Ryerson University

Ryerson University
Department of Computer Science
CPS125 W2016 Sections 7/8/9
DIGITAL COMPUTATION AND PROGRAMMING

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)


Email questions of general interest to our sections (7/8/9) will be posted (anonymously) and answered here.
See the course Coordinator's CPS125 web site for the current CPS125 course FAQ as well

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2. Q: My quincy doesn't seem to build anything, even when I copy and paste from the short examples. Could I be doing something wrong, or could there be a problem with my quincy?
A: Several students have noted problems with some of the Quincy download. It may be a configuration problem if you did not follow the install instructions precisely


1. Q: The material on internal storage forms is reasonably complex (shown in the Examples Ch3 3.1.1-3.1.5). How much of this are we to know?
A: Students should understand how numbers are stored in the different ways inside a computer. Consider the number 7 stored as an int, as a float, and as a char (see 3.1.5 at the bottom). doubles are used in CPS125, but float is shorter than double (4 vs 8 bytes), so float is used in the internal storage Example pages for simplicity.

The Examples pages show the number 7 as a (signed) 4 byte integer
[0000 0000   0000 0000   0000 0000   0000 0111],
as a 4 byte floating point number
[0100 0000   1110 0000   0000 0000   0000 0000],
and as a one byte character
[0011 0111].
Aside: When the compiler sees 7 by itself in your code, it stores that as an int. If it comes across a 7. or a 7.0 it stores that as a double.