Re: [vox] code sleuths needed - cheating suspected

[Peter Jay Salzman <MAPSp@dirac.org>]

begin Michael Wenk <mikewenk@attbi.com> 
> I was never a grader, but I did at times act as a consultant in our CS labs,
> so I may not be that much of an expert here.  My opinion is that these are
> copies of each other.  Now whether they're direct copies, or just the result
> of two people helping each other?  My opinion is they are direct copies.
> 
> First of all, there are many similarities in style.  Secondly, the changes
> between the two files are cosmetic, and look dilberate.  I took a  look
> using sdiff and it looked weird.  It looked like lines were added, and lines
> were changed, but only in a cosmetic fashion.  It looked like whoever did
> this wanted a diff to show everything different.  If both students were new
> at C programming, then it would explain a bunch, but judging from the
> programs, they do not look to be that new at this.  Things like commenting,
> I mean why use two different styles with the same comments, it doesn't make
> much sense to me, unless you're trying to make them seem different.  I may
> be wrong on this, but I suspect they're copies of each other changed in a
> cosmetic fashion to fool the grader.

after talking with the student...

at first, the student said "only the sum line was copied".

then i got "only the sum line and the variable declarations were
copied".

then i got "only the sum line and the variable declarations and the file
handling stuff was copied".

after pointing out that was the whole program, the student finally
admitted that the whole thing was copied and then made to look
different.

i've always been a great believer that each of us has our own coding
style.   i was able to catch this JUST based on coding style.

pete
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