COMP3311 Notices

Notices

  • Assignment Marks Queries

    Posted by John Shepherd Saturday 07 December 2019, 04:22:04 PM.

    Send all assignment mark queries to the cs3311@cse.unsw.edu.au mailing list.

    Don't post them on the Forum. We've stopped reading the Forum while we mark exams.

    We will try to "fix" all assignment marks by Dec 16, when they will be merged with final exam marks and quiz marks to give an overall mark for the course.

    If there's still something wrong after marks are released (on Dec 20?), the mark can be updated.

  • Assignment 3 Marks

    Posted by Hayden 🎉 Friday 06 December 2019, 04:41:19 PM.

    Hi everyone,

    Assignment 3 marks have been released, and you can collect your submissions via webcms/give collect.

    Please note that on the collection it will say your result is out of "13.5", but that's a typo. All results are out of 13. So 13/13.5 on the collection will be full marks.

  • Exam Stuff

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 02 December 2019, 08:04:35 AM, last modified Monday 02 December 2019, 05:53:19 PM.

    To save you some reading time tomorrow, I've made the database for the exam available. You would do well to have (at least) a quick explore of the schema/data before the exam. Update : I've tweaked the database a little to fix some anomalies pointed out on the Forum. If you want a more "accurate" version, you might want to grab it again.

    I've also decided to use Firefox as the browser, after seeing some deficiencies in Midori (during the making of the exam environment video). I'm assuming that you're all more familiar with Firefox than Midori, so this should be an improvement.

    The final Cheat Sheets ( Psycopg2 and Python/SQLite ) are now available.In response to a request, I'll add a brief Python language Cheat Sheet tonight.

    Good luck. Get a good night's sleep. Allow plenty of time to get to Uni.

  • Assignment 3 Q1-7

    Posted by Hayden 🎉 Monday 02 December 2019, 02:37:34 AM.

    Hi all, questions 1-7 have been marked for assignment 3. However, question 8 is still being marked, so we can't release those marks yet. Question 8 will continue to be marked on Monday and Tuesday night.

    Since your exam is on Tuesday, we've pushed your questions 1-7 marks into your assignment 3 grade. Questions 1-7 are out of 9.8 cumulative, so if you get 9.8 that means full marks for questions 1-7. I'm sure many of you will have questions and want to see the breakdown of marks, but that will come in the next days.

    Thanks for being patient as we get these marks out, I'm sure we're all feeling the fatigue at the end of this year.

    This will likely be the only notice I post before your exam. I'll be there for the morning session and say hi to everyone - good luck on Tuesday, get some sleep, and I'm sure you'll all do great.

  • Cheat Sheets

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 02 December 2019, 12:20:59 AM.

    The cheat sheets for PostgreSQL , SQLite and SQLIte-vs-PostgreSQL ar available.

    I'll put the Psycopg2 and Python/sqlite3 ones up tomorrow, but they're quite small. The DB interface is simple.

  • Sample Exam Solutions

    Posted by John Shepherd Sunday 01 December 2019, 09:19:00 PM.

    There are sample solutions to the 12s1 exam attached to the Sample Exam page.

  • FAQs

    Posted by John Shepherd Saturday 30 November 2019, 03:40:56 PM.

    To avoid me answering the same questions 500 times ...

    When will the solution for the sample exam be released?

    Before Monday

    My mark for Quiz5 is wrong; I said something equivalent to the answer you were expecting

    I just updated all the Quiz 5 marks. Note that it is impossible to fix what shows in Webcms3. I have updated the marks in SMS, which is where your final mark is calculated from, and which is the mark that shows up in sturec.

    When will the marks for Ass 1 be fixed?

    Before Tuesday

    When will the marks for Ass 3 be available?

    Before Tuesday.

    If any of these questions (or questions equivalent to them) are posted on the forum, don't expect a response.


  • Exam Seating Allocations

    Posted by John Shepherd Friday 29 November 2019, 11:12:03 AM, last modified Friday 29 November 2019, 11:12:30 AM.

