CIS121 Spring 2013
Homework Policies

THE CIS121 NO-COLLABORATION-WHATSOEVER POLICY:

You ARE allowed to discuss "low-level" issues, eg., the meaning of Java constructs, how to use the com- puting envirionment. You ARE allowed to discuss "high-level" questions such as what the instructor/lab TA said or the content of the textbook or other general resources. You are NOT allowed to discuss issues directly pertaining to the homework questions or their solution. You are NOT allowed to see another student's homework solutions and you are NOT allowed to show your solutions to another student. This includes asking a classmate to debug your code and agreeing to debug a classmate's code. If you do this during office hours, know that the TAs are REQUIRED to report your names to the instructor. Of course, you CAN ask a TA or a Penn tutor to help you with debugging.

You are NOT allowed to share any code except the code that is being made available by us on the course website to be used specifically with your solutions. Occasionally, a SMALL snippet of code FROM THE TEXTBOOK may help your work. You can use such a snippet WITH ATTRIBUTION, i.e., provided you add a comment in which you make clear you copied it from the textbook. You can NOT use snippets of code from the Internet (e.g., StackOverflow.com and similar).

If you find a terminal on which somebody else has logged in and forgot to log out, you MUST loge them out without looking at their information. When somebody else is typing a password in front of you MUST look out the window, or at your shoes, or at the picture of Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie that you carry on you keychain.

You are NOT allowed to use any code downloaded from the Internet or sent to you by email, Facebook, text, Twitter, or even scribbled notes passed from hand to hand :). You are NOT allowed to share the material that we post for this course with anybody who is not a registered student in this course or a staff member. If you find any such material already posted somewhere else you MUST inform the course instructor immediately. Same if you are contacted by people who offer to solve your homework for money, or who knows what else. Use your common sense and ask any member of the staff if you are not sure about a resource you are considering.

Any violation of this policy will be dealt with severely.