return void;

Jeez, what a marathon. I just spent the last 3 straight days trying to debug my project. I basically wrote a bulk of it in approximately 4-5 hours earlier in the week and resigned to ironing out the remaining bugs this weekend. Unfortunately, the remaining problems were pretty severe and mind-numbingly difficult to debug.

In the end, there were 2 deadlocks I could not resolve. Hopefully I can do some hand-waving and the TA won’t notice it not working. This is larger than all but 1 school project I’ve ever done (ZINC was much larger):

$ wc -l *.c *.h
320 config_parser.c
821 node.c
66 util.c
20 config_parser.h
108 node.h
12 util.h
1347 total

This grew so large and out of control, I had a hard time sifting through the code to find anything. I would have to spend 10-20 minutes graphically representing what my program does based on the output. Debugging with gdb or ddd was a waste of time unless there was a SIGSEGV.

I want so desperately for this semester to be over. If this project is any indicator what parallel system work in graduate school will be like, then I feel I’ve been turned off of the subject. Just thinking about the project even after I’ve submitted it enrages me to the point of feeling pits of depression similar to those described by Morgan Spurlock.

I did manage to setup my next semester:

CS 6364 – 501 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Schweitzer H
Call Number: 13773

MW 7:00 p.m. – 8:15 p.m., ECSS2.203

CS 6364 Artificial Intelligence (3 semester hours) Design of machines that exhibit intelligence. Particular topics include: representation of knowledge, vision, natural language processing, search, logic and deduction, expert systems, planning, language comprehension, machine learning. Prerequisite: CS 5343. (3-0) Y

Pre-requisite: CS 5343

A few students in my AOS class confirmed that this class should be significantly easier than AOS. That’s a relief; after the pounding I took this semester, it would be nice if I had a professor with realistic expectations. I feel like curling into a fetal position and crying for the next few days.

Oh, but I can’t. I have a homework project due Tuesday (that I haven’t started), the final 9 days from that, and the Qualification Exam 7 days from the final. The only light at the end of this otherwise gruesome and unending tunnel is the fact that I have somehow scrapped out the highest B in the class and only need a 60% on the final to ensure an A. But after I get through that hurdle, I realize that the light at the end is actually the train: the QE has material not covered by this professor.