2023 1 You do NOT need conditional statements if statements or loops for this assignment except for | Assignment Collections

1. You do NOT need conditional statements (“if” statements) or loops for this assignment (except for the print() method, for which how “if” should be used has been given above). We will start covering conditional statements later next week or in week 5, and you won’t be penalized if you use them, but you would just be making things more complicated. (If you have done some programming before and are tempted to use a bunch of if-statements, make it a challenge for yourself write simpler code without them.)

a) If you need to find the smaller or larger of two, just use the methods Math.min() orMath.max(). As an example,

                       int x = Math.min(3, 4); // now x is 3

b) To round to the nearest integer, use Math.round() Note: one little “gotcha” withMath.round is that it returns a type of integer value called a long, so you generally have to “cast” it to convert to the int type to use it in your code. It would look like this:

int x = (int) Math.round(y);
c) You may want to use also Math.floor()to get the largest int that is less than or equal

to a given double value. It would look like this:

                           int x = (int) Math.floor(y);

2. Do not add any additional public methods. (You can add your own methods if you feel compelled to do so, but they must be declared private.) Do not create any additional Java classes.

The SpecChecker

You can find the SpecChecker online; see the Piazza Homework post for the link. Import and run the SpecChecker just as you practiced in Labs 1 and 2. It will run a number of functional tests and then bring up a dialog offering to create a zip file to submit. Remember that error messages will appear in the console output. There are many test cases so there may be an overwhelming number of error messages. Always start reading the errors at the top and make incremental corrections in the code to fix them. When you are happy with your results, click “Yes” at the dialog to create the zip file. See the document “SpecChecker HOWTO”, which can be found in the Piazza pinned messages.

More about grading

This is a “regular” assignment so we are going to read your code. Your score will be based partly (about a third) on the specchecker’s functional tests and partly on the grader’s assessment of the quality of your code. This means you can get partial credit even if you have errors, and it also means that even if you pass all the specchecker tests you can still lose points. Are you doing things in a simple and direct way that makes sense? Are you defining redundant instance variables? Some specific criteria that are important for this assignment are:

• Use instance variables only for the “permanent” state of the object, use local variables for temporary calculations within methods.

o You will lose points for having lots of unnecessary instance variables

o All instance variables should be private.
• Accessor methods should not modify instance variables.

See the “Style and documentation” section below for additional guidelines.

Style and documentation

Roughly 15% of the points will be for documentation and code style. Here are some general requirements and guidelines:

• Each class, method, constructor and instance variable, whether public or private, must have a meaningful and complete Javadoc comment. Class javadoc must include the@author tag, and method javadoc must include @param and @return tags as appropriate.
  o Try to state what each method does in your own words, but there is no rule against copying and pasting the descriptions from this document or from the posted javadoc.
  o Run the javadoc tool and see what your documentation looks like! You do not have to turn in the generated html, but at least it provides some satisfaction 🙂
• All variable names must be meaningful (i.e., named for the value they store).
• Your code should not be producing console output. You may add println statements
  when debugging, but you need to remove them before submitting the code.
• Use the defined constants PAGES_PER_CARTRIDGE, TRAY_CAPACITY,
       NEW_CARTRIDGE_INK_LEVEL. 
• Internal (//-style) comments are normally used inside of method bodies to explain howsomething works, while the Javadoc comments explain what a method does. (A good rule of thumb is: if you had to think for a few minutes to figure out how something works, you should probably include a comment explaining how it works.)
  o Internal comments always precede the code they describe and are indented to the same level. In a simple homework like this one, as long as your code is straightforward and you use meaningful variable names, your code will probably not need many internal comments.
• Use a consistent style for indentation and formatting.

o Note that you can set up Eclipse with the formatting style you prefer and then use Ctrl-Shift-F to

format your code. To play with the formatting preferences, go to Window->Preferences->Java- >Code Style->Formatter and click the New button to create your own “profile” for formatting.

If you have questions

For questions, please see the Piazza Q & A pages and click on the folder assignment1. If you don’t find your question answered, then create a new post with your question. Try to state the question or topic clearly in the title of your post, and attach the tag assignment1. But remember, do not post any source code for the classes that are to be turned in. It is fine to post source code for general Java examples that are not being turned in. (In the Piazza editor, use the button labeled “pre” to have Java code formatted the way you typed it.)

If you have a question that absolutely cannot be asked without showing part of your source code, make the post “private” so that only the instructors and TAs can see it. Be sure you have stated a specific question; vague requests of the form “read all my code and tell me what’s wrong with it” will generally be ignored.

Of course, the instructors and TAs are always available to help you. See the Office Hours section of the syllabus to find a time that is convenient for you. We do our best to answer every question carefully, short of actually writing your code for you, but it would be unfair for the staff to fully review your assignment in detail before it is turned in.

Any posts from the instructors on Piazza that are labeled “Official Clarification” are considered to be part of the spec, and you may lose points if you ignore them. Such posts will always be placed in the Announcements section of the course page in addition to the Q&A page. (We promise that no official clarifications will be posted within 24 hours of the due date.)

What to turn in

Note: You will need to complete the “Academic Dishonesty policy questionnaire,” found on the Homework page on Canvas, before the submission link will be visible to you.

Please submit, on Canvas, the zip file that is created by the SpecChecker. The file will be namedSUBMIT_THIS_hw1.zip. and it will be located in the directory you selected when you ran the SpecChecker. It should contain one directory, hw1, which in turn contains one file,WirelessPrinter.java. Please LOOK at the file you upload and make sure it is the right one!

Submit the zip file to Canvas using the Assignment 1 submission link and verify that your submission was successful. If you are not sure how to do this, see the document “Assignment Submission HOWTO” which can be found in the Piazza pinned messages.

We recommend that you submit the zip file as created by the specchecker. If necessary for some reason, you can create a zip file yourself. The zip file must contain the directory hw1, which in turn should contain the file WirelessPrinter.java. You can accomplish this by zipping up the src directory of your project. The file must be a zip file, so be sure you are using the Windows or Mac zip utility, and NOT a third-party installation of WinRAR, 7-zip, or Winzip.