So ...... thoughs on the exam ?

Well, from my side I think I'll pass, but I'' scrape through and won't pass it with distinction.

Please, please, please tell me that the patterns we had to do were the composite and command pattern ... if this is not the case I am fairly screwed !!!!

I'm screwed ... Not even sure if I got my student number right

Ye that was tough ! took an hour for Questions 1 and 2 and thought time was going to run our.

The patterns afaik know were:


QDir question: Visitor pattern
Error display: Strategy pattern

Why so many UML Diagrams ? It doesn't really test knowledge on design patterns or advanced programming. That should stay with the UML course (INF2xx or something).

judging by the time of your post esckay, you eighther have an inet connection in the exam hall (lucky), or didn't have the time problem like me

was difficult, definitely much more difficult than last years exam

Relating to the patterns, i implemented:

QDir question: Visitor pattern
Error display: Command pattern

I thought the exam was reasonably fair - if you studied the right stuff which I didn't. I wrote a fair pile of absolute garbage and couldn't find enough to write for much more than two hours. They asked the patterns I hadn't really got the hang of. And I really don't have a clue how to do a UML diagram although I obviously gave it a stab.

I can't believe they asked about threads when we didn't cover it in the assignments (or did we and I missed something?).

I sacrificed this module in my revision schedule for COS301 for three reasons. One because COS301 is a core module and I have to pass it to get my degree. Two because I was hoping that the thousands of hours I spent on the assignments would pay dividends in the end. And three because my confidence was so low, there hardly seemed any point in spending too much time on it because I never thought I had a prayer anyway.

If I get 15% that will be alot.

Haven't decided whether I will repeat this next year or just write it off. It just takes too much time.

P.S. I know I used composite but I have already blotted out the rest of the paper as a very bad memory.

JoJ.

heh, I wrote:
1) visitor
2) abstract factory

I hated that knowing how to write regex gets you 2 marks while nasty old XML counted for 7 marks (excl knowing about SAX and DOM)

I hope I passed. That metaobject thingy I last looked at in June -_- so I wrote some pseudo Qt code.

Which brings me to "I'm such a cool coder. I don't need an IDE. I don't need notepad. Hell, I don't even need a computer! Just give me pencil and paper "

Man, my fingers got sore.

The question about "how to these 3 items ease heap memory management"
1) QObject
2) Qt containers
3) auto_ptr

was pretty brutal, unless if the 1 fact i could conjure for each one is worth 4 points.


The XML question seems to have had a trick. The QXmlSimpleParser will die when it reads the self-terminated element: <include src="blah"/>

to it won't print the last element during the startElement(): include.


Rick hit the nail on the head with his "...I don't even need a computer! Just give me pencil and paper" statement. it would make so much more sense to test us on actual computers .. with a keyboard

#$^%^&%$^& CRAP !!!!!!, then I totally misread the question !!!!

I did not interpret the question as being the visitor pattern, I interpreted it more along the line of how can the directory\file can be structured, since it mentioned the whole-part thingy . i.e. Composite.

Well, I still think it nicely falls into that pattern (if its not intended to split the visiting code from the processing code)

Question 8 was a blank to me ... I scribbled down some crap, but I don't expect any marks for it.

O well, in that case, I don't know if I'll pass this module .... so hopefully I wont see to many of you here next year !!!

This whole exam period is crap so far !! I wrote 2 exams and I don't have a good feeling about either ... and then I still have 2 to go .... both on the same day ... so I don't expect good feelings about them either.

CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP ....... $*^#(%* CRAP !!!!!!!!!!!!

"Rick hit the nail on the head with his "...I don't even need a computer! Just give me pencil and paper" statement. it would make so much more sense to test us on actual computers .. with a keyboard"

.... , wtih autocomplete, with intellisense, with all the other nice features .... such as the assistant. Developers use the documentation every day !!!!!!

Anyway, enough complaining and moaning .... cheers

What war begins August 1st?

