cobalt-developers — Used by BOSS developers to discuss coding issues

[Cobalt-developers] Psies. Very few of these could be induced t

[Eagleson P. <pri...@be...>]

 faces she pulled whenever
Garcia turned his head away. "I was disgusted, and never spoke a word to
her all night. The next morning we had made up our packs, and had
already started, when we became aware that we had
a dozen horsemen on our heels. The braggart Andalusians, who had been
boasting they would murder every one who
came near them, cut a pitiful

figure at once. There was a general rout. _El Dancaire_, Garcia, a
good-looking fellow from Ecija, who was
called _El Remendado_, and Carmen herself, kept their wits about them.
The rest forsook the mules and took to the gorges, where the

[Cobalt-developers] E used in the soils around him. His ploughs were much in

[Chartrand <pu...@sa...>]

Eneral course of industry and commerce in the United States is briefly
told by Carroll D. Wright in "The Industrial Evolution of the United
States" (1907), by E. L. Bogart in "The 

[Cobalt-developers] in the hands of the enemy? Is it not time

[Sommese A. <no...@ge...>]

He was a perfect example to us, whether we are Locals or Itinerants,
and, perhaps, never more than when talking to the woman at the well of
Samaria. From His conduct there we may learn-- I.--Never be daunted by a
small congregation. It is very nice to have a crowd, but then that is
not the lot of us all, and we must not keep our best sermons for large
audiences. It may be that the few are able to appreciate our best
efforts. Jesus Christ said some of His best things to individuals. John
iii. 16 was not said to a crowd, but to one. Indeed, if we were to take
out of the gospels what Jesus said to small audiences, we should rob
them of their choicest portions. So, if, when we get to the chapel we
find that there are more pews than people, let us preach to those who
are there. Why grumble at the few who have come, perhaps a long way? Let
us feed these with the choicest of the wheat. It may be an historic time
for anything you know. There may be someone there whom your sermon may
lead to Jesus, and who himself may becom

[Cobalt-developers] First outlay. So many things will have to be d

[Bowler <dec...@sm...>]

Ill have so far advanced that the grouping advised by the landscape
architect will appeal to the occupant more than his own fancied
arrangement. Since the heating will be supplied from outside, there will
be a hothouse and cold-

[Cobalt-developers] r. Montagu has

[Breeze B. <hol...@fu...>]

Uting, performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on the
work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of
course, we hope that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission
of promoting free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project
Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for
keeping the Project 

[Cobalt-developers] _ in 189 B.C

[Mantanona S. <glo...@lh...>]

 important Italian states. Further, Cato wrote of Agriculture, to which
he was enthusiastically devoted. We still have his _De Re Rustica_, a
collection of maxims loosely strung together. He also composed works on
law; a sort of educational encyclopaedia for his son; and a collection
of witty sayings, [Greek: Apophthegmata], drawn from Greek as well as
from Roman sources. Plutarch seems to have known a collected edition of
the pungent and proverbial utterances for which the censor was famous,
and for which (not for any knowledge of philosophy[50]) he received the
title of _sapiens_ ('shrewd') which he bore at the end of his life. This
edition, however, was not compiled by Cato himself. In view of Cicero's
treatise, the Cato Maior, it is necessary to say something of Cato's
relations with the Greeks and Greek literature. The ancients give us
merely vague statements that he only began to learn Greek 'in his old
age.' The expression must be liberally interpreted if, as seems clear,
the whole of his writings showed the influence of Greek literature. It
is certain, however, that he thoroughly detested the Greek nation. This
hatred was shown in acts more than once. No doubt Cato was at least a
consenting party to the expulsion f

[Cobalt-developers] Apely, possible and clean? Or won't they do to 'd

[Grunberg <sto...@ev...>]

