Assignment 2

Question #1

Write and document a Python script slice.py which takes as command-line arguments an input file consisting of n columns of integers, an output filename, and a string of the form x,y,z such that x, y, z > 0, and writes to the output file the slice of the input file consisting of columns {x + i such that i starts at 0 and increases by z until it equals or exceeds y. This script must produce the appropriate error message (see typescript-file below) when either the file cannot be read or the column-specification is invalid. Your script must work on datafile slice.dat to produce the output given in typescript-file slice.script.

Question #2

Consider the following tagged input file associated with a conference paper refereeing system: The file consists of a set of groups of tagged lines, each group describing a paper submitted to the conference and consisting of lines with the following line-initial three-character tags:
• AUT: Author information
• TLE: Paper title
• PDF: Name of paper PDF file
• RF1: Referee #1 integer code
• R1S: Referee #1 paper scores
• RF2: Referee #2 integer code
• R2S: Referee #2 paper scores

A referee's scores for a paper consist of 5 real-valued numbers of value between 1 and 5 followed by a one-letter referee confidence code (L(ow), M(edium), H(igh)). If a referee has not yet submitted scores for a paper, that referee's scores will be replaced by dashes ("-"). Write and document a Python script refstatus.py which takes as command-line arguments a tagged input file of the format described above, prints for each paper the author, title, and refereeing status information (i.e., complete (both referees done), incomplete (one referee not done), not started (neither referee done)), and prints final totals for each type of refereeing-status. This script must produce the appropriate error message (see typescript-file below) when the input file cannot be read. Your script must work on datafile refstatus.dat to produce the output given in typescript-file refstatus.script.

Hints

You may find the various example scripts in the course notes of use.

Submission

Please hand in printed copies of all of your Python script files. You must also submit these files electronically using the submit-assignment command. At the top of each script, please include a triple-quoted docstring with your name and student number, the name of this course and the assignment number, and a brief description of your program; also include brief comments throughout your program describing various code-blocks. You do not have to develop your code on our CS departmental systems. However, as your code will be compiled and tested on our CS departmental systems (which use Python Version 2.4) as part of the assignment marking process, you should ensure that your code compiles and runs correctly on at least one of these systems.

Additional Notes:

• Jan 17, 9:20am
  Assignment #2 posted.

Created: January 17, 2008
Last Modified: January 17, 2008