Designed for use with GitHub Classroom, this repository contains the solution for Laboratory 3 in Computer Science 280. Since the Travis builds for this repository will initially fail (as evidenced by a red ✗ appearing in the commit logs instead of a green ✔), the programmer is responsible for completing all of the steps needed to satisfy the requirements for the assignment, thus causing a ✔ to instead appear in the commit logs.
This assignment requires a programmer to implement and test a Python 3 program,
called generator.py, that will generate a list of lists from an input list.
Currently, the main function in generator.py is not implemented. However,
before you start to implement this function, you should read the requirements
provided to you by your customer (as given in the previous laboratory
assignment) and study the existing test cases that the implementation should
ultimately pass. Along with adding additional test cases to establish a
confidence in the correctness of your system, your goal is to implement a
function that meets the specification and passes the existing test cases.
The programmer is also responsible for completely revising and adding many
sections of content to the file called README.md. This is a Markdown file
that must adhere to the standards described in the Markdown Syntax
Guide. Remember, you
can preview the contents of a comitted Markdown file by clicking on the name of
the file in your GitHub repository. Finally, don't forget that your README.md
file should adhere to the Markdown standards established by the Markdown
linting tool. Ultimately, the
goal of this assignment is for you to gain experience in using the GitHub flow
approach to collaboratively develop software.
If you have not done so already, please read all of the relevant GitHub Guides that explain how to use many of the features that GitHub provides. In particular, please make sure that you have read the following GitHub guides: Mastering Markdown, Hello World, and Documenting Your Projects on GitHub. Each of these guides will help you to understand how to use both GitHub and GitHub Classroom. Please see the laboratory assignment sheet for links to the other reading assignments about GitHub flow.
To do well on this assignment, you should review Chapters 1 and 2 of the SETP course textbook. Additionally, you should also read Chapter 3 of SETP, paying particularly close attention to content about project management and team work. Please see the course instructor if you have questions about any of these reading assignments.
The Python3 software that supports this assignment requires you to install the
pytest library by typing the command python3 -m pip install --user -r generator/requirements.txt from the root directory of your GitHub repository.
When you are in the generator directory of your GitHub repository, you can
type the command python3 generator.py --list 1 2 3 to run the program. The
correct version of this program would then produce the following output.
Generator generates a lists of lists from an input list!
Generating the List:
Length of Generated List: 4
Generated List:
1 2 3
2 1 3
3 2 1
1 3 2
However, when you run the provided version of the program, you should notice
that it does not produce the same output. This means that there is a defect in
this program and/or a misunderstanding of its specification! In fact, when you
run the test suite for the program with the command pytest tests in the
generator directory you should notice that the test suite fails.
For this assignment, you are invited to find and fix the defect in the program and/or its specification. If you would like to learn more about the Python 3 programming language, then you can download the free book called A Whirlwind Tour of Python. After learning more about Python 3 and reading the specification for this project that is given in the assignment sheet, you should ensure that your program produces the intended output in the terminal window. Next, you should ensure that the test suite for your program passes correctly. After the tests pass, you should add at least four more test cases that all successfully demonstrate that your program is working correctly.
Finally, you should edit the file, called README.md, in your GitHub
repository. This file should contain all of the sections that are described in
the main assignment sheet. Note that you will need to delete most of the
existing content in the README.md file to create the final content needed for
this submission. Don't forget that you should also apply linting tools to both
your Python source code and your Markdown-based writing.
If the course instructor updates the provided material for this assignment and you would like to receive these updates, then you can type this command in the main directory for this assignment:
git remote add download git@github.com:Allegheny-Computer-Science-280-F2017/cs280-F2017-lab3-starter.git
You should only need to type this command once; typing the command additional times may yield an error message but will not negatively influence the state of your repository. Now, you are ready to download the updates provided by the course instructor by typing:
git pull download master
This second command can be run whenever the course instructor needs to provide you with new source code for this assignment. However, please note that, if you have edited the files that the course instructor updated, running the previous command may lead to Git merge conflicts. If this happens, you may need to manually resolve them with the help of the course instructor.
This assignment uses Travis CI to automatically run the test suite for the program every time you commit to your GitHub repository. The checking will start as soon as you have accepted the assignment, thus creating your own private repository, and the course instructor enables Travis for it. If you are using Travis for the first time, you will need to authorize Travis CI to access the private repositories that you created on GitHub.
If you have found a problem with this assignment's provided source code, then you can go to the Computer Science 280 Lab 3 Starter repository and create an issue by clicking the "Issues" tab and then clicking the green "New Issue" button. To ensure that your issue is properly resolved, please provide as many details as is possible about the problem that you experienced. If you discover a problem with the laboratory assignment sheet, then please raise an issue in the cs280-F2017-lab-sheets repository and mention this assignment.
Students who find, and use the appropriate GitHub issue tracker to correctly document, a mistake in any aspect of this laboratory assignment will receive free laptop stickers and extra credit towards their grade for it.
If you are having trouble completing any part of this project, then please talk with the course instructor. Alternatively, you may ask questions in the Slack team for this course. Finally, you can schedule a meeting during the course instructor's office hours.