Rase, Although I made it up myself. But I and Blake, we really
constitute a pair, Each being rather like an artless woodland elf. And O
the stars! I cannot say I see a star just now, Not at this time of day;
But anyhow The stars are all my brothers; (This verse is shorter than
the others). O Constitution Hill! (This verse is shorter still). Ah!
London, London in the Spring! You are, you know you are, So full of
curious sights, Especially by nights. From gilded bar to gilded bar
Youth goes his giddy whirl, His heart fulfilled of Music-Hall, His arm
fulfilled of girl! I frankly call That last effect a perfect pearl! I
know it's Not given to many poets To frame so fair a thing As this of
mine, of Spring. Indeed, the world grows Lilliput All but A precious
few, the heirs of utter godlihead, Who wear the yellow flower of
blameless bodlihead! And they, with Laureates dead, look down On smaller
fry unworthy of the crown, Mere mushroom men, puff-balls that advertise
And bravely think to brush the skies. Great is advertisement with little
men! _Moi, qui vous parle, L- G-ll--nn-_, Have told them so; I ought to
know! 8. YET. (AFTER F. E. W.) Sing me a drawing-room song, darling!
Sing by the sunset's glow; Now while the shadows are long, darling; Now
while the lights are low; Something so chaste and so coy, darling!
Something that melts the chest; Milder than even Molloy, darling! Better
than Bingham's best. Sing me a drawing-room song, darling! Sing as you
sang of yore, Lisping of love that is strong, darling! Strong as a big
barn-door; Let the true knight be bold, darling! Let him arrive too
late; Stick in a bower of gold, darling! Stick in a golden gate. Sing me
a drawing-room song, darling! Bear on the angels' wings Children that
know no wrong, darling! Little cherubic things! Sing of their sunny
hair, darling! Get them to die in June; Wake, if you can, on the stair,
darling! Echoes of tiny shoon. Sing me a drawing-room song, darling! S

[Cobalt-developers] N manipulation, and upon that only. But the objection was ma

[Paladin <con...@te...>]

R inspection but for the other purposes of observation to which it has
been applied by the ingenious inventor. He has measured in all about
5000 adults, registering in a book the measurement of each, with the
names written by themselves. Among the autographs, we find that of Sir
David Wilkie in the neighbourhood of the names of half a dozen American
Indians. Here would be a new branch of inquiry for those who are
addicted to the study of character through the handwriting. With such
abundant materials before them, they would doubtless be able to
determine the height and general proportions of their unseen
correspondents. In the article of height, many men correspond to the
minutest portion of an inch; but in the other proportions of the figure,
it would seem that no two human beings are alike. So great is the
disparity in persons of the same height, that the trunk of an individual
of five feet and a half, is occasionally found to be as long as that of
a man of six feet. In fact, Mr Macdonald, in an early period of his
measurements, was so confounded by the difference in the proportions,
that he at once came to the conclusion, that our population is made up
of mixed tribes of mankind. In the midst of all this diversity, the
question was, What were the proper proportions? or, in other words, What
proportions constituted a handsome figure? and here our vestiarian
philosopher was for a long time at a loss. At length, however, he took
300 measurements, without selection, including the length of the trunk,
of the head and neck, and of 

[Cobalt-developers] our Lord, when he comes to reckon with us, ma

[Dubourg <ant...@to...>]

He character of the deacon, or subordinate minister's office, is
introduced in consequence of the complaints of the Hellenist Christians:
the number of the apostles is increased by the addition of Paul and
Barnabas, not appointed, as Matthias had been, by the other apostles
themselves, but by the prophets and teachers of the church of Antioch.
Again, the churches founded by St. Paul were each, at first, placed by
him under the government of several presbyters; but after his
imprisonment at Rome, finding that they were become greatly corrupted,
he sends out single persons, in two instances, with full powers to
remodel these churches, and with authority to correct the presbyters
themselves: yet it does not appear that these especial[7] visitors were
to alter permanently the earlier constitution of the churches; nor that
they were sent generally to all the churches which St. Paul had founded.
Indeed, it appears evident from the epistle of Clement, that the
original constitution of the church of Corinth still subsisted in his
time; the government was still vested not in one man, but in many[8].
Yet a few years later the government of a single man, as we see from
Ignatius, was become very general; and Ignatius, as is well known,
wishes to invest it with absolute power[9]. I believe that he acted
quite wisely according to the circumstances of the church at that
period; and that nothing less than a vigorous unity of government could
have struggled with the difficulties and dangers of that crisis. But no
man can doubt that the system which Ignatius so earnestly recommends was
very different from that which St. Paul had instituted fifty or sixty
years earlier. [Footnote 7: The command

[Cobalt-developers] Egan to reproach Jupiter for his carelessness.