    You can find which time/lab you've been allocated at

    https://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs3311/19T3/seating/final/register.cgi/allocations

    AFAIK, we've handled all the DSU seating to take account of provisions, and all of the potential clashes.

    Any problems, let us know ASAP by email to cs3311@cse

    "I'd rather do the afternoon session" does not count as a problem.

  • Quiz 5 Marking

    Posted by John Shepherd Thursday 28 November 2019, 11:47:53 PM, last modified Friday 29 November 2019, 12:04:03 AM.

    There's been a problem with the marking of Q3 in Quiz 5. For some reason "Deadlock" and "Starvation" weren't recognised as correct answers, despite the question being tagged as "ignore case". Once this is sorted out, I'll transfer the marks to sturec (SMS).

    Update : no sooner did I post that than we found and fixed the bug. I've sent the marks on their way to sturec .

  • Exam Videos

    Posted by John Shepherd Thursday 28 November 2019, 02:26:44 PM, last modified Thursday 28 November 2019, 10:56:38 PM.

    I've put up a couple of short(ish) videos on:

    • the exam environment,
    • using the Dia drawing tool,
    • using SQLite.

    You can find them under the Videos link.

  • When ass3 marks are coming

    Posted by Hayden 🎉 Thursday 28 November 2019, 11:35:56 AM.

    Hi everyone, assignment 3 is currently being marked. Final submissions (due to extensions) only came in a few days ago, and we've finished all the automarking scripts for questions 1-7. The two things being worked through now are:

    1. Just finishing automarking (it takes nearly half a day to mark everyone because of the time limits we give)
    2. Manually marking question 8

    The hope is that you should get this back in the next few days. If for some reason we run into unforeseen issues, we will still make sure to release results to questions 1-7 prior to the exam, with question 8 coming out soon after that.

  • Sample Exam

    Posted by John Shepherd Tuesday 26 November 2019, 11:28:29 PM, last modified Tuesday 26 November 2019, 11:29:47 PM.

    I've added some files so that you can actually attempt the SQL questions in much the same way as in the real final exam. Use the Sample Exam link in the sidebar to see how to set things up.

    It's still missing the Cheat Sheets ... I'll add these when I get some time.

  • Pre-exam Consultations

    Posted by John Shepherd Tuesday 26 November 2019, 07:52:19 AM.

    I'm really busy this week, so I won't be holding my regular consultations (as in the Timetable)

    However, I will have special pre-exam consults on Fri 10-12, Mon 10-12 in K17-410.

    Hayden is running his consultations at the usual times (as in the Timetable).

  • Sample Exam Draft

    Posted by John Shepherd Tuesday 26 November 2019, 12:11:43 AM, last modified Tuesday 26 November 2019, 07:47:25 AM.

    I'm in the middle of fixing up a sample exam based on the COMP3311 12s1 exam.

    I've had to change one question, since COMP3311 12s1 used PHP rather than Python. I also haven't (yet) included a Python/SQLite question in the Prac Section.

    And I'm still writing the cheat sheets. And will add all of the files and scripts to do the prac questions.

    But this should be enough to give you an idea of what the exam will look like.

    I'll finish it on Tuesday night. I have to spend the whole of Tuesday away from mail.

    Note that, apart from the database and the actual questions, this is pretty much what you'll be looking at in the final exam.

  • Ass1 .. Take 2

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 25 November 2019, 05:20:58 PM.

    After a lot of tweaking, I've got a new round of Ass 1 Marks installed.

    Please let me know if you think the new scripts have missed anything.

    Since I'm really busy this week, marks won't be looked at again until after Thursday.

  • Ass 1 Marks

    Posted by John Shepherd Thursday 21 November 2019, 07:18:08 AM.

    Thanks for pointing out that a few of the assumptions used in my marking scripts were wrong, e.g. blog posts don't have comments, everyone will contribute to the Wiki editing rather than a few designated Wiki editors. I'll tweak my marking scripts to take these into account and re-run them in the next day or so.

    f there's anything else you've noticed, let me know ASAP, so I can do all of the changes in one go.

