COMP572 -- Fall 2004
Project FAQ
This page maintains answers to questions asked by students
concerning the COMP572 project.
-
General Questions
- Q: Can I use tool XXXX (not available on
your machines) to build my GUI?
A: Yes, as long as there is some way that we can test your executable
code on either our Windows PC or Solaris machines. That is, you should
be able to send us working object code or set up a URL where we can test
your GUI on your own server. What wouldn't be allowable, though, is
implementing your code in such a way that it could only be run on your own
notebook that would have to be brought into our offices.
- Q: I did very poorly on Homework 1. Can I
make up for this by doing extra work on the project?
A: Yes. If you want to do this you should sign up as an
individual for project 2A, 3A or 4A but, when it comes time to hand in
the project, you should hand in as much of 2B, 3B or 4B that you can
do. A couple of comments.
- (i) I am permitting this because I was asked by a few students
who wanted to make up for poor performance but I do not recommend
doing this unless you received below a 65 on the first homework.. If
you received a 65 on the first homework but did well on the other two and
the project it is still possible to get a B+ in the class.
- (ii) Your class grade will depend only upon your
performance and not on that of the rest of the class. This means that if you
are currently doing well in the class you do not have to worry that some
other students will raise their grades by doing extra work on the project
and this will lower your grade. I mention this because
there is always some misunderstanding on this point by students who
incorrectly believe that the class is being marked on a "curve".
- Q: Does my code have to be robust to input, e.g.,
, does it have to check if the input data is in proper format, etc?
A: No. Your code may assume that input data is in the specified format.
It must run properly on correct data but its performance on unformatted
input doesn't matter.
- Q: How should I handle LPs with infeasible or
unbounded solutions?
A: You need to report these situations. this was missing from the
original specs but has now been added.
- Q: How should I handle LPs with redundant
constraints?
A: You do not need to explicitly report finding redundant
constraints but you should be aware that your program needs to implicitly
handle this case in Phase I by throwing away redundant constraints.
- Q: Should I worry about cycling?
A: Yes. It is highly recommended that you use Bland's anti-cycling
rule given in the slides (or any other anti-cycling rule that you might find).
In your documentation you should explicitly state which anti-cycling rule you
are using.
- Q: Are the variables to the problem constrained or
unconstrained?
A: This was omitted in the original specifications. The variables should
always be constrained. That is, you should assume that all
variables x_i satisfy x_i >=0.
This page was released on November 19, 2004 and last
revised on
11/24/2004 18:34 +0800
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