This chapter contains general information about Ggradebook. It also contains some installation instructions and information about the general usage of Ggradebook.
Ggradebook is the fully-featured GNU gradebook; it is an application
written to help teachers manage student grades. It uses GTK+
and can optionally be compiled to use GNOME. The Ggradebook website can
be found at <http://Ggradebook.sourceforge.net> or via
<ftp://ftp.gnu.org>. Ggradebook is copyright (C) 2000, 2001 Free Software
Foundation, Inc. The author of Ggradebook is Norbert de Jonge
norbertdejonge@yahoo.com and the latest version of Ggradebook is 0.91.
Ggradebook is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.Ggradebook is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Ggradebook; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
Ggradebook requires GTK+ version 1.2.0 or better. GTK+ can be downloaded via
<ftp://ftp.gtk.org>. GNOME use is optional. GNOME use requires GNOME version
1.0.0 or better. GNOME can be downloaded via <http://www.gnome.org>.
Use the following commands to install Ggradebook:
$ tar -zxvf Ggradebook-0.91.tar.gz$ cd Ggradebook-0.91$ ./configure( Use './configure --disable-gnome' to disable Gnome! )$ make$ make install( Become root if necessary! )
If you want to help by developing Ggradebook, send an e-mail to norbertdejonge@yahoo.com and tell me how you want to help. I can also tell you what requests I got from Ggradebook users. Please don't send patches.
This is version 0.91.1 of the Ggradebook Manual. The Ggradebook Manual is copyright (C) 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc, the author of this manual is Norbert de Jonge norbertdejonge@yahoo.com, and it has been additionally modified by Jack D. Edwards edwardsj1@tastytronic.net to include example files, and an expanded discussion of Ggradebook's features. This manual is licensed under the Free Documentation License. If you have ideas for this manual, or if you want help write this manual, please send an e-mail to norbertdejonge@yahoo.com, and tell me how you want to help.
The interface of Ggradebook is pretty self evident, so using Ggradebook shouldn't really be a problem. Ggradebook is made as easy to use as possible, since my personal opinion is that a good program shouldn't require a manual at all.
The only thing you should know when you want to start using Ggradebook right away, is that Ggradebook uses either letters and percentages or numeric grades. The grading style you use is set by changing the default preferences, which can be done when adding a new class, by clicking on the "Default Preferences" button. Preferences for a single class can be changed from the "Edit Class" window by clicking on the "Preferences" button.
In the main window, you can only select a class or add a new class. When adding a new class, changing the default preferences may be a good idea. More about this can be found in section 2.4.
When you want to send feedback, you can use the form in the Feedback window, which can be selected from the Help-menu. However, sending e-mail directly to norbertdejonge@yahoo.com may be a wiser idea, since sending the information in this form won't always work.
The Help window, which can be selected from the Help-menu contains a very simple version of this manual. However, in the future it may contain the entire manual, since users may want to know more about the (general) usage of Ggradebook.
To add a new class, select "Add Class" from the main window. A new window will pop up where you can enter the name of the class, the class activity, the teacher (optional), and a mentor (optional). From this window you can also change Ggradebook's default preferences. More about changing the default preferences can be found in the next section.
By clicking on "Default Preferences", you will be presented with a window where you can set the preferences that are used when creating a new class. In this window you can set the default grading system, either letters and percentages or numeric grades. You can also set the values of different letter grades, the highest and lowest possible grades, and the presentation of final averages (when using numeric grades). Any option set using this window becomes a global preference, which means that all new classes you create will start out with these options. To find out how to set different options for a single class, see section 3.4.
This chapter talks about the different options you have when editing a class. It will tell you something about changing the data for students and changing the grades or period information. It will also talk about the options to print the grades and change the preferences for one separate class.
To edit a class, select it's name from the list of classes in the main window, then click "Edit" in the window that pops up.
By clicking the "Students" button in the "Edit Class" window, you can add, edit, or delete students in a class. It is also possible to add all students from another class. To do that, the other class needs to be in the default class path, which is set in the default preferences file (usually ~/.gg). When adding a student, you are prompted to enter their name, code (optional), sex, and are given a place to enter extra notes.
From the Grades & Periods-window, you can add, edit, or delete grades for the current class. It is also possible to change the settings of the current period, or edit a period from this window.
This window is used to print information about the students, grades, and/or periods to a file or a printer. The information can be printed in either ASCII or LaTeX format.
Clicking "Preferences" in the "Edit Class" window allows you to change the preferences for the current class. This will not affect the default preferences. Changing the default preferences can only be done when adding a new class, or by editing the default preferences file by hand.
This chapter talks about the way averages are calculated in Ggradebook.