  • Quiz 5 ... Lucky Last

    Posted by John Shepherd Wednesday 20 November 2019, 11:49:48 PM, last modified Thursday 21 November 2019, 02:32:41 PM.

    Quiz 5 is now available. It is due before 11:59pm on Wed 27 Nov.

    And the bug that was preventing submissions is now fixed.

  • No Consultation Wed 20 Nov

    Posted by John Shepherd Wednesday 20 November 2019, 04:01:17 PM.

    There won't be a COMP3311 consultation today, but there will be one from 4-5 on Thu 21 Nov.

    I will also run extra consultations in the lead up to the exam.

  • Ass1 Marks

    Posted by John Shepherd Tuesday 19 November 2019, 11:49:52 PM, last modified Wednesday 20 November 2019, 12:03:12 AM.

    I've put the Ass1 marks up. The mark itself is visible via sturec and Webcms, but I can't see what the collect output looks like, so I hope it's ok.

    Update : looks like my method for installing the result hasn't left the output in a collectable state. Needs work. At the moment, you can't see my beautifully crafted explanation for the final number.

    I'll talk about how they were generated in the lecture tomorrow, so save your queries until after that.

  • Last Lecture on Wednesday

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 18 November 2019, 03:30:58 PM.

    Looking through the material I have left to cover, Wednesday will be the final COMP3311 lecture. I'll cover the remaining transactions/concurrency content and then talk about the Final Exam.

    Be at Keith Burrows at 2pm Wednesday. Don't be at the Science Theatre at noon on Thursday.

  • Reminder: Special Help Session Fri 15 Nov

    Posted by John Shepherd Friday 15 November 2019, 10:53:02 AM.

    Help Session TODAY (Fri 15 Nov), 10.30 - 12.00, K17-410

    Also: I will not be online at all on Sat 16 Nov.

  • Assignment 3 Q7

    Posted by John Shepherd Wednesday 13 November 2019, 09:39:08 PM.

    Some students are getting stuck trying to work out why their Q7 percentages are off by a small number, but sometimes only in some of the terms. Trying to debug is tricky: the single number result doesn't help; and tables of room info tend to be too large to scan manually. I've added files showing (I hope correctly) which rooms are underutilised in each term; this info might enable you narrow down which are the problematic rooms and, therefore, what's gone wrong on them. They're attached to the Expected Outputs page.

  • Ass2 Marks

    Posted by Hayden 🎉 Tuesday 12 November 2019, 12:41:08 PM.

    Hi everyone,

    There have been the occasional error (we're not sure why) when generating assignment 2 marks. If you hvae this issue, that looks like a failure during the marking, please just email me cs3311@cse.unsw.edu.au and I will sort it out over the next few days. Nothing to be concerned about.

  • Help Session TODAY (Tue 12 Nov) 3-4

    Posted by John Shepherd Tuesday 12 November 2019, 09:19:05 AM.

    An extra Help Session for dealing with Assignment 3 setup and debugging issues.

    K17-410, 3-4pm, Tue 12 Nov

    I won't be fixing your code, but will point out ways that you can go about fixing it.

  • Exam(!) Session Preferences

    Posted by John Shepherd Sunday 10 November 2019, 10:30:01 AM, last modified Sunday 10 November 2019, 10:30:53 AM.

    The COMP3311 exam runs the same as many other CSE exams:

    Please choose your session by the end of this week (Fri 15 Nov)

    If you don't choose, you get randomly allocated to either morning or afternoon.

    Some people (with clashes or DSU provisions) have already been allocated; if you're one of these people, don't change your allocation; contact me if you have a problem with your pre-determined allocation.

  • Ass 3 Q7 and Q8

    Posted by John Shepherd Thursday 07 November 2019, 07:23:34 AM, last modified Thursday 07 November 2019, 08:07:20 AM.

    The specs and Expected Outputs and ass3check for Q7 and Q8 need fixing. I will do them tonight (Thu 7 Nov).

    If you want a hint at how things might evolve, look at yesterday's lecture video (Wed 2-3).

  • Quiz 4

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 04 November 2019, 07:31:11 AM.

