CISC181-016,017,018 -- Spring 05

Introduction To Computer Science

Lecture: MWF 11:15AM - 12:05PM 111 Memorial
Lab: Section 016: M 09:05AM- 9:55AM - Room TBA
Section 017: M 10:10AM-11:00AM - Room TBA
Section 018: M 12:20PM- 1:10PM - Room TBA
Prerequisites: CISC105 OR Prior Programming Experience in another high level language (This is IMPORTANT!)
Course Project Number: 2079 What is a project number?

Instructor: Chris Fischer
E-mail: cfischer@cis.udel.edu
Office hours: Before Class and by Appointment
Web: http://www.cis.udel.edu/~cfischer/

Teaching Assistant: Xioafeng Han
E-mail: han@mail.eecis.udel.edu
Office: 115B Pearson
Office hours: T/Th 5-6PM

Grades


What to expect in this course:
A lot of work. This course has to teach both the basic features of the C++ language, many of which the concepts you may know already, and the advanced features (Pointers, Operator Overloading, Classes, Inheritance, Polymorphism..) in one semester. If you're looking for a course to show up to twice a week with minimal outside work, this is not the class for you. This course moves very quickly and has a lot of outside work (labs, homeworks, 3 programming assignments, 3 tests).

You can also expect that I will provide you a LOT of resources to succeed in this course. I will provide as many outside references and sample code as I can. I will also make myself available for questions as much as possible. If possible, reach me by email, during the week. I will usually get back to you very quickly. However, I do have two rules.

  1. I am not here to debug your programs. That is a part of the assignment. Do not email me your program saying "It doesn't work, what's wrong?". This does not mean I'm not going to help you, I will, but ask specific questions, not "what's wrong with this".
  2. I get very unsympathetic to questions the night before/day of/after the project due date. They should really be done by then.  I also am unsympthetic towards people that email questions but don't come to class.
There rules are here not to make life difficult for you, but to encourage you to think the problems through on your own. If you're really stuck, of course I'm going to help you, but I don't want you to email first thing when you get to a hard problem.

Other important points:
You are strongly encouraged to come to class. While I will put some material up on the web, it will be hard to do well in this course without coming to class. Reading the relevant chapters ahead of time is also a good idea. Last semesters class convinced me to post the Powerpoints ahead of time. I'll do that again, but only if people show up regularly for class.


Course Policies:

Lab/Project submission: All Labs must be submitted to the TA, either in person on in their mailbox. All Projects must be personally handed to the TA - if you place it in their mailbox, you will receive a zero on it.
All papers MUST be stapled. Unstapled papers will lose 10 points.

Coding conventions: I will go over coding conventions in the second or third lecture. Your code should generally follow it.

Lateness: Assignments are due by the end of class on the date they are due. After that, they lose 5%/day, up to a maximum of 7 days late. Labs can be turned into my or the TA's mailbox, with the DATE and TIME of submission clearly marked on it.

Academic Dishonesty: DO YOUR OWN WORK. You as specifically NOT permitted to discuss solutions to problems with other students or share code.

I haven't been out of school long enough to forget how rampant cheating is. So before you think about sharing solutions, know this much going in.

  1. I am a professional Software Engineer - I stare at code all day long. I've also TA'ed this course 3 times, and this is my 5th time teaching it. So if anyone can spot copied code/cheating, it's probably me.
  2. The tests will have a large amount of the material that comes straight from the homeworks/projects. This will make them fairly easy for students who have completed and understood the projects on their own, and very difficult for those that haven't.
Cheating will be dealt with per University guidelines. I really don't want to waste everyone's time by doing this, but I will. Please do your own work.

Grading Policies: I'm going to grade on the standard curve (>93=A, >90=A-, >87 B+, etc.). This is guaranteed. Depending on class performance or other factors, I might adjust this scale down (to help everyone) I will never adjust it up.
Also, all your grades will be posted online (via a code name) so that you always know exactly where you are throughout the semester. Please check online and make sure all your grades are correct.

