I Need Your Help!
I need you to please do a few things to keep my life from becoming complete chaos!
email subject lines
- PLEASE include at the start of all subject lines of all email you send to me so that it can be filtered properly:
- Your last name 246196 The week number of any exercise files that you are attaching.
- For example, I would write a subject line such as this:
- Vaughan 246196 Week 4 Exercises
- For this course I expect to receive over 1,000 emails and I am teaching at least one other course which makes it extra important that you please do this.
- Email your files to me at dan@gottheknack.com - but always include this number in the subject line of any email you send to me: 246196
- My response time:
- I will generally reply to email within 2-3 business days.
File and Folder Naming
No spaces in file or folder names!
- Please, do not create folders or files that have spaces in their names. Why?
- Because most web servers use UNIX operating systems. UNIX considers spaces in file or folder names to be a division between different things.
- I want you to make sure that you learn to leave out spaces in file and folder names so that you avoid problems in the future. If you include spaces in file or folder names I will return them to you!
- Note that folders are called directories in UNIX-speak.
- For example:
- dan hitchcock vaughan.html would be interpreted as three different files by UNIX.
- However, you can use dashes, underscores, or capital letters to convey multiple terms such as:
- dan-hitchcock-vaughan.html ...or...
- dan_htichcock_vaughan.html ...or...
- danHitchcockVaughan.html
- Each of the above would each be considered one file.
- The last example uses camel case. Its name refers to its similarity to camel humps: the first letters of each word or abbreviation, except the first word, are capitalized.
- Also note that UNIX is "case sensitive".
- This means that it interprets an upper case (capital) letter such as "A" as something different than a lower case (small) letter, such as "a".
Your Exercise File Names:
- Name all files that you send to me as follows:
- Your last name, followed by...
- An underscore. This is an underscore: _ Followed by...
- The identification number or name of the exercise which is provided in the exercise.
- Example:
- If the exercise number is "A02", the file you send to me ought to be named (replace "yourlastname" with your last name in the following!):
- yourlastname_A02.html
- For example, I would name the file:
- vaughan_A02.html
Folder Names:
- Name ALL folders that you send as follows:
- Your last name, followed by...
- An underscore. This is an underscore: _ Followed by...
- The week number that the exercises contained in the folder are from.
- Example:
- If the exercises are from Week 3, the folder name would be:
- yourlastname_week3
- For example, I would name the folder:
- vaughan_week3
- If the exercises are from Week 3, the folder name would be:
Guess what?
- If you do not follow these rules it is possible that I will not respond to your email for a while because I may be busy grading properly named files in properly named folders! :-)
This is like one of those late night TV commercials...
But wait, there's more!!!
Send your exercises in a zipped folder (.rar is OK too)
- Why .zip or .rar?
- Non-zipped html files sent as email attachments tend to get embedded in the message area of the email making it very difficult or impossible for me to evaluate them.
- Non-zipped files are more likely to be corrupted.
- Zipped files are smaller, making the upload faster.
- Put all the exercises for a week into a properly named folder and zip that folder.
- Please do not zip individual files.
- It is easier for both you and me when you attach one zip file of a folder that has within it multiple html exercise files. It is easier for you to zip and attach just that one .zip or .rar to your email than doing it for each exercise file one at a time. It's easier on my end as well.
- Also, please do not send me a separate email for each exercise. That's really a lot of work for both of us.
- Don't know how to zip?
- Note that you may see the term archive which means a compressed file.
- Windows:
- Put your exercise files into a folder.
- Open Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) by right-clicking on the Start button in Windows and selecting Windows Explorer.
- Using Windows Explorer, find the folder that you have put your exercise files in.
- Right-click on that folder.
- You will probably see this option, select it:
Send to → Compressed (Zipped) folder
- You will probably see this option, select it:
- This will create one zip file containing the folder you selected and all of its contents.
- Mac:
- In the Finder select the folder that you want to compress.
- Right-click (Option-click) on the selection and select Compress foldername (Of course the name of your folder will appear, not "foldername"!)
- If you do not have the above options, you may need your own zip program to do the work.
- You may already have WinZip or a similar zip ("archiving") utility on your Windows machine, or similar on the Mac.
- Check your Programs list (Windows) or Applications area (Mac).
- It may be in a sub-folder named "utilities".
- You may already have WinZip or a similar zip ("archiving") utility on your Windows machine, or similar on the Mac.
- If you don't have a zip or rar utility, there are sites that offer them for free or very cheap.
- One popular site to find this type of software is tucows.
- You might also want to try zip/rar utilities at this C-NET download site.
- I suggest you list options by Editors' Rating in the Sort By menu.
- Prices, if any, are listed on the individual utility's page.
- For Windows users:
- QuickZip 4 is free. You can get it here: Quick Zip 4. I have used it and it has worked well for me. Check the Help menu for instructions.
- 7-zip is also free. I have used it successfully. It zipped up a folder quite easily. It can save in either the .zip file format or .7z, which opened fine in my test. Note that the link I provided goes to 7-zip.org - do not go to 7-zip.com, it's not safe when I last checked.
- WinZip is a popular Windows zipping utility. It costs $30 (as of this writing, January 2014).
- WinRAR - Windows users can also use WinRAR which costs $29 and has become popular. It has stellar reviews. It creates .rar files instead of .zip, but I will be happy to receive them.
- Mac users:
- Once you have zip utility software, if you don't know how to use it, check for instructions on the web or in the Help menu of the program or Google it.
- Note that the .zip. .7z, and .rar formats are acceptable.
- Again, please do not zip individual files, instead, zip the folders. And do not send me one email per exercise.
Resubmitting an exercise(s) when I have asked you to fix it:
When re-submitting an exercise after I have asked you to fix it, please use "Reply To" when you resubmit the exercise. That way I will know what the problem had been and if you had properly addressed it.