Merlin Mission Manager

Within these castle walls be forged Mavens of Computer Science ...

— Merlin, The Coder

Eugene F. Kranz at his console at the NASA Mission Control Center

Prerequisites

• W1002 The Client, the Server, and the Shell
• W1004 Emacs

Introduction

The Merlin Mission Manager is your personal control center to Merlin's Challenge Evaluation System. Challenge's provide both you and your guide with objective evidence of your skill level as you develop expertise in a particular topic. As such, Missions serve both to provide you with valuable feedback as you are developing your skills and as a demonstration of mastery.

Missions

At various points along your pathway you'll be asked to complete one or more missions. Missions provide a logical grouping of one or more challenges, generally about a particular subject area or, alternatively, a summary of multiple topics. Just as wiki experiences are labelled using the Wnnnn scheme, missions follow similar rules. Missions will always begin with Mnnnn where the nnnn of the mission usually matches the nnnn of the wiki. Missions also have a two digit suffix, ss. Lower-numbered suffixes generally assist you with skill development, while higher-numbered suffixes provide demonstration of mastery.

At any given time, a Mission will be in one of the following states:

• Not yet eligible - Your guide will provide you with missions at an appropriate pace, so not all missions are available at any given time. You may see a mission name appear in your mission list with an eligible date in the future. If so, the mission will become available to you on that date.
• Eligible, but not yet accepted - On the eligible date you'll be permitted to accept the mission.
• Accepted - Once you've accepted a mission you'll be able to view a list of all included challenges and begin working on solutions. From this point until you either submit the mission or until the mission expires, you'll be able to work on the challenges of the mission.
• Submitted - After you've completed all of the required challenges (and as many optional challenges as you'd like) you'll be able to submit the mission. At this point, you'll receive credit for all challenges successfully completed.
• Expired - Missions are available for a limited time. The Merlin Mission Manager will let you know how much time you have until a mission expires. After this point, you'll no longer be able to submit the mission.

Challenges

	Coming Soon
	evaluated as you go, immediate feedback required vs optional opportunites