Friday, January 16: the final day, basically

Greetings, hard working code monkeys!

Today is the last day before the exam week. As such, I will list both the final requirements for your exam project, and I will list exactly where you stand for each item which needed to have been completed along the way.

Part the First: PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

A) You wil need to make use of at least seven of the ten blog postings in the construction of your project

B) Each instance of use must be fully commented in your code: that is, there must be a comment listing the date and a brief name of the posting, as well as the website address for that post, and a description of what this particular technique or code snippet does to make your program work

C) Your project needs to do something, and I need to be able to understand what that something is BEFORE I run it. You will understand my reluctance to "just run the program and see what it does" :-0

D) Your project needs to work. If I cannot get it to run, there will need to be points taken off for that.

E) Consideration will also be given as to just how original your program is. In other words, if you simply copy stuff we already did, that will not be as original as if you took the techcniques given and created something unlike anything done in the class.

F) Liikewise, I will be making some personal judgements on your programs; call it the Uncle Paulie coolness factor.

OK, those are the project requirements. Here is where you stand with the steps you were supposed to have taken thus far:

PROJECT NAME/DESCRIPTION/PROJECT STARTED
EVERYONE HAS DONE THIS

COMMENTS EMAILED
I have them from everyone except Josh and Ariel

BLOG POSTINGS THAT WILL HELP
I only have these from Callum, Jake, Tom and Dillon, Evan, Ryan N. and E.J. (sort of, hey Ejjjj, you forgot the URLS!)

UPLOADED THE PROJECT AT LEAST ONCE
I have this from everyone except James, Ariel and Joshua

Wednesday, January 14: two days left before the exam week!

Greetings, privateers of code!

I'll just get right to it: here is where you all stand today:

Start Project/Name and Description: Everyone has completed this part, hooray!

Project comments: these were supposed to be emailed to me as a separate document. I never received these from Ariel or Joshua, and only got the most minimal comments emailed by Dillon and Ryan C. I STILL need these comments emailed so do that straight away. And yes, of course, copy and paste them from your current exam project

Blog postings that will help: I only have these from Callum, Jake and Thomas, plus 5 out of 10 for Dillon. The rest of you need to get this DONE, ASAP. Either post them in our Google group, or email them to me.

Either way, they need to be included in the updated comments of your projects which you will upload today.

Additionally, I will need each of you to copy and paste the entire code of your current project, comments and all, and paste it into the body of an email. The subject line must include your name, the phrase "my exam code" and todays date, which is Wed, Jan 14

Let's do it, let's get it done!

Mr. L

Tuesday, January 13: Three days left!

Greetings, one and all,

The subject header says it all; or at least most of it. You have three days left to work on your final exam projects, not including the actual exam day. I will be issuing a final set of project specs by tomorrow; in the meantime, continue what you have been doing already, and upload your work to our account at Box.net BEFORE the end of the class

Cheers,
Mr. L

Friday January 9: as long as we have code, who cares about snow?

Howdy rowdy codies!
Ok, here's where stand on the exam project:

Project name and a description
Everyone except Ryan C. has posted or emailed a description. However, I'm still lacking a name from the following people:
Callum
Ariel
Joshua
Evan
Sean

Project comments
I have a good start on comments from the following:
Callum
Sean
Jake
Ryan N. (holy crap, the most commenting you've EVER done)
Tom

I also have some very minimal commenting from :
Dillon
Evan
E.J.

I HAVE NO COMMENTS ON FILE FOR ANY OF THE REST OF YOU

Blog postings that will help
I have ten blog postings received from Callum & Tom, and 2 from Dillon.

NONE from the rest of you.

This brings me to some new stuff:

When you make use of the blog postings to develop your program ( and you have to, I'm requiring it!), you will need to insert a comment in your code when you do so. The comment can be a one liner if that gets the job done, BUT, I will need to ask that you copy and paste the exact web address of the blog posting in question as part of that comment

This also holds true if you make use of resources you've found elsewhere on the 'Net. I am not requiring you to go out there and find stuff for this exam, but if you do, you'd better include a comment detailing what the code does and where you found the idea, ie, a website address.