[Betsill <sp...@wo...>]

 from the Tree; and there you were, all ready to receive us, in
immaculate evening dress." "It was pretty quick work," modestly admitted
the young man. "Could you recognise any one in that hurly-burly round
the Tree?" "We didn't till you rose, like a statue of Victory, and began
grabbing for the spoils from the heads and shoulders of your friends.
Who was your pedestal?" Mavering put his hand on his friend's broad
shoulder, and gave him a playful push. Boardman turned up his little
black eyes at him, with a funny gleam in them. "Poor Mr. Boardman!" said
Mrs. Pasmer. "It didn't hurt him a bit," said Mavering, pushing him. "He
liked it." "Of course he did," said Mrs. Pasmer, implying, in flattery
of Mavering, that Boardman might be glad of the distinction; and now
Boardman looked as if he were not. She began to get away in adding, "But
I wonder you don't kill each other." "Oh, we're not so easily killed,"
said Mavering. "And what a fairy scene it was at the spread!" said Mrs.
Pasmer, turning to Boardman. She had already talked its splendours over
with Mavering the same evening. "I thought we should never get out of
the Hall; but when we did get out of the window upon that tapestried
platform, and down on the tennis-ground, with Turkey rugs to hide the
bare sp

[Cobalt-developers] feasibleness

[Casal Dechart<ap...@cc...>]

Homosexuality in Greece - Not What oYu Would Tihnk.www.45meds. net

[Cobalt-developers] garrets

[Varvil<tra...@fs...>]

How to Satisfy a Womman in Bed - Parrt II.www.wood96 com

[Cobalt-developers] tantalizes

[Tomasino Bellar<pro...@sc...>]

Sesxual Positions Mistakes Yoou Are Making.www .ze44. com

[Cobalt-developers] Seduction Tips For Shy Men - Discover the sexy Seudction Secrets That Women Rreally Want

[Farrell<lu...@ab...>]

Seduction Tipps For Shy Men -- Discover the sexy Seduction Secrets That Women Really Want www. ca26. net. Joseph Stalin: Red, thhen Deaad

Re: [Cobalt-developers] Problem with BOSS while initial login

[<har...@tu...>]

Suyog-Bapat wrote:
> We have a problem while intial login. When we try to 'Get New 
> password' it is trying to mail to specified 'E-mail ID'. We don't have 
> direct access to SMTP server for sending mail. SMTP server can be accessed 
> through authentication only. So we are not able to proceed further.

There are a few potential solutions to your problem.

a) It is probably possible to modify the source code to allow
authentication information to be set in the configuration files and used
by the server.

b) The needed user accounts and passwords could be generated and
inserted into the database beforehand.

We have made quite a few extensions to Boss at the Tampere University of
Technology, but they are not yet integrated into the mainstream
distribution that is available at sourceforge.

Our solution to the user management is currently as follows:
- we use Boss from the university's unix server's and workstations
- user authentication is made so that the user logged in the unix can
access Boss without entering a password.
- We don't use the web interface currently, thus web interface currently
lacks most of the new features we have added
- We have added a command line interface in addition to the GUI
- User information is inserted automatically by an additional shell
  script calling the command line interface for adding user information
  when the user for the first time uses Boss.

The current version of our source code can be sent to you by request.
It's all under the GPL.

