Subject: Requests for assistance on non-codelab assignments

(This message is being sent to all CPSC 360 students)

Requests for clarification and/or assistance on programming
assignments are welcomed and will be responded to generally
7 days per week in the hours 9 am - 9pm.

I will try to identify the problem to you and help
YOU identify the solution. I will typically run your
broken program with gdb and then send you the output of
me running gdb which will tell you where and how the
program broke. It only takes me a couple of minutes to
do that,  but it may take me a couple of hours or 12 hours
(depending on the time of day) to get back to you.

It should be clear that you can expedite your own
problem resolution by learning to use gdb yourself
and only asking me when you can see what gdb is telling
you --- And at first I DO understand its sometimes hard
to see what gdb is telling you --- But one thing is
for sure if you DON'T try you'll NEVER understand!

To expedite this problem resolution system please
follow these guidelines:

(1) DON'T send me code snippets
(2) DO email  me a .tar file containing ALL
    components (.c  .h files)  that you
    are working with. For now include SMALL
    input images.
(3) To create said tar file you should use a
    separate directory for each assignment!
(4) cd to the directory containing your assignment
(5) tar cvf ../me.tar *
(6) that will create a me.tar file in the PARENT
    directory of your assignment diretory
(7) send me your me.tar as an attachment ALONG WITH
    a text description of the symptoms of the problem
    and any insights you might have regarding where
    it is a occuring.
(8) If you do tar cvf *, you WILL DESTROY the first
    file in alphabetical order in your directory.
(9) Do NOT confuse unix tar with Window$ rar or zip.
    I can't decode any of those!!

WHEN to ask for help.

(1) if you are stuck after 30 seconds of working
on a problem THINK HARDER.
(2) if still stuck after 15 minutes you might
not be thinking hard enough -- turn off the TV
or the ipod and THINK HARDER.
(3) if you are still stuck after 30 minutes of
thinking as HARD AS YOU POSSIBLY can, ASK ME.


Last year in 101 a fellow who had been doing OK in the course,
said he got "stuck" for apparently eight or more days on mp1.  When
he finally sent me his .tar file we were able to get him unstuck
in about 1 hour's time.  During his eight day stuck session he said he
"experienced increasing frustration" finally characterized as
"agony" by the time he finally sent me the tar ball.  Why go
through that????


jmw