COS 371: Programming Languages

Spring 2022

Grading Guidelines for C Programming Assignments

Here are the guidelines that the graders will use in grading your C assignments. For each assignment, there will be a portion of the grade based on style points. There is a good C style guide linked from the course page. That said, here are some specific items graders will look for:

1. Your program must compile with no warnings.
2. Don't write Python, Java, or Scheme style in C; write C style in C. Look at the examples from readings and class to get a sense of what C should look like.
3. Indent well and use good style with braces. Again, look at examples.
4. Provide a comment at the top of each file indicating who the author(s) was/were.
5. Provide a comment at the top of each function describing briefly what it does.
6. Use header files appropriately.
7. Your code should be direct and minimal to get the job done. Don't use five variables and three loops when three variables and two loops will get the job done.
8. In general, defining "helper" functions is good if it contributes to making the code more readable.

To grade style, we will use the following scale. Note that this has nothing to do with whether or not the program is actually correct.

• 2 points: The program has good style, follows the above guidelines, and is something close to what I would expect to see in a reference source. There might be an occasional style glitch that we disagree with, but it doesn't stand out.
• 1 point: The program contains at least one considerable style error, or alternatively it contains a number of frequent style errors. Some elements of good style were nonetheless taken into account.
• 0 points: The program has considerable style errors. It may or may not work, but significant portions of it violate style conventions.