CISC 3140 FINAL EXAM REVIEW QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS RATED A+.
What is the purpose of the .PHONY keyword in a makefile? Answer - To name a
recipe that will execute once requested/Targets that do not refer to files but
are just actions are called phony targets.
Source: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Simple-
Makefile
a) Why is the Therac report of great importance to programmers (i.e. what is
the fact demonstrated by the report that should be of major importance to the
approach that should be taken when software is developed)?
b) The Therac programmers engaged in several practices that either failed to
prevent errors from being included in production code or failed to repair
programming errors when incorrect program behavior was detected. Briefly
state what two of those detrimental practices were. Answer - a) Bad software
kills. if software is not designed correctly and tested carefully and correctly you
are putting people's lives in danger.
b) Failed to properly test code; Failed to listen to user feedback.
Source: https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs240/old/sp2014/readings/therac-
25.pdf
What is one reason why, despite its age and poor support for object oriented
programming, does COBOL survive as a language of choice (if not the language
, of choice) for programming business applications? Answer - COBOL supports
decimal arithmetic.
Write a Scheme function `build astring n` that will contruct a list of `n` copies of
an arbitrary string `astring`, where `n` is a positive integer larger than 0.
Assume that `astring` is a properly constructed list and `n` is an integer greater
than 0, so not editing the parameters is required. Hint: The function `cons item
alist` adds the element item to the left end of the list `alist`. Answer - (define
build(lambda (astring n) ;constructs a list with arguments/parameters
(if(= n 0) (list) ;if n is equal to 0, return a list
(cons astring (build (- n 1) ) ;cons constructs a list (cons X l) → (listof X)
)
)
)
)
What is the purpose of the `lambda` function of the Scheme language? Answer
- To create/construct a function
What is the primary block of storage managed by Subversion (i.e. what unit of
storage do you get when you check out something from a Subversion
repository)? Answer - A directory/A Subversion directory
Consider the coed snippet:
```
int c (float a, float b) {
if (a == b) return (1); else return (0);
}
ANSWERS RATED A+.
What is the purpose of the .PHONY keyword in a makefile? Answer - To name a
recipe that will execute once requested/Targets that do not refer to files but
are just actions are called phony targets.
Source: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Simple-
Makefile
a) Why is the Therac report of great importance to programmers (i.e. what is
the fact demonstrated by the report that should be of major importance to the
approach that should be taken when software is developed)?
b) The Therac programmers engaged in several practices that either failed to
prevent errors from being included in production code or failed to repair
programming errors when incorrect program behavior was detected. Briefly
state what two of those detrimental practices were. Answer - a) Bad software
kills. if software is not designed correctly and tested carefully and correctly you
are putting people's lives in danger.
b) Failed to properly test code; Failed to listen to user feedback.
Source: https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs240/old/sp2014/readings/therac-
25.pdf
What is one reason why, despite its age and poor support for object oriented
programming, does COBOL survive as a language of choice (if not the language
, of choice) for programming business applications? Answer - COBOL supports
decimal arithmetic.
Write a Scheme function `build astring n` that will contruct a list of `n` copies of
an arbitrary string `astring`, where `n` is a positive integer larger than 0.
Assume that `astring` is a properly constructed list and `n` is an integer greater
than 0, so not editing the parameters is required. Hint: The function `cons item
alist` adds the element item to the left end of the list `alist`. Answer - (define
build(lambda (astring n) ;constructs a list with arguments/parameters
(if(= n 0) (list) ;if n is equal to 0, return a list
(cons astring (build (- n 1) ) ;cons constructs a list (cons X l) → (listof X)
)
)
)
)
What is the purpose of the `lambda` function of the Scheme language? Answer
- To create/construct a function
What is the primary block of storage managed by Subversion (i.e. what unit of
storage do you get when you check out something from a Subversion
repository)? Answer - A directory/A Subversion directory
Consider the coed snippet:
```
int c (float a, float b) {
if (a == b) return (1); else return (0);
}
