Guidelines for assignments from your TA, David Ahn. --------------------------------------------------------------------- For programming assignments: You should hand in a writeup and email me code with explicit directions on how to get it running. Bear in mind that the primary platforms I work with are Mac OS X (which is BSD-like) and Linux, and that although I have access to NT, I am not nearly as familiar with it and would therefore require even more explicit instructions. I will grade you primarily on your writeup, so it should be clear and accurate. It should also be neat (preferrably printed and not handwritten) and stapled. Your writeup should descibe, in detail, both what the program does and how it does it, and if your program somehow fails to do everything that was required by the assignment, your writeup should make note of that. Also, you should include sample inputs and outputs as a part of your writeup. In those cases in which the assignment requires you to produce some number of encrypted texts to be handed back out to other students as cryptanalysis problems, use some common sense. The inputs used to produce the encrypted texts and the encrypted texts themselves should be a part of your writeup (they can serve as the sample inputs and outputs), and each encrypted text should ALSO be reproduced on its own sheet of paper. Thus, if you are asked to produce two encrypted texts from a key phrase, your writeup should include each plaintext, the key phrase used to encrypt the plaintext, and the resulting ciphertext. Each ciphertext should also be turned in on a separate sheet of paper. In running your program, I will be checking for functionality; I do not plan on making any attempts to break it (after all, this is a cryptology class, not a software engineering class). Nevertheless, you should warn me in your writeup of any anomalies that your program exhibits, since I reserve the right to deduct points if too many unexpected things happen in the course of checking it out. You are free to include a printout of your code as a part of your writeup but be aware that I will only look at it if either your writeup is insufficient (which would not be a good thing, considering that I am grading you primarily on your writeup) or if your program does not work as advertised (which is also not a good thing, since your writeup is supposed to be an accurate description of your program). Of course, if your writeup is insufficient, and your program fails to work properly, a printout of your code may be your only hope for any partial credit. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For cryptanalysis assignments: Even more so than for programming assignments, your writeup is the key document that I will be grading. Again, it should be clearly and accurately written, as well as neatly presented. In your writeup, you should describe the steps you went through to attempt to break the encrypted text in enough detail for me to reproduce them. You do not need to explain every substitution or unscrambling you tried (in fact, for clarity's sake, you probably shouldn't), but you should explain what you consider to be the important ones. Unlike for programming assignments, you do not need to email any code you produced or acquired in the course of trying to break the code (unless otherwise directed), but you should describe it, and if you didn't produce it yourself, attribute it, in your writeup. In addition to the writeup itself, you should hand in printouts of any code you used and all scratch work, including outputs of your interactions with any programs you ran. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For written assignments: Handwritten assignments are fine, but be neat and don't forget to staple. Also, although it is important that you demonstrate your understanding by giving the formulas you start with, you should also simplify your answers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- General: If you have any complaints about the grading of an assignment, present them to me in writing (email is fine) by the beginning of the next class period, and I will take another look at it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------