CS173: Intro to Computer Science - Problets and Epplets (3 Points)

Assignment Goals

The goals of this assignment are:
  1. To practice Java programming concepts using Problets and Epplets

The Assignment

In this exercise, you will use Problets to practice each programming concept we learn in class.

Installing Open Web Start

You can install this program from openwebstart.com, by clicking “Downloads” and selecting the appropriate installer for your operating system. Double click the program to install it once it downloads. This only needs to be done the first time you use Problets!

Run Problets and Epplets

To use Problets, right click and choose “Save As” (or “Save Link As” on some computers) to download this application. If you receive a warning from your browser, you can select the “Keep” option (or “Download Anyway”) to download the file.

Right click on the ursinus.jnlp file in your Downloads directory, and choose Open With. Select “OpenWebStart” from the list of applications (if it is a folder, click on it, and select “OpenWebStart” inside of that). Check the box that says “Always” to run this by default. This way, you can simply double click on the ursinus.jnlp file next time.

Once this is set to the default, you can double click on ursinus.jnlp in the future to run it. You will be prompted for your name and email address. Click on the appropriate exercise to complete the practice.

Mac Permissions Settings

If your program doesn’t open due to a permissions error, you click on your Settings icon (called “System Preferences”) in the system tray, and click “Settings and Privacy,” and the “General” tab. You’ll find an “Open Anyway” button on that page that you can click to run the program the first time. This article provides more information about that settings pane.

Additional Security Settings

Additionally, you can click Settings again, go to “Java” in the control panel, and the “Security” tab. Click “Add” to add a site to your exception list, and enter http://problets.org in the box that appears. You can click “OK” or “Continue” to any confirmation dialogs that appear. See this article for details.

If you don’t see a “Java” option under your System Preferences, you can install a different version of Java, called the Java Runtime Environment which should allow you to change this setting. Choose, download, and install the right one for your operating sytem (likely the Mac). If you see Java in your System Preferences above, there’s no need to do this, and you’re all set!

About Problets and Epplets

Problets and Epplets are self-paced exercises that generate problems for you to solve. It will guide you if you make a mistake, and generate more problems for you to solve until you become proficient. If a particular topic is easy for you, the system will only generate a few problems for that lesson (and that’s OK!).

With Problets, you will drag and drop using the mouse to work through various exercises. Using Epplets, you will be presented with code fragments or other information that you can drag and order (for example, placing code statements into the right order to form a program). These are intended to be fun, brief puzzles that reinforce your background reading assignments to help prepare you for class.

Submitting Your Work

When you are finished, you will be presented with a “thank you page” that includes a code that looks something like AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD. Write down this code. On the assignment submission page, you can type in or paste this code. This will allow me to see that you finished the exercise.

About Problets

Problets was developed by Prof. Amruth N. Kumar, Professor of Computer Science at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Partial support for problets was provided by the National Science Foundation under grants DUE-1502564, DUE-1432190, DUE-0817187, CNS-0426021, and DUE-0088864. Special thanks to Prof. Kumar and the National Science Foundation for supporting this valuable effort.

Submission

In your submission, please include answers to any questions asked on the assignment page in your README file. If you wrote code as part of this assignment, please describe your design, approach, and implementation in your README file as well. Finally, include answers to the following questions:
  • Describe what you did, how you did it, what challenges you encountered, and how you solved them.
  • Please answer any questions found throughout the narrative of this assignment.
  • If collaboration with a buddy was permitted, did you work with a buddy on this assignment? If so, who? If not, do you certify that this submission represents your own original work?
  • Please identify any and all portions of your submission that were not originally written by you (for example, code originally written by your buddy, or anything taken or adapted from a non-classroom resource). It is always OK to use your textbook and instructor notes; however, you are certifying that any portions not designated as coming from an outside person or source are your own original work.
  • Approximately how many hours it took you to finish this assignment (I will not judge you for this at all...I am simply using it to gauge if the assignments are too easy or hard)?
  • Your overall impression of the assignment. Did you love it, hate it, or were you neutral? One word answers are fine, but if you have any suggestions for the future let me know.
  • Using the grading specifications on this page, discuss briefly the grade you would give yourself and why. Discuss each item in the grading specification.
  • Any other concerns that you have. For instance, if you have a bug that you were unable to solve but you made progress, write that here. The more you articulate the problem the more partial credit you will receive (it is fine to leave this blank).

Please refer to the Style Guide for code quality examples and guidelines.