Yours,
Harri Järvi

[Cobalt-developers] Problem with BOSS while initial login

[Suyog-Bapat <su...@nc...>]

Hi,

We want to use BOSS online submission system for our organizational need. 
We successfully downloaded it from http://sourceforge.net/projects/cobalt 
and installed all components.

We have a problem while intial login. When we try to 'Get New 
password' it is trying to mail to specified 'E-mail ID'. We don't have 
direct access to SMTP server for sending mail. SMTP server can be accessed 
through authentication only. So we are not able to proceed further.

We are requesting you to send us a possible solution for this problem.

Thanking you,
Suyog N. Bapat

[Cobalt-developers] Boss student and staff server memory leak search

[Harri <har...@tu...>]

Hello,

For the past few weeks we've been struggling with OutOfMemory issues.=20
The student and the staff server will keep on allocating more and more=20
memory during use. This is especially noticeable when there are lots of=20
active users.

In the past we had managed by increasing the maximum heap size of the=20
JVM and restarting the servers once in a while. But as the load on the=20
servers has been increasing it has been problematic. The memory will run=20
out several times a week.

I tried writing a unix script to kill the JVM when OutOfMemoryError
is written out to the standard output of the server, but the server has
usually performed very badly for 5 to several tens of minutes before=20
the OutOfMemory message is written out.=20

Catching the OutOfMemoryError is not possibly as it will always happen=20
in a RMI-thread where you cannot set up your own exception handlers.

Then I tried studying if there is a problem with the garbage collection.
I tried the parallel garbage collection algorithm and logging the=20
verbose garbage collection stats to a log. It was evident from the=20
output that even full garbage collections didn't reduce the heap size=20
significantly. It was clear that memory was leaked or as is the case in=20
the Java world there was a severe reference retention somewhere.

Next I wanted to look at the heap dump. What objects take all the heap=20
space. Running HAT and jmap on Sun's JVM 1.5 showed the following:

$ jmap -histo $PID | head

Size    Count   Class description
-------------------------------------------------------
3013136 70866   char[]
2132744 17288   * ConstMethodKlass
2012336 21929   byte[]
1597872 66578   java.lang.String
1501184 11728   com.mysql.jdbc.Field
1165584 48566   java.util.HashMap$Entry

HAT let me browse where those Field-objects were referenced. They were=20
stored in com.mysql.jdbc.Connection.

I thought it could be a problem in the MySQL Connector/J
(MySQL's JDBC Driver) version 3.1.7 that I was using. I downloaded=20
version 5.0.4. While reading the CHANGES to see what was new, I=20
searched for the word memory and found out the following bit in 3.1.7=20
changes:

   - Added 'dontTrackOpenResources' option (default is false, to be
      JDBC compliant), which helps with memory use for non-well-behaved
      apps (i.e applications which don't close Statements when they
      should).

I already had version 3.1.7 installed so I just tried to apply that
option. The corresponding line in data/settings/cobalt.properties

database_url=3Djdbc:mysql://localhost/boss?user=3Dboss&password=3Dsecret&=
dontTrackOpenResources=3Dtrue

After restarting the servers the heap size has stayed below 90 MB for=20
both servers.

This is only a workaround. To be JDBC compliant, the database objects=20
used by Boss should be closed.

The problem was about using the database, so it is understandable that=20
this doesn't affect the slave server which doesn't access the database.

Yours,
Harri J=E4rvi

[Cobalt-developers] Changing the academic year in BOSS

[Harri <har...@tu...>]

Hello,

I hope this information will be useful.

We've had problems in changing the year_of_study from 2005-2006 to=20
2006-2007. There doesn't seem to be any clean mechanism for that.

The idea behind the year_of_study in BOSS is probably to have a=20
mechanism where past years' data could be archived so that it won't=20
interfere with new registrations, marks, changed assessments and mark=20
categories etc.

There are currently a few problems in this though.

- It's not easy to change year_of_study. this_year table in the database
  needs to be directly manipulated.

