-There should be no busy-waiting in any of your solutions to this
-assignment.
-
-Do your best to resist the temptation to directly disable interrupts
-in your solution by calling @func{intr_disable} or
-@func{intr_set_level}, although you may find doing so to be useful
-while debugging. Instead, use semaphores, locks and condition
-variables to solve synchronization problems. Read the tour section on
-synchronization (@pxref{Synchronization}) or the comments in
-@file{threads/synch.h} if you're unsure what synchronization
-primitives may be used in what situations.
-
-Given some designs of some problems, there may be one or two instances
-in which it is appropriate to directly change the interrupt levels
-instead of relying on the given synchronization primitives. This must
-be justified in your @file{DESIGNDOC} file. If you're not sure you're
-justified, ask!
-
-While all parts of this assignment are required if you intend to earn
-full credit on this project, keep in mind that Problem 1-2 (Join) will
-be needed for future assignments, so you'll want to get this one
-right. We don't give out solutions, so you're stuck with your Join
-code for the whole quarter. Problem 1-1 (Alarm Clock) could be very
-handy, but not strictly required in the future. The upshot of all
-this is that you should focus heavily on making sure that your
-implementation of @func{thread_join} works correctly, since if it's
-broken, you will need to fix it for future assignments. The other
-parts can be turned off in the future if you find you can't make them
-work quite right.
-
-Also keep in mind that Problem 1-4 (the MLFQS) builds on the features you
-implement in Problem 1-3, so to avoid unnecessary code duplication, it
-would be a good idea to divide up the work among your team members
-such that you have Problem 1-3 fully working before you begin to tackle
-Problem 1-4.
+@itemize @bullet
+@item
+There should be no busy waiting in any of your solutions to this
+assignment. We consider a tight loop that calls @func{thread_yield}
+to be one form of busy waiting.
+
+@item
+Proper synchronization is an important part of the solutions to these
+problems. It is tempting to synchronize all your code by turning off
+interrupts with @func{intr_disable} or @func{intr_set_level}, because
+this eliminates concurrency and thus the possibility for race
+conditions, but @strong{don't}. Instead, use semaphores, locks, and
+condition variables to solve the bulk of your synchronization
+problems. Read the tour section on synchronization
+(@pxref{Synchronization}) or the comments in @file{threads/synch.c} if
+you're unsure what synchronization primitives may be used in what
+situations.
+
+You might run into a few situations where interrupt disabling is the
+best way to handle synchronization. If so, you need to explain your
+rationale in your design documents. If you're unsure whether a given
+situation justifies disabling interrupts, talk to the TAs, who can
+help you decide on the right thing to do.
+
+Disabling interrupts can be useful for debugging, if you want to make
+sure that a section of code is not interrupted. You should remove
+debugging code before turning in your project.
+
+@item
+All parts of this assignment are required if you intend to earn full
+credit on this project. However, some will be more important in
+future projects:
+
+@itemize @minus
+@item
+Problem 1-1 (Alarm Clock) could be handy for later projects, but it is
+not strictly required.
+
+@item
+Problem 1-2 (Join) will be needed for future projects. We don't give
+out solutions, so to avoid extra work later you should make sure that
+your implementation of @func{thread_join} works correctly.
+
+@item
+Problems 1-3 and 1-4 won't be needed for later projects.
+@end itemize
+
+@item
+Problem 1-4 (MLFQS) builds on the features you implement in Problem
+1-3. You should have Problem 1-3 fully working before you begin to
+tackle Problem 1-4.
+
+@item
+In the past, many groups divided the assignment into pieces, then each
+group member worked on his or her piece until just before the
+deadline, at which time the group reconvened to combine their code and
+submit. @strong{This is a bad idea. We do not recommend this
+approach.} Groups that do this often find that two changes conflict
+with each other, requiring lots of last-minute debugging. Some groups
+who have done this have turned in code that did not even successfully
+boot.
+
+Instead, we recommend integrating your team's changes early and often,
+using a source code control system such as CVS (@pxref{CVS}) or a
+group collaboration site such as SourceForge (@pxref{SourceForge}).
+This is less likely to produce surprises, because everyone can see
+everyone else's code as it is written, instead of just when it is
+finished. These systems also make it possible to review changes and,
+when a change introduces a bug, drop back to working versions of code.
+
+@item
+You should expect to run into bugs that you simply don't understand
+while working on this and subsequent projects. When you do, go back
+and reread the appendix on debugging tools, which is filled with
+useful debugging tips that should help you to get back up to speed
+(@pxref{Debugging Tools}). Be sure to read the section on backtraces
+(@pxref{Backtraces}), which will help you to get the most out of every
+kernel panic or assertion failure.
+@end itemize