    Quiz 4 is now out ... due Friday @ 23:59

  • Assignment 3 Final Spec

    Posted by John Shepherd Saturday 02 November 2019, 11:32:23 AM, last modified Sunday 03 November 2019, 10:47:19 PM.

    The Assignment 3 spec is now out-of-draft.

    As always, it's impossible to cover every possible aspect or interpretation of the questions. It's up to you to ask us to clarify things over the next week, or tell us if you think something is incorrect (e.g. one of the Expected Outputs).

    Update : And of course, some diligent students have thrown up questions over the weekend, which I think are now all resolved ... famous last words.

  • Ass 3 Q and A

    Posted by John Shepherd Thursday 31 October 2019, 04:23:34 PM, last modified Thursday 31 October 2019, 04:23:54 PM.

    Assignment 2 clagged up the general Q and A list. I'd rather that Assignment 3 didn't add even more, so I've set up a page dedicated to questions on Assignment 3 . Please use that rather than the general Q and A .

  • [Hayden] Consultation Hours for week 7

    Posted by Hayden 🎉 Monday 28 October 2019, 08:25:57 PM.

    Hi all, just some consultation hour changes for me just for this week. New hours are:

    • Thursday 10:30am-11:30am
    • Friday 11am-12pm

    Both locations are just in the foyer/open area in Level 1 of the Hilmer Building (MCIC building)

  • Surveys on New Webcms3 Modules

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 28 October 2019, 05:29:20 PM.

    Now that you've (hopefully) finished Assignment 2, my 4th-year thesis students who built two new Webcms3 modules that you used this term would like some feedback on their work.

    Each one should take only a couple of minutes to do. Entirely anonymous. All feedback appreciated.

  • One last Ass2 Help Session

    Posted by John Shepherd Sunday 27 October 2019, 03:02:10 PM.

    Monday 10-11.30 in K17-410 ... to sort out last minute submission issues.

  • Due dates, etc.

    Posted by John Shepherd Thursday 24 October 2019, 08:57:53 PM.

    One more Help Session for Assignment 2 ... Fri 11:00-12:10 K17-410

    Reminder: Assignment 2 is due Monday 28 October at noon (120/530 submissions so far)

    Reminder: Quiz3 due Saturday 26 October at 10pm (160/530 submissions so far)

    Note: the Webcms3 Forum has a Search function; use it before asking a question.

  • No Lectures ... but Help Sessions

    Posted by John Shepherd Tuesday 22 October 2019, 05:04:00 PM, last modified Tuesday 22 October 2019, 08:56:27 PM.

    This week's lecture slots will become Assignment 2 Help Sessions.

    Wednesday 2-4 in Keith Burrows Theatre

    Thursday 12-2 ... I have another meeting.
    Instead, I'll have a Help Session in my office (K17-410) on Thursday from 10-11 and then again from 4-5.

  • Quiz 3 and Ass 1 Peer Assessment

    Posted by John Shepherd Tuesday 22 October 2019, 10:08:03 AM, last modified Tuesday 22 October 2019, 10:09:34 AM.

    A couple of reminders:

    • Quiz 3 is now open and due by 10pm on Saturday (Oct 26)
    • Do your peer assessment for Ass 1 as soon as possible
      (failure to do it is grounds for a small mark penalty)

  • JAS Away for the Weekend

    Posted by John Shepherd Friday 18 October 2019, 04:37:41 PM.

    I'm away, and mostly off the internet, for this weekend (Oct 19/20).

    Hayden will handle the forum until Sunday night.

  • [Ass2] Check.sql

    Posted by Hayden 🎉 Thursday 17 October 2019, 05:53:19 PM.

    Hi all,

    check.sql is now available to use on the spec. It provides a very easy method (described in the spec) to check if your views are returning the right items.

    An exercise for you would be to dump all of the checks in your own SQL file, then you could easily have a single command to run to test all of your views at once.

    https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP3311/19T3/reso...

    If you have any questions about using it (after you've thoroughly read the spec) just post in the forum on that page.

