Posted: September 13th, 2017

Software Development

Software Development

 

Introduction

This is the assignment brief for the 2013/14 coursework assessment for module EL2311. The assignment contributes up to 34% of the marks for this module. It contributes to assessment of the following module learning outcomes: • Develop appropriate solutions to technological problems • Describe and apply features of an objected-orientated programming language • E?ectively exploit the programming language and development environments • E?ectively apply software design and development principles

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University of Central Lancashire School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences EL2311 Coursework Assignment

2

Submission

Submission will be via Blackboard. A single zip archive will be submitted, containing a Visual Studio 2010 solution (source code and supporting ?les) and a checklist (see section 5.4). The deadline for submission is Friday 2 May 2014, at noon. Although submission will not be via the Turnitin plagiarism detection system, software will be used to support detection of plagiarism or collusion. The usual penalties will apply for late submission or cheating (see appendix B).

3

Feedback

Generic feedback will be made available on Friday 9 May 2014 after noon. Individual marks and feedback will be available via Blackboard by 23 May.

4

Marking

Marks will be allocated against the assignment learning outcomes according to the grade scale listed in appendix A. The grade scale covers a wide range of levels of achievement leading to marks ranging from above 80% to below 30%. It should be read cumulatively; that is, that higher-graded criteria imply also the achievement of lower-graded criteria. It should also be used to inform your submission: think honestly about the level of achievement you are demonstrating in your work, and how you might build on that to achieve the level above. The threshold mark for a pass is 40%. Some students may be asked to demonstrate their solutions, to suport evaluation of submissions.

 

Least-squares ?tting

In engineering applications we often have to ?t a mathematical model to data, often experimental data that are subject to measurement errors. This assignment is to do exactly that in one of the simplest cases – ?tting a straight line to a set of measurements that ought to lie on a straight line but that don’t quite do so because of measurement errors. This process is known as a least-squares ?t, because of the algorithm used. The mathematics behind a linear (straight line) least-squares ?t are quite simple and are well known and widely documented. They are summarised in a document: “An introduction to least-squares ?tting”, available on Blackboard. “An introduction. . . ” gives some simple examples and some references; in this assignment we shall concentrate on determining the best equation y = a + bx that ?ts a data set such as that given in ?gure 1. In other words, for a given data set we have to determine • Our best estimates of the parameters a (the “intercept”) and b (the “slope”). • The estimated uncertainty in intercept and slope. Least squares ?tting is very powerful and very interesting, and is something about which every engineer should know. Nonetheless, the purpose of this assignment is not to study the technique itself but to develop a useful software application implementing algorithms provided (as pseudocode) in “An introduction. . . ”

5.2

Example data and GUI application

Figure 1 shows some example data suitable for a straight-line ?t. These data are available on Blackboard (as ?le data.txt) to support your testing your application. Your application will have to read data from a ?le such as this. Note that the data come in x , y pairs, one to a line, separated by tab characters. Note also that the ?rst line contains Page 2 of 8

University of Central Lancashire School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences EL2311 Coursework Assignment
xi 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 yi -3.347808 -2.594193 -1.930295 -0.647211 0.315137 1.543327 1.370375 3.110938 3.05416 4.061771 4.627437 5.933753 6.281999 6.421473 7.175764 7.668333 9.165742 10.055097 9.839108 10.441661 12.195463 12.758102 12.897014 12.906194 14.205887 15.644408

Figure 1: Example least-squares-?t data set column headings, not data. This helps the human reader interpret the ?le; your software will also have to deal with it and you have the challenge of achieving that. Figure 2 is a screenshot of my model answer processing the data of ?gure 2. 1 Your program should behave similarly, although it is not necessary for it to mimic mine closely. Observe that there is a graphical user interface with a facility for entering the ?le name as a text string. Your program should also have a GUI, and must be capable of reading data from a ?le whose name is speci?ed by the user, not by the programmer. There are textual and graphical displays, showing the data from the ?le. Your program should also display the ?le contents as text and as a plot. The text display is – should be – easy; the plot will be trickier. There are controls for quitting the application (of course), and for doing the ?t. When the ?t is done, the graph is updated (slightly tricky) and parameter values and uncertainties are displayed (easier). Your program should also behave similarly. Of course, we have here a GUI class using Widgets from the SCAT graphics library. But there are also additional classes and functions behind the scenes, to make it easier to read and ?t the data. Your program should also use object-orientated techniques to achieve similar results.