- There's no easy way to copy (delivered_)modules, assessments and mark=20
  categories (, markers, moderators and managers) from a previous year
  - This is usually what is wanted when the course and it's assignments
    have not changed dramatically and the old ones are good starting=20
    point for the new academic year.
  - It can be partly done by the sql statments further below

- After the year_of_study has been changed, the new class library in
  an assessment will overwrite the old one because it's name is always
  lib.zip.

There are too possible solutions to these problems:

1. The year_of_study or it's id is prefixed to each filename in the=20
   assessment's test file directory. The files will have names like=20
   2005-2006-lib.zip, 2005-2006-C91G28HPG7.nts etc.

2. The year_of_study is added to the directory hierarchy of test files.
   The hierarchy would look like:
   boss/data/tests/2005-2006/A/uds/cw1/p1/
   where A is the delivery and uds is the course name. cw1 and p1 are
   ids of assessment and problem.

Both solutions have their own advantages.

The first one keeps each course's data in one place (except when=20
deliveries are used), so they are easy to look at and find by an=20
administrator when working on the filesystem level.

The second solutions makes it easy to backup or get rid of a whole=20
academic year on a filesystem level without a need of a special tool.
The data in the database has to be backed up also of course.

The second solution would be in line with the decision to have delivery=20
in the early part of the hierarchy.

In both cases the backing up of an academic year could be accomplished=20
by a special written tool in BOSS that accesses both the database and
the filesystem parts of the data.

Also it should be made easier to copy modules, assessments and mark=20
categories between and inside an academic year.

There is a minor problem in both of the approaches
- In some example I've seen year_of_study has an example value of
  04/05 or similar, which has a slash in it, which is a common
  file path separator.
  - Slash shouldn't be allowed in year_of_study and if it appears
    in previous installations, it should be converted in the upgrade
    process by the administrator or an upgrade script run by the
    administrator.


As a side note, in BOSS it is currently not possible to look at any=20
data (including marks) from previous academic years or another delivery=20
without shutting down the server. Changing the contents of this_year=20
table and delivery table in the database and starting up again. Fixing=20
of this problem will need extensive planning and some big changes in=20
BOSS.

Also it is impossible to work with two deliveries that overlap in time.

Here are the sql statements can be used to copy all modules,=20
assessments, problems, managers, moderators and markers from
academic year 2005-2006 to 2006-2007 in the database.

Mark category files (*.nts) will be shared, so changes to the academic=20
year's mark categories will change the old ones as well. Solutions for=20
this is discussed above.

INSERT INTO year_of_study VALUES ('2006-2007','Lukuvuosi 2006-2007');

DELETE FROM this_year;

INSERT INTO this_year VALUES ('2006-2007');

INSERT INTO delivered_module SELECT=20
module_code,'2006-2007',delivery_code FROM delivered_module WHERE=20
year_of_study_code=3D'2005-2006';

INSERT INTO assessment SELECT=20
code,module_code,'2006-2007',delivery_code,name,maxmark,min_mark_assessme=
nt,start_date,deadline,end_date=20
FROM assessment WHERE year_of_study_code=3D'2005-2006';

%% Insert components in an order where base components are first, so=20
%% that the constraint on parent_component_code will not be violated
INSERT INTO component SELECT=20
code,assessment_code,module_code,'2006-2007',delivery_code,parent_compone=
nt_code,maxmark,min_pass_mark,attempts,description,should_compile,allow_s=
tudents_metrics,feedback,valid_exts,exts_strict,auto_feedback,auto_test_f=
eedback=20
FROM component WHERE year_of_study_code=3D'2005-2006' ORDER BY=20
parent_component_code ASC;

INSERT INTO mark_category SELECT=20
code,problem_code,assessment_code,module_code,'2006-2007',delivery_code,d=
escription,student_use,auto_use,maxmark,priority=20
FROM mark_category WHERE year_of_study_code=3D'2005-2006';

INSERT INTO submission_policy SELECT=20
assessment_code,module_code,'2006-2007',delivery_code,max_submits,restric=
t_students,allow_submission,penalty,cpu_time,file_size,time_limit,select_=
submission_always,min_mark_submission,min_mark_assessment=20
FROM submission_policy WHERE year_of_study_code=3D'2005-2006';

