You will be expected to follow the standards listed in this chapter in all of your submitted work. These standards will appear very strict. There are reasons behind all of them. The following are some of the motivating factors.
Avoiding common mistakes that novices make.
Making your work clear, readable and easy for someone else to understand without having to reverse-engineer it.
Encouraging you to think clearly about what each part of your software does, and to express it clearly in the software.
Encouraging you to follow software design standards that are suitable for larger pieces of software, without concentrating so much on that that it interferes with the focus of this course.
Ensuring that you apply the ideas of this course rather than working around them.
Easing my job of grading your work.
Ensuring that you follow the instructions and do your own work.
Most items are given with a number of points that will taken off for each occurrence of an error as well as a maximum percentage of your grade that will be taken off for that kind of error. Additionally, point maximums are given for entire sections.