From ccf81142ed77f2ced37a89d9701334ca77578b3b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Teyras Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2015 00:34:06 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] added the Assignments chapter --- Assignments.md | 90 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 90 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Assignments.md diff --git a/Assignments.md b/Assignments.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..19b5824 --- /dev/null +++ b/Assignments.md @@ -0,0 +1,90 @@ +# Assignments + +Assignments are programming tasks that can be tested by a worker after a user +submits their solution. + +## Configuration format + +An assignment is described by a YAML file that contains information on how to +build, run and test it. The testing process is divided into stages. + +### Tests + + +### Stages + +A stage is a logical unit of the testing process. It specifies how to do a step +in the build process and how to test if it behaves correctly. The following is +contained in its configuration: + +- **Name** - a unique string identifier of the stage +- **Build command** (optional) - used to prepare the submitted files for this + test stage +- **Test list** - specifies the tests to be run during this stage +- **Test command** - used to run one specific test +- **Error policy** (optional) - what should we do when a test fails? + - **interrupt** the stage (default) + - **continue** with the next test + - **jump** to another stage (TODO cycle detection?) +- **Success policy** (optional) - what to do when all tests pass? + - **jump** to another stage (the next one by default) + - **end** the evaluation, even if there are still unprocessed stages + +## Case study + +We present some of the courses that might use ReCodEx to evaluate homework +assignments and outline the setup of the evaluation with respect to the concept +of stages. + +### Simple programming exercises + +For example introductory programming courses such as Programming I or +Programming in Java. + +In the simplest case we only need one stage that builds the program and passes +the test inputs to its standard input. We will use the C language for this +example. The build command is `gcc source.c`, the test command is `./a.out`. + +### Compiler principles + +This course uses multiple tools in a pipeline-like fashion - for example `flex` +and `bison`. + +We create a stage for each of the steps of this pipeline - we run flex and test +the output, then we run bison and do the same. + +### XML technologies + +In this course, students choose a topic they model using XML - for example a +library or a bulletin board. During the semester, they expand this project by +adding XSLT transformations, XQuery scripts, XPath queries, etc. These are +tested against fixed requirements (e.g. using some particular language +constructs). + +This course already has a rather sophisticated application for testing homework +assignments, so we only include it for demonstration purposes. + +Because every assignment focuses on a different technology, we would need a new +type of stage for each one. These stages would only run some checker programs +against the submitted sources (and possibly try to check their syntax etc.). + +### Non-procedural programming + +This course is different from other programming courses, because it only teaches +input/output manipulation by the end of the semester. In their assignments, +students are mostly required to write a function/predicate that behaves +according to a specification (e.g. appends an item at the end of a list). + +Due to this, we need to take the function submitted by a student and combine it +with a snippet of code that reads the standard input and calls the submitted +function. This could be achieved by setting the build command. + +### Operating systems + +The operating systems course requires students to work on a simple OS kernel +that is then run in a MIPS simulator called `msim`. There are various tests that +check if the student's implementation of core OS mechanisms is correct. These +tests are compiled into the kernel. + +Each of these tests could be represented by a stage that compiles the kernel +with the test and then runs it against different configurations of `msim`.