Correspondence regarding the ISD individual assignment

Questions in black; my responses in blue.

  1. Posted 1 November 2004:
    The specification for the CA says: "At present the number is not used by the store controller." Does this mean that the Store Controller does not need to store the number of the card sent to it via StartCustomer?
    Yes.
  2. Posted 1 November 2004:
    1. For every discount card number issued to selected customers, must the card be marked as activated within the store controller before it can be used?
      No. The number is not used by the store controller.
    2. When the card is swiped at Counter 01 after StartBill, swiping it at another Counter 02, will it still generate a discount factor for Counter 02?
      Yes. The number is not used by the store controller.
    3. Can the value of discounts be changed while there are checkouts opened, or they can only be specified at the start of the store controller or when all checkouts are closed?
      Yes. The requirements place no restriction on the changing of discounts.
    4. Are the values of the discounts absolute or can it be any legal value?
      At present the percentage discounts are as stated, but other values might be introduced later.
  3. Posted 15 November 2004:
    1. Are 'StartCustomer' signal and card number two separate things? I assumed it is as you stated them separately and that card number is never used. Is this correct?
      Yes.
    2. Is StartCustomer signal a flag?
      I don't know what this means. It is a signal to say that the incoming data is a customer number, rather like scanning an item to be added to a customer's bill.
  4. Posted 17 November 2004:
    Since the number of the card is not used by the store controller, does system need to store any customer details at all, like name and address? Does it even store which card numbers have been issued?
    No.
  5. Posted 22 November 2004:
    How is it possible that these documents are offered to us for both revision and use in the coursework, which is important for the module and therefore our degrees, When they are not even close to correct and are full of errors?
    When I introduced the documents in my first lecture I drew attention to the manner in which they were produced, and how this departed from the good practice presented in the Development Process document. I pointed out that this would lead to certain defects in the documents which you would have to help find and correct. I tried to encourage participation in this process. Although I prescribed these documents as supplementary reading for the lectures, it is very probable that no one took any real interest in them until I made two of them the subject of the individual CA. I am sorry if you find the mistakes irritating, but I hope that you are able to profit from the experience of finding them and suggesting corrections. It would be helpful for me and for you if when you find an error you submitted a change request with the information asked for in the change request document. When you describe the documents as "not even close to correct and full of errors", I think you are exaggerating a bit.
    Thank you for your continuing interest in the quality of these documents.
  6. Posted 22 November 2004:
    Where it says "The card can be read by a card reader attached to the checkout", does this mean that the card reader is already present on the checkout, or is attached as part of the change request?
    It means neither of these things, but in fact the card reader will be attached to the checkout before you need to test your new functions, if any.
  7. Posted 22 November 2004:
    In the event of adding a new line, if the discount value specified is not within the range of 0, 10, 20 or 50, what would be recovery action? Would the line be added with 0 set for the discount value and output a message informing the user? Or would the store controller reject the action?
    You should assume that only valid values will be transmitted in the request to add a new line or to change the discount value for a line.
  8. Does the store administrator issue discount cards? If not how are cards added in particular how are they assigned numbers? Is it required that we add any new operations for the store administrator to add new discount cards?
    The store administrator issues discount card, but the issue is not recorded in the store controller.
  9. "The card can be read by a card reader attached to the checkout. If the card is read at any time between StartBill and EndBill, the checkout sends a StartCustomer signal to the store controller." If the card is read in the 'Removing' state will there be any effect?
    No. The card reader is disabled in the Removing state.
  10. I'd like to know if the card reader is to be considered a part of the checkout or an external device with its own interface between itself and the checkout.
    The card reader is part of the checkout station.
  11. Continued ...
Last updated on 22 November 2004.