Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Winter, 1998.
Instructor: David J. Eck.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 12:00--1:10 PM, in Room Lansing 300.
Lab: Tuesday, 11:00--1:00, in the Gulick Microcomputer Classroom.
Computer Science 124 is an introduction to programming. Programming is only one part of computer science, but it is the most basic and most central part. This course has no prerequisites, although a general familiarity with computers will certainly be helpful. (If you are worried about not having enough background for this course, you might consider taking Computer Science 100 instead. CPSC 100 is a general survey of computer science.)
Many different languages are used for writing computer programs. Some of the most important are C, C++, Pascal, BASIC, FORTRAN, Ada, Lisp, Smalltalk, Prolog, and Java. It is impossible to learn all the different programming languages. Fortunately, it is possible to learn principles and general techniques of programming that can be applied no matter what language you write in. Although you will work with a specific language, you should try not to lose sight of the general ideas.
In this course, we will use the Java programming language, one of the newest languages. Before last year, CPSC 124 was taught using the language Pascal. Because of the increasing popularity of C++, we had planned to switch to C++ for the course last year. However, C++ is an extremely large and complex language, and not really well-suited for an introductory programming course. Java is based on C++ and is very similar. However, it is much less complex and is better suited for an introductory course. It is also in some ways a more modern language, and it has been the cause of a lot of excitement in the programming community. (C++ is used, however, in CPSC 125; Java turns out to be a good preparation for a course in C++.)
Instead of a regular textbook for this course, we will use an on-line text that I wrote for the course last year. (I will probably be making some minor modifications to this text as the term progresses, but you can still read ahead if you want, because the changes will be small.) As a supplement to the on-line text, you should buy Java in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference, by David Flannagan, which is available in the bookstore. This is not a book that you would want to read to learn programming, but I think that it will be useful to have a hard-copy reference to use while you are programming.
(Note to Juniors and Seniors on fulfilling requirements: This course fulfills a distribution requirement in the natural sciences. It does not, however, fulfill the lab requirement in the natural sciences. Even though the course has a "lab" it is not an experimental science lab in the usual sense.)
This course has a lab component. Labs will be held Tuesdays from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM in the Microcomputer Classroom on the second floor of Gulick Hall. The software that you will use in the lab is Microsoft Visual J++. Weekly lab worksheets will be posted on the World Wide Web at http://math.hws.edu/eck/cs124/labs/
For each lab, you will turn in a "lab report". The lab report will not cover everything you do in lab. There will be a few questions for you to answer and/or programming problems for you to solve. Your lab report will consist of your answers to these exercises. It is quite possible that you will not finish all the exercises during the Tuesday lab period. That is to be expected. Completing the lab exercises is part of your homework for the course.
You should work on each lab with a partner (although I will not stop you from working alone). You have the option of turning in a single lab report for you and your lab partner, or turning in an individual report. If you and your partner turn in a single report, you will receive the same grade.
Although I do not take attendance in regular classes, I do take attendance in lab. Ordinarily, you must be present at lab to get any credit for the lab report. (If you have some good reason for missing a lab, discuss it with me -- in advance if possible.)
In addition to lab reports, there will be several individual programming assignments. I encourage you to ask me for advice, hints, and help on the assignments. But you are not permitted to work with other students, discuss your programs with them, or look at their programs. (You should also avoid leaving copies of your work where other students might find it!)
There might also be a final, group project in which you will work with several students on a more ambitious project.
Programming assignments that are turned in up to one week late will lose 15% of their grades as a penalty. Programs will not ordinarily be accepted later than one week after they are due. Even if your program is not complete or not working properly, you should still turn it in to receive partial credit.
There will be two in-class tests in addition to a final exam. The tests will be given on Wednesday, January 28 and on Wednesday, February 25. The final exam is scheduled for Wednesday, March 18, at 1:30 PM; it will be given in our regular classroom (Lansing 300). The final exam is scheduled to last three hours, but in fact it will be only slightly longer than the in-class tests. It will, however, be comprehensive, covering material from the entire term.
There will also be seven fifteen-minute quizzes, which will be given at the end of class on each Wednesday except for the first Wednesday of the term and the two days when there are tests. It is extremely important to keep up with the material in this course, and I have found that weekly quizzes help students to do so. The lowest of your quiz grades will be dropped.
If you miss a quiz or test without a very good excuse, you will receive a grade of zero. If you think you have an excuse for missing the quiz or test, please discuss it with me, in advance if possible. If I judge that your excuse is reasonable, I will -- depending on the circumstances -- either give you a make-up quiz or test or I will average your other grades so that the missing grade does not count against you.
Your numerical grade for the course will be determined as follows:
First Test: 15%
Second Test: 15%
Final Exam: 20%
Quizzes: 15%
Lab Reports: 15%
Programming Assignments: 20%
My scale for converting numerical grades into letter grades is:
A: 90% to 100%
B: 80% to 89%
C: 65% to 79%
D: 50% to 64%
F: less than 50%
Grades near the bottom or top of a range are modified by a minus or plus. I follow this scale fairly strictly, although I occasionally "curve" a test by adding some points to each person's score, if I judge that the original grades on the test do not accurately reflect the performance of students in the class.
My office is room 301 in Lansing Hall, just next door to our regular classroom. My office phone extension is 3398. I am on campus most days, and you are welcome to come in anytime you can find me there. I will announce office hours and post them on my office door as soon as my schedule is determined, but note that your office visits are not restricted to my regular office hours.
My e-mail address is ECK (or eck@hws.edu over the Internet). E-mail is good way to communicate with me, since I usually answer messages the day I receive them. You already have an account on the Colleges' VAX computer that you can use to send and receive e-mail. If you don't know the password for that account, you should contact Barry Jones in Williams Hall.
The "home page" for this course on the World Wide Web is located at http://math.hws.edu/eck/cs124. (If you don't know what that means, you will soon!) This page will contain links to the on-line notes for the course, other sources of Java information, solutions to tests and quizzes, and more.