Your grade for the semester will be based on:
Tests:   50% of final grade
Projects:   25% of final grade
Labs + Homeworks   25% of final grade

Class participation can positively affect a borderline grade. 

Textbooks

Required: C++ How To Program, 4th Edition, by Deitel and Deitel    ISBN: 0130384747

Required: Just Enough Unix, 4th Edition, by Anderson,   ISBN: 0072463775

Required: C++ in the Lab, 4th Edition, Deitel, Deitel, and Nieto ISBN: 013038478X 

Schedule

You are expected to attend all classes, and to be prepared for each class by reviewing notes from the previous lecture and reading the scheduled reading assignments. You are responsible for all announcements and material presented during classes, whether you are present or not.
This schedule is tentative and subject to change.
Date Topics Resources Readings  What's Due
February 9 Introduction To Course Lecture 1
February 11 C++ Basics Lecture 2 Deitel Chapter 1
February 14  Coding Standards Coding Standards Deitel Chapter 2
February 16 Algorithms, Casting, Control Flow Lecture 3 Using Unix Chapters 1-3
February 18 Loops, File Processing Lecture 4 Using Unix 6-7
February 21 File Processing, Functions Lecture 5 Deitel Chapter 3, 14
Random Number Exploit		 Lab 1
February 23 Storage Class, More Functions FP Examples
February 25 Recursion Lecture 6
February 28 Pass by Reference,  Structs Lab 2
March 2 Review for Exam Homework 1
March 4 Work on your Project
March 7 Exam 1 Lab 3
March 9 Go over Exam 1, Start Arrays Lecture 7 Deitel Chapter 4
March 11 More Arrays Lecture 8 Project 1
March 14 Strings
March 16 Pointers Lecture 9 Deitel Chapter 5
March 18 More Pointers, Start Linked Lists Lecture 10
March 21 Linked Lists Linked List Tutorial Lab 4
March 23 More Pointers/Linked Lists Lecture 11
March 25 More review on Linked Lists Homework 2
March 28 Spring Break - No class!
March 30 Spring Break - No class!
April 1 Spring Break - No class!
April 4 Work on Project Lab 5
April 6 Optional Exam Review at 7PM
April 8 Exam 2
April 11 Go Over Exam, Start Classes Lecture 12 Deitel Chapter 6
April 13 Classes and OOP Project 2
April 15 Constructors, Destructors Lecture 13
April 18 More Classes Lecture 14 Deitel Chapter 7 Homework 3
April 20 Still More Classes
April 22 More OOP/Friend Functions
April 25 Friend Functions Lecture 15 Deitel Chapter 8
April 27 Operator Overloading Homework 4
April 29 Operator Overloading Lecture 16
May 2 Inheritence Lecture 17 Deitel Chapter 9 Lab 6
May 4 Inheritence Lecture 18
May 6 Inheritence
May 9 Work on Projects Lecture 19 Deitel Chapter 10 Lab 7
May 11 Virtual Functions, Polymorphism Homework 5
May 13 Work on labs/projects Lecture 20
May 16 Abstract Base Classes, Project help in class Lab 8
May 18 Review for final Project 3
May 25 Final Exam, MEM 111, 1-3PM

Resources

 Professor Conrad's CISC181 Page
 Professor Sullivan's 181 Page
 Professor Caviness's 181 Page
 C++ Reference
 C++ FAQ (Lite version)
 U. of Hawaii's VI tutorial
 VI Lover's homepage
 EMACS tutorial
 STL String Reference
 Pointer Fun With Binky (and other help with Pointers + Linked Lists)
 Sun Ray Reference / Tips ( Thanks to Professor Conrad for this )
 Sorting Algorithms (Look at Bubble and Selection - than look at one that uses better than 0(n^2) - merge or quick sort should be fine.
 Linked List Tutorial