Look, n00bz doing a term paper have to use footnotes. Same thing here, only WE AIN'T N00Bz!

Cheers, and happy coding
Mr. L

Thursday, January 8: you need to send me comments and blog postings!

Greetings, exam beaters! I am heartened to see that most of you have set up a new project, named it, and posted a brief description of what it is supposed to do. (I will be speaking with those few of you who have NOT done this yet.) However, very few of you have written any sort of comments for this program yet, and only one of you has told me which blog postings he is going to make use of for the purposes of this eam project. That needs to change. TODAY.

'nuff said!

Mr. L

PS There is much more to do on these exam projects after we get past this point.

Wed Jan. 7: keep on keepin' on!

Greetings, code monkeys!

Today, you will be continuing with what was begun yesterday. I have looked in both my email and in our Google group: most of you have a project description, and some of you have some (limited) project comments. The rest of you have given no proof that you've even begun, so I am assuming that you haven't. Here is the run down so far:

Project name and description:
So far everyone has posted a description of their exam project except Callum, Ryan C., Jake, and Ariel (and Joshua, yes, I know you were absent yesterday, please read yesterday's blog posting) This description needs to be posted in our Google group. HOWEVER, no one has told me the NAME of their project! Everyone needs to remedy that right way. As in NOW

Comments written and emailed
So far, I have only been emailed comments by Erik, Evan, Ryan N. and Thomas; and the only one whose comments wouldn't fit in a subject line for an email is Tom's. THIS IS AN EXAM REQUIREMENT. And now is definitely not the time to get cheap on me.

Blog postings that will help
So far, none of you has gotten this done yet. That needs to be remedied right way. Yes, that would mean NOW

OK, you have stuff to do, and lots of it. Let's do it, let's get it done!

Cheers,
Mr. L

Monday, January 5: Welcome back!

Greetings, noble VB programmers!

We are almost at the end of our sojourn through Visual Basic: two short school weeks, then we're at the exam period. By my count, we have only eight classes left until then, INCLUDING today. And then, th-th-th-that's all folks! we are D-O-N-E. So we have to make these remaining days count.

What I would like to begin with today is some basic exam prep. That may sound backwards, but think about it: exactly what kind of exam could we have in a class like this? How do you fit Visual Basic Programming into a multiple choice format? Shall we write an essay about our love for arrays, classes, modules and functions? Nahhhhh, I don't think so! Uncle Paulie don't play that way.

Don't misunderstand: there WILL be an exam, but at least part of it must be done beforehand. You've been working on projects all semester long, both your own, and "mini projects" I have assigned you to explore how various parts of this language work. Sooooooooooooo, at least some part of your exam will necessarily involve a "mini project" of your own design, that you work on BEFORE the actual exam week. (Hey, if we can't get first lunch, we should at least be the first people done with exams, right?)

So here is what we are going to begin with:

A) Come up with a name for your project and a two or three sentence description of what it will do, and how you anticipate that it will work. Post this in our Google group under a heading that includes your name and the phrase "exam project description"

B) Next, you will need to create a new project, name it as you said you would, and then, before you write so much as one line of code, THINK about what your program will need to work. What will it require in the way of arrays? Function calls? Modules? Timers? Loops? THINK, and then

WRITE YOUR COMMENTS FIRST DIRECTLY INSIDE THE CODE FOR YOUR PROJECT

after which, you will copy these comments into an email which you will send to me, said email having a Subject line that includes your name and the phrase "exam project comments"

I will not accept any exam project where this has not been done first, and no kidding, if you're slacking with this part, I will send it back to you, and tell you to re-work it until you get it right.

C) While you're writing these comments, you might want to think about all the lessons you've learned in this class thus far, and compile a list of the blog postings -- including the EXACT website address for that posting-- which you deem will be most helpful in creating your exam project. You will need to include at least ten of these in another email you will send to me; subject line should read "blog postings that will help" plus your name.

Once this is done, you are free to work on your personal projects, or get cracking on your exam project.

Cheers,
Mr. L