EBoard 19: Software engineering basics (Section 1)
Please follow the standard start-of-class routine.
Warning! You are being recorded (and transcribed) (provided the technology
is working correctly).
Approximate overview
Administrative stuff
Introductory Notes
- I hope you had a good and healthy weekend.
- If you struggled on tracing, we could try doing a tracing quiz together
in my office. For many students, that seems to be the thing that gets
them through.
- It looks like few of you are reviewing the comments on your readings
and such. Please take a moment or two to check.
- I’m going to try an experiment today. Rather than going through all of
the administrative stuff, I’m going to trust you to read most of it on
your own. (Use Teams if you have questions.)
On mid-semester assessments / Getting help
- I entered mid-semester assessments over the weekend.
- If you have completed five or more LAs, I entered a mid-semester
assessment of S (“Solid Performance”)
- If you have only completed four LAs, I entered a mid-semester
assessment of M (“Marginal Performance”).
- If you have completed three or fewer LAs, I entered a mid-semester
assessment of R (“Risk of Failure”).
- If you received an M or R, I have also contacted you and entered an
Academic Alert. Please plan to meet with me this week or immediately
after break.
- I will be unavailable most of Thursday. Tuesday is my primary day for
office hours, but I found some times between classes on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday. Email me to claim them: Monday 1:30-2:30,
Tuesday, 8:00-10:00, Wednesday 1:30-2:30, and Thursday 9:00-11:00
If you feel like you are struggling, even if you have an M or S, you
might consider the following questions.
- Are you taking advantage of the mentor sessions and, if so, are those
helpful?
- Would it help to meet with me regularly to talk about topics?
- Would it be helpful to go over quizzes and labs with the evening tutors?
- Would it be helpful to meet with someone in Academic Success to consider
study skills?
- Would it be helpful to set up a study group for the class where you and
other students can meet to discuss questions?
- What else might help?
Upcoming work
- Due Tuesday, 2026-10-13
- Due Thursday, 2026-10-15
- On Friday, 2026-09-16
- NEW Quiz/LA on testing (one of today’s topics)
- NEW Quiz/LA on local bindings (Wednesday’s topic)
- Makeup Quiz/LA on collaboration (hopefully not)
- Makeup Quiz/LA on lists and list operations
- Makeup Quiz/LA on conditionals
- Makeup Quiz/LA on compose, cut, and section
- Makeup Quiz/LA on tracing
- Makeup Quiz/LA on decomposition (hopefully not)
- Makeup Quiz/LA on procedures (hopefully not)
- Due Tuesday, 2026-10-27
- Mini-project 2 redo
- Submit redo on Gradescope (forthcoming)
- When submitting a mini-project redo, please include a file
called
CHANGES.txt that describes what you’ve changed.
- Please add the following line to the top of your file.
(export ...).
- I’m working on an autograder for the redo, so the Gradescope
won’t be available until over the weekend.
Upcoming activities
Scholarly
- Tuesday, 13 October 2026, Noon–1:00 p.m., CS Commons.
CS Table
- Thursday, 15 October 2026, 11:00 a.m.–noon, JRC 101.
Scholars’ Convocation: Unknown Topic
Artistic/Cultural
- Any day. Visit the GCMOA for at least 30 minutes.
Multicultural
- Friday, 30 October 2026, 4:10–5:00 p.m., HSSC N1170
Middle of Everywhere (Somewhere)
Peer
Musical, theatric, sporting, academic, and similar events involving this
section’s students are welcome.
- Saturday, 24 October 2026, 1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m., Rosenbloom Field.
Football vs. Cornell College
Wellness
- Monday, 12 October 2026, 8:00–9:00 p.m., Prayer Garage in the CRSSJ.
Meditation Group
- Tuesday, 13 October 2026, 4:30–6:00 p.m., Bear P103.
Wellness Yoga
- Wednesday, 14 October 2026, 4:15–5:45 p.m., Undisclosed Location.
Forest Bathing
Misc
- Wednesday, 14 October 2026, 8:00–9:00 p.m., Science 3820.
Mentor Session
- Thursday, 15 October 2026, 8:00–9:00 p.m., Science 3820.
Mentor Session
Other good things
These do not earn tokens, but are worth your consideration.
- Tuesday, 13 October 2026, 4:00–6:00 p.m., Springer Field.
Women’s Soccer vs. UW La Crosse
- Friday, 16 October 2026, 6:00–8:00 p.m., RKO Natatorium.
Swimming and Diving vs. Augustana
- Saturday, 17 October 2026, 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m., Springer Field.
Men’s Soccer vs. Lawrence University
- Saturday, 17 October 2026, 1:30–3:30 p.m., Springer Field.
Women’s Soccer vs. Lawrence University
- Sunday, 18 October 2026, 2:00–4:00 p.m., Springer Field.
Men’s Soccer vs. Gustavas Adolphus College
Lab
Make sure the Scheme file has the semester in it (2026Fa). Reload if
it doesn’t.
Notes on palindromes
I would expect that you include the following tests
- An odd-length palindrome
- An even-length palindrome
- A non-palindrome (perhaps both even and odd lengths)
- A single-character strng
- An empty string
- Mixed upper and lower
When you hit the second dedup-adjacent, change the calls to
bad-dedup-adjacent to dedup-adjacent. Sorry about that!
If you finish, look at the online version of the lab for some “if you
have extra time” problems.