With a name as rare as Noack, only one name is needed. The one-name convention fits such practical things as stateside phone books and driver licenses. If you want to keep using both last names, a hyphenated format works, except that most people think it is your wife's last name, a disadvantage in the singles world.

Why is Noack wearing a necktie?

Different Noack. This picture was taken in 1886. It is actually my grandfather, who lived all his life in southern Denmark. The picture was digitized using an HP 4P Scanner and its associated software.

Normally, I require group projects in all software courses except ICOM 4015. The intent is to give you a chance to experience various aspects of working in industry while you can still make mistakes without career damage. Working in groups of three or four people allows you to learn about the techniques and problems of group organization and interaction.

Three in-class reports are required - Requirements and Definition, Design, and Implementation. These are short in-class reports, normally using overhead transparencies; and the primary intent is to allow you to see how your work compares with other groups and to share ideas about giving reports and handling the problems of projects. It also lets me see whether your group is functioning well or if it needs some redirection.

The happy hour is intended as a working review of your project, not a formal presentation. Thus it is conducted in the laboratory rather than a presentation room and in normal student/faculty attire. My normal procedure is to

• Read the report - I do this on the spot so I won't confuse your ideas with others.
• Have you demonstrate the program and try it myself.
• Examine parts of the code or other implementation details. During this process I may ask questions of either the developer or the tester.
• Examine how you verified that the product worked correctly and efficiently.
• Ask your rationale for your engineering decisions and how you might make a specific improvement. This often reveals your understanding of the project.

A happy hour is not intended as a harassment; it is a serious review of what you did, conducted it would be in a professional environment. It is definitely not a stress interview, and if you feel stressed by it, you should say something - I will definitely try to mellow the atmosphere. The time taken depends on the grade; A projects take longer because I am interested, C and below take longer so that you reach understanding of the problems with your product. The shortest happy hours are those resulting in B's.

For several reasons I give open book exams and make previous exams available. The open book exam fits the way software is actually done, relying on memory rather than using the documentation is a sure way to introduce errors and learn debugging techniques. In this context you should be learning capabilities and how to find the details when needed.

Also, memorization is the lowest level of learning; reasoning and application come higher on the intellectual scale.

Descriptions are a necessary part of programs; they help you to develop a good program and help me to grade it fairly. For this reason they normally are half the grade for the problem and are required before I will grade the other half. In various situations the question may call for any of these possibilities, in decreasing order of complexity:

• Complete program - This includes the global area, includes and all functions, including main.
• Function - The header and body must be included.
• Code segment with declarations - Only the variable declarations and necessary code for the specified task are required.
• Code segment without declarations - The variable declarations will usually be given; you get to write the code to accomplish the specified task.

Postscript files, such as those in the labs, exams, and admin directories can be viewed by clicking on them; they are displayed by the ghostview utility. This approach works only if you are on amadeus or some other server that likes ghostview, and the file has the extension .ps. So far there is not a similar convenience for troff files.

• Linking helper applications - troff/nroff and ghostview
• A foreground file for each course that points to the prontuario and course policies (grading, projects, programs, exams).
• More bookmarks to useful technical information sources