INSERT INTO manager SELECT=20
module_code,'2006-2007',delivery_code,staff_id FROM manager WHERE=20
year_of_study_code=3D'2005-2006';

INSERT INTO moderator SELECT=20
assessment_code,module_code,'2006-2007',delivery_code,staff_id FROM=20
moderator WHERE year_of_study_code=3D'2005-2006';

INSERT INTO marker SELECT=20
assessment_code,module_code,'2006-2007',delivery_code,marker_id FROM=20
marker WHERE year_of_study_code=3D'2005-2006';




There are currently no major problems with how student submissions are=20
handled. The submissions of student X in problem p1 are stored in the=20
same directory no matter what academic year it is. Each submission=20
file has a timestamp in it's name so clashes won't happen. By looking at=20
the timestamps (seconds after epoch) or filesystem modification times=20
one can deduce which submission belongs to which academic year. The same
information can be reliably found in the database of course.

It would be good for symmetry to make the same decision with the=20
submission files that will be made to the tests-directory. It will=20
have some of the same advantages as well.


Yours,
Harri J=E4rvi

Re: [Cobalt-developers] Multicomponent Frame, Root can't be modified

[Russell B. <rb...@dc...>]

On Wed, 14 Jun 2006, Harri J=E4rvi wrote:

> In our institution it was useful to modify the root because at first th=
e
> alternative components were accidentally made direct children to the
> Root and it wasn't possible to change the root from student has to
> submit to "all of the list" to "1 of the list".
>
> I modified the root by hand in the database and didn't seem to have any
> problems. Is there some reason why this is not allowed in the GUI that
> I don't see for some reason?

No, this will just be a user interface bug and needs to go on the list to=
=20
be fixed.  Sorry about that.


Russ

[Cobalt-developers] Multicomponent Frame, Root can't be modified

[Harri <har...@tu...>]

In our institution it was useful to modify the root because at first the
alternative components were accidentally made direct children to the
Root and it wasn't possible to change the root from student has to
submit to "all of the list" to "1 of the list".

I modified the root by hand in the database and didn't seem to have any 
problems. Is there some reason why this is not allowed in the GUI that
I don't see for some reason?

Yours,
Harri

[Cobalt-developers] BOSS Development, new features, improvements and bugfixes

[Harri <har...@tu...>]

During the past 12 months that we've been working with BOSS here at=20
Tampere University of Technology, the following improvements, features=20
and bugfixes have been developed.

We offer these updates to be committed to the latest revision of BOSS at=20
Warwick, so that they will be available to the public in next version=20
to be released, or accessible via public CVS access before the next relea=
se.

Bugfixes:

- In Submissions Frame
 - In Submissions frame the Advance-button works even when the rows are=20
   sorted
 - Running autotests for several submissions while the rows are=20
   sorted works
 - Running autotest updates the row to show "Autotested"
 - Penalise lateness for multiple students works correctly
 - View extension date in its own column, not in Date column

- In MarkingCategories
  - After visiting another Problem's Marking Category and creating=20
    a new Marking Category in another problem the Class Library actually
    reflects the current Problem

- In Marking Submission
  - Submission can be viewed in a source code viewer without downloading =
the
    files to local filesystem
  - The report from the tests run for the student's submission when they
    submitted is stored and can be viewed in Marking Submission.

- Getting and viewing the results of a multicomponent sums up the=20
  results correctly. Previously only the results from the last component
  were summed in.

- Submission
  - Allow submission after Finish if extended deadline has been assigned
    to a student.

Features and improvements:
- Allow negative weights for mark categories
  - a failed test can reduce from the final mark from the positive=20
    weight categories.

- In Submissions frame the rows can be sorted in ascending and=20
  descending order.