  • Quiz Answers

    Posted by Hayden 🎉 Tuesday 15 October 2019, 12:31:51 AM.

    Hi all, quiz answers for 1 and 2 have been added.

  • Assignment 2 Update

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 14 October 2019, 05:21:30 PM, last modified Monday 14 October 2019, 05:45:50 PM.

    I ran the Expected Results examples on my laptop, which, it turns out, has a different COLLATION setting to Grieg. This affects the ordering of output in some cases, so I've re-run all the Expected Results on Grieg.

    If you work on Assignment 2 on your home machine, you might bump into the same ordering differences. As always, test your work on Grieg before submitting.

    Also fixed a bug in the Expected Results for Q6.

  • Webcms3 Forum

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 14 October 2019, 01:45:39 PM, last modified Monday 14 October 2019, 01:46:32 PM.

    Webcms3 was set up to use "contextual q&a". When you're posting queries on Webcms3, please post them in the Comments section on the relevant page. Don't put everything under "Q and A". E.g. if it's a question about Prac Exercise 03, post it in the Comments at the bottom of the Prac Exercise 03 page. The assumption was that you'd be looking at a particular page when the question arose, so you could simply post your question on that page. Questions all end up in the Forum, and they'll all be sent to me and Hayden, wherever you post them.

  • New Videos

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 14 October 2019, 11:55:03 AM.

    I've added some new short(ish) videos under the Videos link.

    The PostgreSQL and SQLite ones use older versions than we're using, but are still relevant.

  • Assignment 2

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 14 October 2019, 12:04:36 AM, last modified Monday 14 October 2019, 06:57:24 AM.

    The Assignment 2 specification and accompanying material is now available.

    The check.sql file is not yet ready, but will appear soon.

    Let me know if anything is not accessible or unclear.

  • Assignment 1 Peer Assessment

    Posted by John Shepherd Saturday 12 October 2019, 11:21:44 PM, last modified Saturday 12 October 2019, 11:22:15 PM.

    Peer Assessment for Assignment 1 is now set up.

    https://webapps.cse.unsw.edu.au/peer/user/login.php

    Login with zID and zPass and tell us how your group members performed.

    Let me know ASAP if something doesn't seem to be working.

  • Installing PostgreSQL

    Posted by John Shepherd Saturday 12 October 2019, 09:49:05 PM.

    Don't try to install PostgreSQL by following the Week 02 Lecture Slides. They were a quick intro and used the phrase "(once installed)". They didn't tell you how to install PostgreSQL.

    For installing PostgreSQL on Grieg, follow the detailed instructions in Prac Exercise 02 .

  • Reminder: Quiz 2

    Posted by John Shepherd Friday 11 October 2019, 02:26:23 PM.

    Quiz 2 is due at midnight tonight (Fri 11 Oct). So far, less than half of you have attempted it. Don't forget to take it ... for a couple of easy marks.

  • YouTube Video Thu 1-2 Lecture

    Posted by John Shepherd Thursday 10 October 2019, 05:07:15 PM.

    Yes. I noticed that there's no audio on the Thu 1-2 Lecture video. I'll fix it tonight and upload again on Friday.

  • [Consultations] Hayden Times

    Posted by Hayden 🎉 Sunday 06 October 2019, 03:56:25 PM.

    Hi everyone,

    Now that everyone is winding into the course, my consultation times from week 4 onward are listed here . Please note, the location may change week to week, so please check the consultation page in future weeks before trying to come to the location (in case it changes).

  • Grieg and PostgreSQL and Exercises

    Posted by John Shepherd Friday 04 October 2019, 08:00:40 AM, last modified Sunday 06 October 2019, 12:15:12 AM.

    Grieg has now been upgraded and runs PostgreSQL v11, like all the other CSE machines.

    New Theory Exercises, Prac Exercises and Week 03 Lecture Exercises now available.

  • Access to Group Wikis

    Posted by John Shepherd Tuesday 01 October 2019, 09:32:52 PM.

    At least one group has reported that they get server errors when they try to access the group wiki.

    If you've had this problem, could you let me know your zID and group name.

