Consulting Guidelines

• basic Unix commands,
• Eclipse
• javac, and java,
• the Java programming language,
• the material covered in: CS 141, 241, and 243.

Your real job as a consultant is to:

• build confidence;
• teach problem solving skills
  (i.e. to train the student to fix their own problems.)

Suggestions

1. Never touch a student's keyboard or mouse; instead, tell them what to type (if necessary).

2. Generally have the student fix the first error (compile or runtime).

3. Try to ask questions that will lead the student to solve their own problem.

4. Try to get the student to ask and answer their own questions.

5. Do not answer questions the student has not asked.

6. Do not find problems that the student has not identified.

7. Avoid making the students feel stupid; build confidence instead.

8. One consequence of the above is for you not to fix their code; make them fix it instead.

9. Avoid writing code for a student.

10. Try to get them to start small and iteratively enhance.

11. Insist that the students document their runtime problems using debugging prints or the debugger in Eclipse.

12. Make them prove that input read correctly, linked list built correctly, etc.; ie, works to this point.

13. Help them insert meaningful System.out.println statements (or show how to use debugger).

14. You will probably spend 90% of your time with the worst 10% of the students. This may be frustrating; however, keep in mind where your paycheck comes from. A cheerful, helping attitude goes a long way!

Larger Issues

1. Quota problems.
2. Reinitial Eclipse.
   1. Exit Eclipse.
   2. Move workspace out of ~/.eclipse.
   3. rm -rf ~/.eclipse
   4. Restart Eclipse.
3. Escalate problem.