5.3

Assignment requirements

Your brief is to develop an application program to analyse data such as those in ?gure 1. The application shall meet the following general requirements 1. Be written entirely in standard C++. 2. Be developed using Visual Studio 2010 and the SCAT toolset used in this module. (Any edition of Visual Studio 2010 is acceptable; the deliverable will be in the form of a Visual Studio 2010 solution, and assess1 I see that I have used a di?erent convention: m for slope and c for intercept. But it’s the same equation: y = m x + c .

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University of Central Lancashire School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences EL2311 Coursework Assignment

Figure 2: Example least-squares-?t GUI ment will include building and debugging using the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition on the UCLan corporate Windows 7 network.) A fully compliant application shall also meet the following speci?c requirements: 1. Have a graphical user interface, similar to that shown in ?gure 2. 2. Read the name of a text ?le containing data formatted (in x , y pairs) as in ?gure 1. 3. Read the data from the ?le. 4. Display the data as text. 5. Plot the data as points on a simple graph. 6. Determine and display the parameters of the best straight line ?t to the data in the ?le, using the algorithm provided in “An introduction. . . ”. 7. Determine and display the uncertainty in the least-squares ?t parameters, using the algorithm provided in “An introduction. . . ”. 8. Plot the best ?t line on the same axes as the data points.

5.4

Additional guidance

I expect that all students will meet all the general requirements and at least some of the speci?c requirements. Failure to meet all the speci?c requirements will not necessarily lead to mark below the pass mark for this assignment.

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University of Central Lancashire School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences EL2311 Coursework Assignment At the time of publishing this assignment we have already studied all the software development techniques required to construct my model answer, except for the plot. The plotting is the most challenging part, partly because the plotting capability of the libscat library is limited. Attempt it last. Probably, the most useful order in which you should approach this development activity is as follows: 1. GUI design 2. File IO 3. Data display (text) 4. Fit calculation 5. Fit display (text) 6. Data display (plot) 7. Fit display (plot) The checklist shown in Appendix C identi?es the things I shall be looking for in your submissions and is intended to help you check your progress and your achievement against the requirements. Please also submit a copy (in pdf, in your zip ?le); it will form a useful self-evaluation and will help me ?nd the evidence required to evaluate your work. My model answer has about 400 lines of source code (including white space and comments) in 7 ?les (*.cpp and *.h). A discussion forum for the assignment is available on Blackboard. Please ask questions there.

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University of Central Lancashire School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences EL2311 Coursework Assignment

A

Grade scale
Develop appropriate solutions to technological problems Correct and e?cient operation meeting all speci?ed requirements with robust error handling throughout, even in pathological cases. Describe and apply features of an objectorientated programming language E?ectively exploit the programming language and development environments E?ectively apply software design and development principles

Sophisticated application of object-orientated programming features as appropriate to the speci?c requirements.

Near-optimum selection of features from the programming language and supporting libraries. Comprehensive use of language and library features including some use of features beyond the examples demonstrated in class. Accomplished use of automatic code documentation.

Application of suitable standard algorithms, going beyond material explicitly covered in class.

80
Proper management of invariants and of system resources, especially memory. E?ective use of abstract and concrete classes, and of polymorphism.

80

70

Full and reliable implementation of speci?ed requirements, including an e?ective graphical user interface.

E?ective error handling, including the use of assertions and exceptions. Selection and application of suitable additional test sets. E?ective use of defensive programming principles to ensure reliability. Suitable choice and e?ective use of parameter passing paradigms. E?ective use of source code comments. Suitable partitioning of source code. Wellchosen function designs. Adequate use of source code comments. Proper use of postcondition checks where needed. Appropriate source code layout and naming. Correct function implementation.

