First a technical point. In the script for test 66, I forgot to include "file = open('pieces_J.xml'); coloured_pieces = tg.abc_available_coloured_pieces(file); file.close(); " (thanks to Ilia for pointing it out). Only very few students would be affected by that omission, all the more so that the test can still pass with the current version of the script (it all depends on whether your way of representing coloured_pieces is the same as mine), so it is really not worth running the whole script again for the whole class. If you think you can be affected by this, please send me an email and I will run the command that was supposed to be run for test 66.
Very few of you have attempted Part 2. I know that the incentive was minimal (it is hard to find the right balance between challenging those of you who want to be challenged with problems that go much beyond the standard expectations, and not penalising the students who are not keen to be challenged). So congratulations to the few of you who gave a try to this question, sometimes successfully for some tests, and no criticism at all to all others, as I can understand that you have a more "pragmatic" way of spending your time. (At least, I am happy I decided to change assignment 2 from "find a solution" as I originally had in mind to "check whether this is a solution"...). Now for those of you who gave a (genuine!) try to part 2 and did not pass any test, the reward is most stingy (at most one mark for the style). I said I would have some simple tests on this part, but as the number of students who attempted it was so small, and as it was not obvious whether for those of you who failed tests 60-70, the program could still pass some simpler tests, I did not design those simpler tests. But if you think your program can pass simple tests, if you have such tests, then please let me know, send me those tests, and I will award bonus marks.
... now in Matthews C
If you have been following the discussions on WebCMS, you know that we will met at the usual place and time tomorrow Tuesday the 31st to discuss the second part of assignment 3 for those interested.