- Marking Categories can be ordered by setting a priority to each of=20
  them
  - Categories with priorities of 10 and under are considered special.
    If such a test fails, the whole test run will be aborted.
    - TODO: Probably the priority field in the database and the object=20
      shouldn't control both of these features. I would be a better idea
      to have to separate variables.
  - Marking Categories will appear in the priority order and the
    associated tests will be executed in the priority order

- In Assessment Frame
  - Reordered the check boxes in Assessment Frame so that "Allow Access
    to this Assessment" is above the other access controls.
  - Disabling "Allow Access to this Assessment" disables the other=20
    access controls.
  - Submission policy has a setting for maximum number of submission=20
    attempts allowed per student
  - It is possible to give extra submissions to a student
  - The Time limit set in Assessment Frame is used for the new test types
    - Currently the Simple Auto Test has a fixed 10 second time limit
  - A fallback time limit can be set in Assessment frame. The whole test =
run
    will be aborted if running all of the tests takes longer than that.
  - A low mark limit can be set, so that submissions with too low a
    score will not be accepted
  - A low mark limit for assessment queue can be set, so that submissions
    with too low a score will not be accepted to the assessment queue.
    Such submissions are still taken into account in submissino count and
    maximum submissions.

- In Problem Frame
  - A low mark limit for passing a problem can be set. If the student get=
s
    higher or equal mark, ** PASSED ** will be added to the feedback emai=
l.
    Otherwise ** FAILED ** will be added.

- In Tree Frame
  - Refreshing the Submissions frame no longer mess up the tree

- Automatic tests can award marks from 0 to 10 instead of just 0 and 10.

- A commandline tool for staff
  - Listing submissions to a problem
  - Listing marks from autotests
  - Downloading a submission

- Submission
  - A commandline interface for students for easy submission
  - BOSS can be configured so that whenever a student submits,
    the student-tests will be run, and the results will be shown to
    the student. In this mode the student can't execute the student
    tests more times than they are allowed to submit.

- A commandline interface to register a student to boss

- Added possibility to bypass username+password authentication
  - The authentication is based on the current unix user on a trusted
    shell server
  - Also possible to add new authentication methods by writing an
    authentication module

- Separated the different test types (JUnit, Simple Test,=20
  etc.) into separate classes.
  - There are corresponding classes inherited from
    - GenericAction, ActionPanel and TestAction for each test type

- Implemented new test types
  - Compile
    - Can be used to execute a compile command
    - Compiler and the parameters can be set
    - Can be used to execute other commands too. Maybe the name of the
      test and the class should be change to "Execute" or "Command"
  - Diff
    - The student's progarm is run with some input. The output from
      the student's program is compared to the expected output in a=20
      file saved in the Class Library.
    - The mark is determined by the percentage of correctness in the=20
      output
    - TODO: Specifying a certain piecewise linear scaling to the=20
      percentage to get the final mark should be made possible
  - Regex
    - The student's program is run with some input. The output is
      compared to a list of rules in a file saved in the Class Library.
    - The rules specify a regular expression to match and a number of
      points to be added or subtracted when matched in the output.
    - The points can be adjusted by a piecewise linear scaling.
    - The format of rules is same as in Ceilidh's oracle.
  - External Tool
    - An external program can be used to test some aspect of the=20
      student's submission.
    - BOSS will expect a line of the format "CAA-score: 10"
    - Other output with "CAA-" prefix is handled specially
    - External tools should be installed in a certain directory
    - TODO: Choosing the tool to use from a list would be nice
      - The list could be generated by reading through the files in the
        external tools directory, or by reading a list of tools file
        in that directory.
    - External Tool test makes it easy to add new test types to BOSS=20
      without needing to modify BOSS itself.
    - The same external tools could work in other CAA (Computer assisted=20
      assessment) systems, if they would understand the same output=20
      format and are expected to be executed in the same directory as
      the student's submission. In other cases it might be possible to
      adjust the tool to work with small changes.

- To allow smoother working and making it easier to provide help for stud=
ents
  regarding their submissions a moderator can look at a submission even b=
efore
  it has been marked

- Administrator can add and remove administrators

- While looking for junit.jar from the classpath, junit-X.Y.Z.jar will ma=
tch
  too.

