In this lab, you design and write a C++ program that calculates the cost of building a house.

Your program should ask the user to enter the following information and then estimate the cost of building the house.

• Total square footage
• # of bathrooms
• # of bedrooms
• # of windows
• # of fireplaces

Your estimate should take into account all of the data entered by the user.

Here is a template file to use as a starting point for this report.

The lab report should be in your own words and self-contained. By self-contained I mean that it should be possible for someone to understand what you did and why without seeing anything other than your report. Your report should include:

• Purpose (educational objectives)
• Problem Statement (in your own words)
• Procedure (an explanation for your method of determining the cost of building the house, the steps you used to design your program, reasons for your design decisions, etc.)
• Discussion (sample program output, problems you encountered (and how they were overcome), etc.)
• An activity log indicating how much time you spent on each phase of the assignment. You should use the format found in the template XML file and report the time in the following categories:
  • Design
  • Coding
  • Debug (before you think it's working)
  • Test (after you think it's working)
  • Writing Report
  • Other
• Conclusions (what you learned, suggestions of how the assignment could be improved, things you would have done differently, etc.)
• Documented source code for your program.

As with any report you submit, correct spelling and grammar are required. In addition, your report should be submitted electronically following the Electronic submission guidelines. (You may wish to consult the XML help video and/or sample report before submitting your report.) Be sure to keep copies of all your files, in case something gets lost. It may be wise to keep a diskette backup as well.

Your grade will depend on quality of design, clarity of code and documentation, as well as whether your program produces the correct results. If you have any questions, consult your instructor.

This laboratory assignment was developed by Dr. Chris Taylor.