  • Group Wikis (part 2)

    Posted by John Shepherd Saturday 28 September 2019, 04:06:06 PM.

    Looks like we might have got them working, or at least we have the Edit and Create buttons showing.

    Let me know if anything else doesn't work.

    Also, I just noticed (doh) that Groups have a Comments feature (as do Wikis). If you want to receive notifications of new Comments posts, click on the bookmark icon

    The above icon means "not subscribed". The icon below means "subscribed".

    Please give me feedback on the Wikis, since they're an experimental feature.

    Thanks to everyone who has given feedback already.


  • Group Wikis

    Posted by John Shepherd Saturday 28 September 2019, 01:13:44 PM, last modified Saturday 28 September 2019, 01:54:55 PM.

    I ran a script that (allegedly) added Wikis to the Discussion Groups and the database seems to be set up OK, but I can't see the Wikis when I look at the Group pages. Could some Group members take a look at their group page and let me know whether a Wiki button appears next to the Blog button, and whether they can edit their Wiki?

    Thanks, jas

    Follow up: Wikis are there but not editable. Working on it now.

  • Assignment 1 Groups

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 23 September 2019, 01:58:43 PM.

    You are not supposed to make your own groups for the Assignment. I allocated the groups according to background knowledge from the ER survey (i.e. so every group has at least one or two people who know about ER design).

    Unfortunately, Webcms3 doesn't have a way for me to prevent you from fiddling with group membership.

    If you left the group you were allocated to, or otherwise changed group membership, let me know ASAP and I'll restore the original setup.

  • Quiz1, Assignment1

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 23 September 2019, 11:25:20 AM.

    Quiz1 is now available. It's due before 11:59pm on Friday (September 27). It covers material from the Week 1 lectures, so you should be able to do it now .

    The Assignment 1 spec is also available. Read it carefully before jumping in; design needs to be thought about. You should be allocated to a Discussion Group (click on Groups in the sidebar); if not, let me know ASAP.

    Note: the Group Wikis are not yet available . Meet your fellow group members and have initial discussions via the Group Blog for now.

    The deadline for completing your group's data model is Sunday 6th October.

  • Forums

    Posted by John Shepherd Wednesday 18 September 2019, 10:46:24 AM.

    The high-pressure sales people from Ed forced me to set up an Ed Discussion for COMP3311. We can't use two discussion forums. I've set up a poll so that you can tell me which you'd prefer. It'll be open until Friday.

  • Notes vs Slides

    Posted by John Shepherd Monday 16 September 2019, 11:11:38 PM.

    I've just posted a bunch of Notes. These provide a (relatively) detailed view of the course content. Lecture slides, on the other hand, are less detailed, and contain exercises. Because I tweak the slides right up to the start of each lecture, they won't be posted until just before the lecture.

  • Course Outline

    Posted by John Shepherd Saturday 14 September 2019, 06:05:33 PM.

    The COMP3311 Course Outline is now available. Let me know if there any inconsistencies ASAP (e.g. at one point I say the first assignment is worth 4% and elsewhere say it's worth 5% ... I'm pretty sure this problem doesn't exist ... hopefully)

  • Welcome to COMP3311 19T3

    Posted by John Shepherd Tuesday 03 September 2019, 08:08:53 PM, last modified Tuesday 03 September 2019, 08:42:00 PM.

    Hi, Welcome to the Database Systems offering in 19T3.

    Some things to note:

    • I won't be assuming that you've seen ER already (unless I find that everyone has)
    • there are no tute or lab classes; there will be theory and prac exercises and Help Sessions
    • given the class size, all of your marks (except the non-prac questions on the final exam) will be based on your auto-marking results
    • we'll be using Python rather than PHP as the programming language to talk to databases
    • I hate MongoDB ... if you like it, re-consider this course
    • I hate ORMs ... if you like them, re-consider this course

    If you don't like the sound of the above, COMP3311 next runs in 20T1 with Raymond Wong as course convenor. He's an excellent lecturer.

Back to top

COMP3311 19T3 (Database Systems) is powered by WebCMS3
CRICOS Provider No. 00098G