1. Your opinion ?
- Posted by Irv Mullins <irv at ELLIJAY.COM> Jan 15, 1999
- 474 views
I am working on a set of assignments for a programming class, and I would appreciate some feedback from you Euphorians. Here's one. Do you think it is stated clearly enough for a student to be able to write a successful program? Did I leave out any crucial info? Thanks, Irv Your client is a magazine publisher. She has a file of subscription info, formatted as follows, one record on each line, fixed length. 219434 08 1997 5 ...name, address, etc follows 493952 01 1999 1 482995 02 1998 2 938295 05 1995 1 etc. ^acct ^mo ^yr ^length where acct is the subscriber's account number, mo and yr are the month and year the subscription started, length is the number of years the subscriber paid for. The actual file is about 10 megs. in size. Your program will read the subscription file each month, and create two new files: 1. A list of subscribers which expire this month, or next month, so that the publisher can send a letter asking for a renewal. 2. A list of subscribers who should receive a magazine this month. The entire data line should be copied into the appropriate file. ---
2. Re: Your opinion ?
- Posted by Irv Mullins <irv at ELLIJAY.COM> Jan 27, 1999
- 450 views
On Fri, 15 Jan 1999 08:31:13 -0500, Irv Mullins <irv at ELLIJAY.COM> wrote: >I am working on a set of assignments for a programming class, and I would >appreciate some feedback from you Euphorians. >Here's one. -- Again I ask: -- Do you think it is stated clearly enough for a student to -- be able to write a successful program? Did I leave out any crucial -- info? >Thanks, >Irv > >Your client is a magazine publisher. She has a file of subscription info, >formatted as follows, one record on each line, fixed length. >219434 08 1997 5 ...name, address, etc follows >493952 01 1999 1 >482995 02 1998 2 >938295 05 1995 1 >etc. >^acct ^mo ^yr ^length >where acct is the subscriber's account number, >mo and yr are the month and year the subscription started, >length is the number of years the subscriber paid for. >The actual file is about 10 megs. in size. > >Your program will read the subscription file each month, >and create two new files: >1. A list of subscribers which expire this month, or next month, >so that the publisher can send a letter asking for a renewal. >2. A list of subscribers who should receive a magazine this month. >The entire data line should be copied into the appropriate file. > >---
3. Re: Your opinion ?
- Posted by Robert Pilkington <pilking at BELLATLANTIC.NET> Jan 27, 1999
- 446 views
>-- Again I ask: >-- Do you think it is stated clearly enough for a student to >-- be able to write a successful program? Did I leave out any crucial >-- info? Ok, so you didn't get any responses the first time.... >Your client is a magazine publisher. She has a file of subscription info, >formatted as follows, one record on each line, fixed length. >219434 08 1997 5 ...name, address, etc follows >493952 01 1999 1 >482995 02 1998 2 >938295 05 1995 1 >etc. >^acct ^mo ^yr ^length >where acct is the subscriber's account number, >mo and yr are the month and year the subscription started, >length is the number of years the subscriber paid for. >The actual file is about 10 megs. in size. > >Your program will read the subscription file each month, >and create two new files: >1. A list of subscribers which expire this month, or next month, >so that the publisher can send a letter asking for a renewal. >2. A list of subscribers who should receive a magazine this month. >The entire data line should be copied into the appropriate file. The only thing that would be confusing would be "What month is it now?". Without being told how to tell that, the coders will have to come up with their own ways. (Input prompt, seperate data file that holds the info, getting the current date from the computer, etc. The language wasn't specified, but in Eu it would be easy to get the date.
4. Re: Your opinion ?
- Posted by "Bown, John" <John.Bown at UK.ORIGIN-IT.COM> Jan 27, 1999
- 452 views
> >>-- Again I ask: >>-- Do you think it is stated clearly enough for a student to >>-- be able to write a successful program? Did I leave out any crucial >>-- info? >>Your program will read the subscription file each month, >>and create two new files: >>1. A list of subscribers which expire this month, or next month, >>so that the publisher can send a letter asking for a renewal. >>2. A list of subscribers who should receive a magazine this month. >>The entire data line should be copied into the appropriate file. > And the filenames will use what naming convention/format ? Should the program overwrite the existing output files each run or generate new ones each time.
5. Re: Your opinion ?
- Posted by Irv Mullins <irv at ELLIJAY.COM> Jan 27, 1999
- 463 views
>>Your program will read the subscription file each month, >>and create two new files: >>1. A list of subscribers which expire this month, or next month, >>so that the publisher can send a letter asking for a renewal. >>2. A list of subscribers who should receive a magazine this month. >>The entire data line should be copied into the appropriate file. > > >The only thing that would be confusing would be "What month is it now?". >Without being told how to tell that, the coders will have to come up with >their own ways. (Input prompt, seperate data file that holds the info, >getting the current date from the computer, etc. The language wasn't >specified, but in Eu it would be easy to get the date. Thanks, Robert. I asked because it's easy to leave out some things that seem "obvious" to me, but aren't to anyone else. I will add the specification: current month (as reported by the pc) For this I'd probably use Euphoria, or Pascal But the language shouldn't affect the difficulty of the assignment (Intercal excepted) Irv
6. Re: Your opinion ?
- Posted by Irv Mullins <irv at ELLIJAY.COM> Jan 27, 1999
- 462 views
On Wed, 27 Jan 1999 15:21:15 -0000, Bown, John <John.Bown at UK.ORIGIN-IT.COM> wrote: >>>Your program will read the subscription file each month, >>>and create two new files: >>>1. A list of subscribers which expire this month, or next month, >>>so that the publisher can send a letter asking for a renewal. >>>2. A list of subscribers who should receive a magazine this month. >>>The entire data line should be copied into the appropriate file. >> >And the filenames will use what naming convention/format ? Should the >program overwrite the existing output files each run or generate new >ones each time. Thanks, John. I should have specified the output format: same as the input file. As for naming conventions - that's part of the assignment. You get extra credit for asking these questions (more for answering them). Should prior month expiration files be archived? Is there any use for them? Should old versions of the second file (those who get a magazine) be saved? Is there any use for them? Is there any reason you should or shouldn't overwrite the existing (prior month's) files, based on the use as stated? Irv