot later submit with a partner.

Note 3: DrRacket allows you to embed literal in-line images in your source code. Unfortunately, such literally embedded images are not currently accepted by the homework server (the grader will see only a simple placeholder). For this reason, please avoid using them. No assignment should require their use. If we ask you to write code to draw something, then use the available drawing commands. Or, if you are asked to just literally make a diagram as part of the answer to a non-coding question, then use "ASCII art" (i.e. dashes, the vertical bar symbol |, the plus symbol +, etc) to "draw" a picture in a comment block.

Checking Grades

Log in to this page using your handin server username and password. It will take you to a page listing all of the homeworks so far. For each homework it shows whether you handed it in, the server timestamp and a link to your latest submission, and your grade once we finish grading it. If you have any questions contact your friendly Instructor, especially if you notice some inconsistencies.

Your graded files will be annotated, highlighted, and posted on the server as soon as they are graded, so you can see what we took points off for.