General Information

• Staff
• Prerequisites
• Textbook
• Grading policy
• Regrading requests
• Late submission policy
• Cheating
• Pair Programming
• General advice

Staff

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this class. No previous knowledge of programming is assumed.

Textbook

The textbook for this class is Computer Science: A Structured Programming Approach Using C, Third Edition by Behrouz A. Forouzan and Richard F. Gilberg.

The source code for the examples in the book can be downloaded from the publisher here. The code is in a Windows installer. If you need these files for a Macintosh or Unix system, contact me.

Grading policy

Regrading requests

Requests for regrades must be submitted no later than one week after the graded paper was handed back to you. There will be no exceptions to this rule. At the end of the quarter you will be given a chance to review your final exam before the letter grades are submitted.

Late submission

Please start your programming assignments EARLY. Programs always take more time than you think they will.

Late programming assignments will not be penalized as long as the total late hours for the whole quarter do not exceed 96. After those "free" hours have been used up, you must submit your assignments before the due date for them to be accepted.

Extensions will not be given unless one of the following applies:

• Serious personal problems (e.g. serious illness). Documentation is required.
• Extended lab downtime.

If you are scheduled to be out of town on the day or week when the assignment is due (e.g. interview trip, participation in sports event) you must make arrangements for turning in your assignments. We realize that such situations or heavy load for other courses may force you to turn some assignments late. This is why we have the 96-late hour policy.

Keep frequent backups of your work on floppy disks or other machines. There will be no extension if you accidentally lose your files.

Cheating

You must never copy solutions from any source or make your homework available, in any form, to anyone other than the professor or TA.

Cheating will result in a failing grade for the course. University policy requires that graduate students who are caught cheating be reported to the graduate school and undergraduates to the Dean.

However, you are allowed and encouraged to discuss the assignments. This means asking for suggestions when you are stuck and discussing examples that are not part of the assignment. You must never share code or solutions to the assigned problems.

Pair Programming

Pair programming is not required but strongly recommended for most assignments. More and more studies are showing the benefits of pair programming not only in software development, but in introductory computer science courses.

A good description of how pair programming is done is here. We'll practice pair programming in the lab.

If you pair program, you must follow the rules below. Not doing so will be treated as cheating.

• Find a partner before writing any code. Make sure the two of you can schedule at least 4 hours of meetings to program together. Each meeting should be between 1 to 2 hours. How much time you'll actually need will vary widely from pair to pair and assignment to assignment.
• Read the assignment before you meet. Write down any questions you have about what you need to do. Do not write any code.
• When you meet, follow the rules for pair programming. That means switching every 15 minutes or so, and the "observer" is an active contributor to the process.
• All programming must be done in the pair. Do not continue programming outside the pair.
  • If you can't finish in one session, meet again.
  • If that's impossible, save a copy of the code you pair-programmed for separate submission. Then work alone to finish the code.
• When you submit your code, you must include both programmers as authors in the head comments.

How to make the most out of this class

• Participate in class. Ask lots of questions.
• Study the textbook. It is very well written with good examples.
• Check the class webpage often. The Help section contains lots of helpful information.
• Start your assignments early. Ambitious programming can be very time consuming. Even though something may seem simple in principle, sometimes it takes quite a while to code.
• Do not get stuck for too long on your homework without asking the professor or TA for help.
• Use the newsgroup to ask questions about the assignments or the material. Often, you will get a reply much faster than if you emailed the staff directly.
• Don't hesitate to come to office hours if you have additional questions on the material.
• Do not wait until the day before the final to ask for help in the class! Even if you learn it then, you won't have any practice at using what you learned.
• If you must get a specific final grade (e.g. due to a scholarship or academic probation) let me know at the beginning of the quarter so that I can help you achieve your goal - this means I'll help you learn: I will NOT grade your work differently.
• Finally, no course gives individuals the option to improve a grade by doing additional work.