For simplicity, in this assignment, you only need to store the downloaded files in a flat structure.

For a variety of decisions I made a design decision to not use a flat structure. Instead I decided to use the full power of the hierarchical file system. After implementing this I emailed the newsgroup to find out if this was okay, but received this response:

Sorry but a flat directory structure is mandatory.

The flat directory structure is part of the specifications of the assignment. I understand your viewpoint but you have to respect the specifications. [cut] You can do extra work but you will be penalized if you do not respect what is asked in the assignment.

Bah. It's not even as if this implementation is crucial to our understanding of socket and web programming which is what the assignment is supposed to emphasize.

If Waterloo wants to breed unquestioning cubicle farm coders then forcing them to 'respect' arbitrary and unjustified design decisions is a good way to go about it. However, I think that Waterloo is not that kind of school. I think Waterloo should be the kind of school that nurtures computer scientists who think, who question and who find better ways of doing things. I think Waterloo should reward those people not punish them.
11:08:36 PM   []