Homework 1

 

Unless otherwise specified by your instructor,

all homework in SI204 is due by the START of the next class period.

 

You need to understand the course policy and get the necessary software installed on your personal PC:

1. READ the course policy (see handout or course web page).

2. Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition: From your Bancroft PC, download this zip file and save it somewhere.  Then unzip it and run setup.exe – choose all the default settings. Try to start it up when complete (it should now be under your Start menu).

3. Update: In theory, you would now use http://update.microsoft.com to install some updated “service packs”  for Visual C++.  However, for some students this seems to be difficult to work, so use the UPDATED INSTRUCTIONS below instead of update.microsoft.com.

4. Turn-in a piece of paper (don’t forget your name) saying “I installed Visual C++ Express and it worked” OR turn in a piece of paper giving a detailed explanation of what error you received, if any. Actually, errors really shouldn’t happen – if they do, email your instructor to give some warning.

 

 

UPDATED INSTRUCTIONS – more help on installing the service pack

For some of you, installing the service pack on Vista didn’t work easily.  To make this easier, we’ve downloaded the relevant service packs for you:

  1. Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1:  Download this one first, save to your computer, then run it. Make sure Visual Studio is NOT running while you do this.
  2. Additional Service Pack for Visual Studio on Vista: Next download this one, save to your computer, then run it.

If any of this fails, you probably don’t have enough disk space.  Delete some things (movies?) and try again.


Here’s how to check if it all worked (or how to check if you can’t remember what you installed before):

  1. Open Visual Studio Express 2005.  From the menu select Help --> About.
  2. Find the line that says something like “Version 8.0.50727.42.” Look at the parentheses just after this:
    1. If in parentheses it says (RTM.050727-4200), then you don't have any service pack installed -- you need to do so or things will break! Install both service packs above.
    2.  If in parentheses it says (SP.050727-7600), then you have installed the basic service pack but have not yet installed the extra one just for Vista – get this above.
    3.  If in parentheses it says (vsvista.050727-8600), then you are up to date and no further action is needed.