- Displaying the cause exception in GUI helps understand the error messag=
e and
  the problem at hand better.

- Catch and report unexpected exceptions in test runs

- Listening to a fixed port in StudentServer, StaffServer and SlaveServer
  makes it easier to establish secure firewall rules


Other improvements:
- Fixed some typos in comments
- Removed unused obsoleted functions
- Cleaned up some code a bit
- Fixed some bugs


Yours,
Harri J=E4rvi

[Cobalt-developers] Unintentional hiding of member variables in Java

[Harri <har...@tu...>]

I have spotted some bugs or potential-to-be-bugs in BOSS
because of introducing local variables with the exact
same name as a member variable.

In some occasion the member variables were not at all used,
and instead local variables of the same name were used.
If some code were later added to the class that used
the member variables, it wouldn't work because they were
not updated by the original code.

In some cases no problems had yet to be experienced, but
future changes to the code would make the code easy to
break down.

In all of the cases it made the code hard to read and
understand.

I have tried to fix some of the occurances in our
development version at our university, but the problem
will not go away completely unless some consistent
variable name convention will be used in BOSS development.
It is the only straight forward way to deal with this
issue.

In all, I think it would make BOSS code much easier to
read if member variables had a naming convention that
would make them clearly visible in code. That way the
reader could easily see where the object itself is
being modified and where the member variables are
being referenced. [1] [2]

Currently both variable names and member variable names
are of form firstWordInLowerCase.

I would suggest one of the following naming convention
for member variable names:

slaveServerName_
m_slaveServerName
_slaveServerName

Yours,
Harri J=E4rvi

References:
[1] http://www.lrdev.com/lr/java/cdccglj.html
[2] http://www.beust.com/naming/

Re: [Cobalt-developers] autotested_mark table student_id too short

[Russell B. <bo...@dc...>]

On Thu, 20 Oct 2005, Harri J=E4rvi wrote:

> the  student_id field in autotested_mark table is currently set to 7 wh=
ereas
> every other table has VARCHAR(200) for it. 7 is not long enough for a s=
tudent
> id.
>
> student_id           CHAR(7)              NOT NULL,

Sorry, that's a mistake and should probably be VARCHAR(200).  At Warwick=20
our student ID numbers are *always* seven digits.  We've tried to remove=20
as much of the Warwick specific things like this as possible but we do=20
miss them sometimes!


Russ

[Cobalt-developers] autotested_mark table student_id too short

[Harri <har...@tu...>]

Hello,

the  student_id field in autotested_mark table is currently set to 7 wher=
eas
every other table has VARCHAR(200) for it. 7 is not long enough for a stu=
dent=20
id.

student_id           CHAR(7)              NOT NULL,

Also I have started to wonder why isn't there any unique id-fields used f=
or=20
the rows of the tables.

Yours,
Harri J=E4rvi

[Cobalt-developers] The ps command in ProcessKiller

[Harri <har...@tu...>]

Hi,

I figured out a ps-command that will work with other versions of ps
as well. I tested it on both ps of SunOS 5.8 and 5.9 (as reported by
uname) and GNU procps 3.2.1 and procps 3.1.15 on GNU/Linux.

It is probable that it will work on *BSD too.

The command is
  "/bin/ps -e -o pid,etime,user,args"
  instead of "/bin/ps x -eo '%p %t %U %a --sort user'=20

The -e should include everything "x" includes. The AIX codes have been
replaced with equivalent standard codes (POSIX) and the sorting is
removed since it is not implemented in bsd-like ps.

The sorting wasn't actually taken advantage of anyway.

This doesn't make ProcessKiller platform independent but will allow it
to work on many other Unix-like environments.

If you want to add SunOS as a supported platform for ProcessKiller, the
label returned by getProperty("os.name") is "SunOS".

I hope this will be useful.

Yours,
Harri J=E4rvi