70

60
stream IO

Reliable operation with no signicant errors in most or all use cases. Effective design of a user interface and of event handlers. Successful compilation without warnings. Correct execution of at least a baseline feature set.

E?ective design of classes, including at least one derived class, accounting for the principles of encapsulation and inheritance.

Comprehensive use of stream IO. Efective use of features from at least one non-standard library. Use of automatic code documentation.

60

Correct selection and use Correct use of standard of library classes and containers or other agobjects. gregate data structures. Successful stream and ?le IO, and successful selection and use of built in data types and operators and standard library functions

50

50

40

Successful compilation and execution in at least some use cases.

Valid creation and use of at least one class type.

40

30

Unsuccessful compilation or inability to execute without signi?cant errors No use or incorrect use of user-de?ned data occurring in most or all types. use cases. Failure to comprehend or address the learning outcome. Failure to comprehend or address the learning outcome.

Signi?cant errors in the use of features from the language, libraries or development environment. Failure to comprehend or address the learning outcome.

Little or no evidence of application of software design principles.

30
Failure to comprehend or address the learning outcome.

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University of Central Lancashire School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences EL2311 Coursework Assignment

B

Extracts from Academic Regulations

Also see http://www.uclan.ac.uk/aqasu/academic_regulations.php.

B.1
Academic regulations section G3 refers: The University operates a universal penalty scale for unauthorised late submission of any form of assessed work. Students who submit work within 5 working days after the published submission date without an authorised extension will obtain a maximum of [40%] for that element of assessment. All work submitted later than 5 days after the published submission date will be awarded a mark of 0% for that element of assessment. N.B. • “5 days” means ?ve days excluding weekdays, i.e. seven calendar days.

B.2

Unfair means to enhance performance
Unfair means includes all forms of cheating, plagiarism, collusion and re-presentation . . . All instances or allegations of the use of unfair means will be investigated . . . In the event of a single o?ence of cheating, plagiarism, collusion and re-presentation in an undergraduate or postgraduate assessment, the appropriate penalty will be 0% for that element of assessment, and an overall fail for the module . . . The plagiarised element of assessment must be resubmitted to the required standard. The mark for the module following resubmission will be restricted to [40%] . . . In the event of a repeat o?ence . . . on the same or any other module within the course, the appropriate penalty will be 0% for the module with no opportunity for re-assessment.

Academic regulations section G7 refers:

N.B. • When one student copies from another, with the other’s permission or even as a result of inadvertence on the part of the second student, both students are liable to be penalised for collusion. • “Re-presentation” (the hyphen is signi?cant) means submitting the same work, or substantially the same work, for more than one assessment.

 

University of Central Lancashire School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences EL2311 Coursework Assignment

C

Submission checklist
EL2311 2013/14 assignment checklist Student:

Complete this checklist and submit it with your assignment to: • Help you ensure that you have demonstrated the skills that the assignment is intended to assess • Help you identify the evidence needed to give you the credit you deserve Note: • • This is not a checklist for passing. You do not have to demonstrate all of these things to achieve a pass mark for this assignment. But model answers, achieving full marks, ought to demonstrate most or all of the skills identified here If you don’t know the meaning of any of the terms given in the left-hand column, you should refer to the module materials on Blackboard and to the recommended texts, especially Stroustrup’s “Programming Principles and Practice.” Where is the evidence? (File names, line numbers, etc.)

What have you demonstrated? C++ standard library features ? Containers ? File stream IO ? String stream IO ? Mathematics SCAT library features ? Graphics ? Widgets Procedural programming ? Function design ? Pass by reference ? Pass by constant reference Object-orientated programming ? Data type design ? Encapsulation ? Inheritance ? Resource management Event-driven programming ? GUI design ? Callback implementation Error handling ? Precondition checks ? Postcondition checks ? Invariants ? Throwing exceptions ? Catching exceptions Code partitioning ? File naming ? File location ? File contents ? File inclusion ? Include guards Code documentation ? Good program layout ? Effective naming ? Effective comments ? Doxygen-style comments
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