[2021-12-07]: log4j vulnerability

CodeLab does not make use of any version of log4j that suffers from the recently discovered security hole. So, we believe our service is not at risk from this threat.

[2021-12-07]: ShowState Exercises

A new flavor of exercise is born! When you create/edit an exercise, you can choose the "ShowState" flavor. This changes the exercise from being a coding exercise to one where the student is presented with some code (your "solution" in the exercise editor) and some sample data (the prestate of one of your test cases)-- the student then has to fill in a form indicating the resulting output (or new internal state). For example: given that x is 5 and y is 3 what is the output of print x+y. (That sort of thing.)

[2021-12-07]: Banner Contraction

Added: an expand/contract control in the upper left corner (>V) that contracts/expands the banner. After all, who doesn't want a bit of extra screen real estate? NOTE: it's only available once you've loaded a course.

[2021-11-03]: Parson ... [more]

Many CodeLab exercises have one-liners for their solution. Not much point in making a Parson Problem consisting of draggable lines for problems like that, right? So, for those problems where the solution is one line of code, Parsonizing the problem means displaying the tokens of the solution code in draggable rectangles all on the same line.

[2021-11-03]: Parson Problems In CodeLab

This is BIG! Now an instructor can turn any coding exercise into a Parson Problem. Here is how it works: unlock the TOC and drag its right boundary far to the right, to expose all the date columns and more. The last column (visible only in rows that represent exercises) is a numeric field with a default value of 9999. That is P:the PARSONIZE number for that exercise. Once a student has made P or more incorrect submissions and no correct submissions, the workbench will present the exercise as a Parson Problem: the submission text area will be replaced by a sequence of draggable rectangles, each containing a single line of code from the solution of the exercise. The rectangles will be presented in a randomized order. The student must then drag the rectangles around to form the correct solution. As always, they can submit their code at any point.

Parson Problems put "training wheels" on the CodeLab "bicycle". They are no substitute for the practice of synthesis that CodeLab problems offer. However, like training wheels for child learning to ride a bike, they can serve as a valuable transitional phase and help smooth out the learning curve.

By treating P as an integer, we let the instructor make an exercise be a Parson Problem from the outset by setting the value of P to 0; we also let the instructor encourage the student to try the "pure synthesis" of writing code in the submission text area for P attempts and then devolve the exercise to a Parson Problem. So setting P to 5 lets the student take 5 shots at solving the problem synthetically (as usual) and if she or he can't then the problem becomes an easier Parson Problem.

[2021-10-24]: Notes/Instructor Notes/Exercise Instructions Editor

Now when you edit the raw HTML source, syntax/tag-oriented coloring is in effect. Makes the raw slightly more bearable.

[2021-10-20]: Instructor Course Listing

Identify CodeLabs that are associated with LMS courses by appending "(LTI)" to their CourseNNN value.

[2021-10-16]: Workbench Header Statistics

Distinguish between student submissions requiring approval and student submissions for which approval has been corrected.

[2021-10-16]: CodeLab Exercise Editor

NODISPLAY attribute added: can now specify that certain state variables won't appear in the test case table.

[2021-10-16]: CodeLab Exercise Editor

Improvements and extensions to the new "ClassDefTestSequence" type-- multiple constructors supported, methods and fields may reference specific objects, default object name _ClassName.

[2021-10-16]: CodeLab Notes

Fixed an annoying (aren't they all?) bug that caused the notes of a first child to be duplicated in the parent node if the latter had no notes.

[2021-10-16]: Student Payment

Better typo handling for students who mis-enter payment keys.

[2021-10-16]: Student Enrollment

Better typo handling for students who mis-enter section access codes, especially those who enter valid payment keys in confusion.

[2021-10-16]: LMS Students

Better messaging for students of LMS courses who wander into CodeLab by mistake.

[2021-09-22]: LMS Assignment Editor

LMS Instructors can now re-order exercises in the assignment editor: click on an exercise at the bottom and drag and drop.

[2021-09-22]: 2022 Hello!

Classes can now be scheduled in the clone dialog for 2022.

[2021-09-22]: Notes and Exercise Instructions Editor

Upgrade to tiny MCE 5.9. Introducing: pdf save, permanent pen, case-change, line height control, tables, new clearer icons.

[2021-09-22]: Output Comparison

Escape html entities in output comparison text.

[2021-09-21]: LMS Assignment Editor

Exercise counts now shown in topics.

[2021-09-21]: Compiler Errors

Line numbers in compiler error listing will be shown in all browsers, not just Chrome.

[2021-09-21]: Compiler Errors

Line numbers in compiler error listing will be shown in all browsers, not just Chrome.

[2021-09-21]: Output Comparison

Improvements in the way the output comparison display handles floating point values; for example, 3.00000 and 2.99987 will not be treated as differing tokens.

[2021-09-19]: CodeLab Instability

CodeLab experienced network instability between 2pm and 5:30pm on Sunday, 2021-09-19, making it intermittently difficult for many users to access and use the system.

[2021-09-16]: Python Functions

Fixed a bug causing the inappropriate rejection of Python function submissions when the parameter names differ from the "official" solution.

[2021-09-16]: LMS Content Support

LMS CodeLab integrations now offer a "content support" button, just like the stand-alone CodeLab app.

[2021-09-14]: Student Query and Approval Requests

Now when you log in, you will see separate alerts for the presence of student queries and the presence of approval alerts. These will be displayed on the Go and Resume buttons that are used to enter the LAB area for a given course.

[2021-09-11]: Workbench Status Display

This is BIG! The workbench header for students will now display a status summary of their work within the topic. It will give the counts of correct-ontime, correct-late, correct-approval-pending, attempted-but-incorrect, and unattempted. The counts are based on the entire set of exercises within the given topic.

Faculty will also get status information, pertaining to the entire class. The same categories apply but the counts are based on (students)X(exercises). For example if there are 12 students who each got 3 exercises correct on time, then that category would show 36.

For faculty, initally there will be a spinning gear within the status display indicating that the information is still loading. During this time, the rest of the app is fully functional. When the spinning gear disappears, the information is up-to-date. A side-effect of this is that once the spinning gear disappears, the graphic roster will load very quickly because all the status info has already been fetched from the server.

[2021-09-08]: Exercise Saves

On SAVE, warn authors of traditional exercises (fill-ins, multiple choices) if there are no correct responses listed.

[2021-09-08]: Editing NOTES and Exercises

Edit toolbars for instructor notes editor and the instructions editor art of the Exercise Editor are now consistent, except for embed-exercise which the latter does NOT have (can't put an exercise in an exercise).

[2021-09-08]: Exercise Saves

Add cancel option to SAVE exercise wait.

[2021-09-08]: NEWS!

Introducting NEWS for instructors in the 3-bar menu. This will yield a reverse chronological order file noting all user-relevant changes, big, small, and trivial.