There are a few things I need to tell you:

1.      My office has moved.  I am now in room E221, the same room as the
        other instructors for the C courses.  This should help everyone,
        as co-ordination should be better and I will be easier to find.

2.      When the mid-term tests and marking are over I will have some
        additional time available to meet individually with you.  It will,
        for the time being, still be necessary to make an appointment because
        I still will not have the network facilities that I need readily
        available to me and I will be doing much of my work at home, dialled
        into Humber as necessary.  I will soon make some non-appointment
        time available too, that will be about an hour each day except
        Wednesday.  
        
        Anybody who scores less than 50% on the mid-term should book some 
        time to talk to me.

3.      I have been looking at the kind of mistakes some people have been
        making in trying to use the testing service or to submit their
        work to me.  The majority of the mistakes are carelessness in
        running the TESTIT program, which leads to a variety of errors
        from the testing service.  I have revised the TESTIT program to do
        a lot of checking during the submission to prevent some of the things
        from being submitted, for example:

        Wrongly typed course (leads to "not a client" message)
        Missing function name (leads to "unable to find prototype" message)
        Filenames with prefixed by drive and/or directory (various messages)

4.      The closing day for assignment #1 (word_count) is Tuesday, 17th March
        If you cannot submit word_count by that date I will assign an alternate
        to enable you to get a mark for assignment #1.  If you have done the
        work and have been unable to submit it me or have not received a reply
        of some kind then, please (just one more time) either:

                tell me when you sent it so that I can check what happened to i
                it, I have a copy of every mail message I have received but
                there are a lot of them and it takes a lot of time to track
                what happened to them all
                or,
                send it to me again, using TESTIT
                or,
                (best option) send it to the testing service using
                the new version of TESIT (best because it gives the fastest
                response)

        If you received test results from me or the testing service showing
        a message like ***PLEASE CHECK THAT CAREFULLY*** then you will receive
        less than full marks.  If you got real test results without such a
        message then you will score full marks (80% + documentation mark)

        If you sent stuff in to me and have not got a result then it has
        caused a problem of some kind, probably a loop, which has caused the
        testing service to hang or be killed for running too long.  However,
        the testing service responds in some way to most situations, loops
        are the only known problem ... but you are submitting work you
        have tested, so it should not be looping.

5.      With regard to the testing service, it is NOT necessary to use this
        to submit an assignment, but there are these reasons that I think you
        should:

                1. using a script-based testing product is a useful skill
                   that you might need in the future
                2. you should get a faster turn-around on your tests at
                   any time of the day or night, allowing you several tests
                   per assignment before the version you submit
                3. it saves me time (I get a copy of the tests you do, I take
                   the most recent one for marking)
                4. it should save you time, because if you have a problem you
                   do not need to send me the evidence, I already have it
                5. you get the benefit of my testing experience, I possibly
                   test more situations than you did when you tested

        Note that submitting a test to the testing service involves only
        typing five characters different in the email address you send to
        (tscrp instead of perry).  There is no other difference.  If you send
        your stuff to perry, I will, in due course, manipulate it then send 
        it to the testing service then re-direct the output.  Having set
        up the testing service I use it.  I will look at code only if it 
        causes problems with the testing service, or when I finally mark it.
        And this will be true of all assignments.

        The TESTIT.TMP file is a TEXT file, as is your source code.  You have
        to submit me a text file that I can read, and a file in the format
        of TESTIT.TMP makes it easier for me to deal with.  However, there
        is no difference in principle, whether you send TESTIT.TMP or your
        XXX.C file, they are both text when they leave you, and I MUST be
        able to read/process them when I recieve them.  If you have not yet
        managed to send me a readable file then, if you make an appointment
        in time for me to find an empty lab then I will sit down and show
        you how to send readable e-mail from either hcol or pegasus mail.  I
        cannot show you how to operate you ISP mail program.

        I have checked with other academic and administrative staff and
        the confirm my original assumtion that it is reasonable that I ask 
        you to submit your work via e-mail that is readable.  You have to 
        master this.  Again it is a skill you need to acquire to make a 
        living in this job-field.
        


        