To calculate the period averages per student, first all of the grades for the student are multiplied by their work weights. After this, the total of all these multiplied grades is divided by the the total of all the work weights.
To calculate the final averages per student, first all of the period averages for the student are multiplied by their period weights. After this, the total of all these multiplied grades is divided by the total of all the period weights.
This is a very short and simple specification of the ASCII files that are used by Ggradebook. Since the structure of the class files (<file>.cls) and the default preferences file (currently ~/.gg) are very much the same, I will try to explain them both at the same time. Example copies of these files are found in the following sections.
In the default preferences file (not in the class files), we first specify the path to the class files:
classpath: <string>
After this, we specify the grades type ("default grades" in the default preferences file, and simply "grades" in the class files). Use 1 for letters and percentages and 2 for numeric grades:
[default] grades: <integer>
If we use letters and percentages, we then specify the number of used letters ("default letters" in the default preferences file, and simply "letters" in the class files). This integer should be between 0 and 26:
[default] letters: <integer>
If we use letters and percentages, we also define each used letter and it's value. This can be done maximally 26 times and the double value of the letter should be between -100 and 100:
<letter>: <double>
Then we define the lowest possible allowed percentage or grade, the highest possible allowed percentage or grade, the percentage or grade below which the grades should be highlighted, the percentage or grade for plus (+) and the percentage or grade for minus (-). All these values are double values between -100 and 100:
lowest pos: <double> highest pos: <double> highlight below: <double> plus: <double> minus: <double>
If we use numeric grades, we also specify how the final averages should be calculated. This should be 1 for wholes, 2 for halves and 3 for decimals:
final averages: <integer>
After this, we define if the lowest grades should be dropped from the periods. Use 1 to drop the lowest grades and 0 to not drop the lowest grades:
drop lowest: <integer>
Note: The rest of the below explained lines are only used in the class files and not in the default preferences file.
We now specify the name of the teacher, the name of the mentor, the number of students and the number of periods. The number of students should be 0 or more and the number of periods at least 1.
teacher: <string> mentor: <string> students: <integer> periods: <integer>
For each period we then define the following things:
First we specify the period weight, which should be at least 1 and maximally 10:
period weight: <integer>
If we use numeric grades, we also specify how the period averages should be calculated. This should be 1 for wholes, 2 for halves and 3 for decimals:
period averages: <integer>
Then we define the number of works, which should be 0 or more:
period works: <integer>
For each work in this period we then define the following things:
First the name of the work and the weight of the work, which should be at least 1 and maximally 10:
work name: <string> work weight: <integer>
Then we specify the extra info about the work. The extra info should be exactly MAX_TEXT (1000) characters and starts on a new line. Unused space should be filled with #'s.
work extra: <characters>
Finally we now define the grades for this work for all students. Each percentage or grade should be between 100 and -100 and should start on a new line:
work grades: <double> <double> <doub...
The periods are now defined. We only need to define the students now. For each student the following things are defined:
First the student name, the student code and the student sex, which should be either Male or Female:
student name: <string> student code: <string> student sex: <string>
Then we specify the extra info about the student. The extra info should be exactly MAX_TEXT (1000) characters and starts on a new line: Unused space should be filled with #'s.
student extra: <characters>
Here is an example of what the default preferences file (~/.gg) looks like.
classpath: /path/to/gg/ default grades: 1 default letters: 5 A: 90.00 B: 80.00 C: 70.00 D: 60.00 F: 0.00 lowest pos: 0.00 highest pos: 100.00 highlight below: 70.00 plus: 5.00 minus: -5.00 drop lowest: 0
Here is an example of what a class file (<file>.cls) looks like.
grades: 1 letters: 5 A: 90.00 B: 80.00 C: 70.00 D: 60.00 F: 0.00 lowest pos: 0.00 highest pos: 100.00 highlight below: 70.00 plus: 5.00 minus: -5.00 drop lowest: 0 teacher: Optional. mentor: Optional. students: 5 periods: 1 period weight: 1 period works: 3 work name: Test 1 work weight: 1 work extra: Enter additional info here.##################################### work grades: A B C B A work name: Test 2 work weight: 1 work extra: Enter additional info here.##################################### work grades: C B A B C work name: Test 3 work weight: 1 work extra: Enter additional info here.##################################### work grades: A A A A A student name: Alice student code: 1234 student sex: female student extra: Enter additional info here.##################################### student name: Bob student code: 2134 student sex: male student extra: Enter additional info here.##################################### student name: Charlie student code: 3124 student sex: male student extra: Enter additional info here.##################################### student name: David student code: 4123 student sex: male student extra: Enter additional info here.##################################### student name: Emily student code: 4321 student sex: female student extra: Enter additional info here.#####################################