Overall, paper was alright except I wasted my time covering things in last year's paper that weren't in this year's (around 16 marks worth). The file/directory question I interpreted as the composite pattern as a file system can be seen as a tree structure and if you ask any folder (composite) for its size, you will want the sizes of all files and folders within that structure and when asking something in the file system for its size, you don't want to have to differentiate between files and folders (the abstract getSize() method on component). I personally think that either solution (Visitor or Composite) should be considered an acceptable design as the question wasn't completely unambiguous. For the error display question is implemented the factory pattern in conjunction with strategy in the logger classes (base with abstract log() method and two descendants overriding and having different implementations). The only thing I royally messed up (read "left out" was the question on auto_ptr which I didn't even cover during revision.

That was my final exam for the year and second last year of my degree, one left and I'm outta here! (well, UNISA that is )

@stevenv: couldn't get a nicer pic.... Also, it's not even Arnie.

I opted for composite and serializer with monostate to persist preferences as settings.

I struggled with the paper, the threading was a real punch in the stomach. I didnt even write the full 3hours, was done in 2.

No ways I'm getting 75% for this paper, MAYBE a 60, IF i'm lucky.

Was a fair exam, I found.

I implemented:
File/Dir: composite
Error display: strategy (and abstract factory)

3 exams down!

Yo!, i think the paper was a lot simpler than i thought, and thats the problem. If you get a simple paper the examiners will be very strict on marking.

I implemented:
File/Dir: visitor
Error display: abstract factory and strategy.

that question on memory management had too many marks and i couldnt figure really what they wanted for all those marks.

Hope i passed. And the other thing i know Ms Linda Marshall the external examiner she is a very strict woman, many tuks cs students quit because she make it a point that getting a cs degree is not an easy ride, i hope she wont do the same for us.

Marvelous

There goes my chance for a supp! She'll definately not find anything markable in my answers.

a moderator just makes sure that the exam is up to standard. She won't be marking the paper. I have met Linda Marshall too. She is just old school competent, that's all.

I just remembered... there was a typo in question 2 (I think) regarding connecting the signal foundPrime() to the slot getCounter(). They meant to say the slot incrementCounter() :/

I can't even remember reading that, but luckily I did interpret is correctly .... unlike the first design pattern question ....

I have never met Linda Marshall, but just reading the responses on the forum already drops my confidence from a "maybe I'll pass" to a "O crap, I failed, I REALLY don't want to do this module again"

These comments just make me more depressed. Sometimes its not nice to talk about the post-exam...

For the design patterns I implemented the composite and factory + strategy patterns.
The memory management question was a rip-off. I actually only knew the auto_ptr - smart pointer (self-memory management). I wrote whatever I could for the other 2 on memory management.
I got the XML output wrong as well. I will say that it was kind of a fair paper, however, the some of the questions were not well worded.

For the question on threads all we had to do was derive from QThread and then implement the run method. In the main function just call start on the threads.

This was the only module left for completing my degree so I really hope that I passed. Counting my marks on a worst case scenario, I should pass or make a supp. A pass should be more like it though. Off the the park now to enjoy myself and try not ti think about my result for this module.

Good luck with the rest of the exams and lets hope we all pass

Oh yes... what was the output for that XML question?

Was it just the tag words in a list below one another? It seemed super simple to me, but maybe I got it wrong.

yeah, that cpp file include threw me. obviously there was no output of it as it didn't exist.

@Sanoz0r: that's also what I did, if I remember only the start element function was outputting any values and when it was, it was the tag names.

Nice...!

I wish we could find out which design patterns were the correct ones to use

You guys are depressing me - everytime someone makes a comment about a possible correct answer, I realize that my answer was incorrect. I just see points flying away everywhere.

@Stevenv and SanzOr: That was the correct output. I outputed the actual text between the tags. So yeah more marks lost for me too. I blame the guy sitting behind me. He was so sick and just coughed every minute. It was so frustrating and I could not concentrate. I know he can't help it but you should not write an exam when you are that sick. You are not only making it worse for yourself, you are also making it more difficult for other students since it was very distracting.

If I fail I'm blaming that guy. After the exam I sneezed and I knew I was sick. That's what you get when you write and exam.

We had a taxi driver outside who could communicate with his hooter. He had his own language. We wrote in a double story building. I wonder if that idiot knew he was pissing a thousand people off at a single stroke.

@Shauntir: I did the same thing.

E.g.

<tag1><tag2></tag2></tag1>

becomes:

tag1
tag2