Integrity Policy

Your work is expected to be your own or to be labeled with its source, whether book or human or web page. Discussion of all parts of the project is permitted and encouraged, including diagrams and flow charts. However, pseudocode writing together is discouraged because it's too close to writing the code together for anyone to be able to tell the difference.

Since the projects are interrelated, and double jeopardy is not our goal, we have a very liberal code use and reuse policy.

• In general, any resources that are accessed in producing your code should be documented within the code and in a README file that should be included in each submission of your project.

• First and foremost, use of code produced by anyone who is taking or has ever taken CMSC 420 from Dr. Hugue requires email from provider and user to be sent to Dr. Hugue. That means that any student who wants to share portions of an earlier part of the project with anyone must inform Dr. Hugue and receive approval for code sharing prior to releasing or receiving said code. This also applies to sharing code from another course with a friend. Please, please, ask.

• Second, since we recognize that the ability to modify code written by others is an essential skill for a computer scientist, and that no student should be forced to share code, we will make working versions of critical portions of the project available to all students once grading of each part is completed, or even before, when possible.

• Dr. Hugue is the sole arbiter of code use and reuse and reserves the right to fail any student who does not make a good faith effort on the project. Violators of the policies stated herein will be referred to the Honor Council.

Remember, it is better to ask and feel silly than not to ask and receive a complimentary F or XF.