General Information

• Staff
• Class schedule and syllabus
• Prerequisites
• Textbook
• Course policies:
  • Cheating
    
  • Extensions, late homework
    
  • Grading
    
  • Regrading requests
    
• General advice

Teaching Staff

Instructor:

Teaching Assistants

Class Schedule

Tech Institute, L160
MWF 11:00-11:50
A tentative syllabus has been posted under Lecture Notes

Prerequisites

EECS 211 or 231. You must be fluent in C++.

Textbook

Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C++ by Mark Allen Weiss, 3rd edition

The author's web site has errata for the book (most were fixed in the second printing) and source code.

This book assumes a working knowledge of C++. It is recommended that you acquire a C++ reference book. The Association of C and C++ Users has a searchable compendium of book reviews, of varying quality. The list by subject is a good place to start, where you'll find entries for beginners, advanced, data structures, and so on.

Some titles I personally turn to all the time:

• Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo: not a massive boat-sinker but a short introduction to the good stuff in modern C++ programming.
• The C++ Standard Library by Nicolas Josuttis: An excellent reference and tutorial, on the entire C++ standard library, i.e., strings, I/O streams, and what's commonly called the Standard Template Library (STL). Never re-invent what the libraries already provide.
• The STL Tutorial and Reference Guide by Musser, Derger and Saini
• Generic Programming and the STL by Matthew Austern

C++ gives the programmer great power. But as Uncle Ben told Spiderman: "With great power comes great responsibility." Or, as Steve Haflich has said, "When your hammer is C++, everything begins to look like a thumb." There a zillion ways to do things badly in C++ (and C too), so it's good to have some books on avoiding the traps and pitfalls. The following are particularly good:

• Scott Meyer's three books on Effective C++ -- the first is a C++ classic
• Herb Sutter's Exceptional C++
• C Traps and Pitfalls by Andrew Koenig. There's a 29 page essay by him the same title available in PDF form.
• Expert C Programming by Peter van der Linden: practical, funny too

Some popular titles are:

• Absolute C++ by Walter Savitch (2nd edition)
• C++: How to program by Deitel & Deitel (5th edition).
• The C++ programming language by Bjarne Stroustrup (3rd edition): by the creator of C++

Course Policies

Cheating

• In this course you are required to work individually or use pair programming.
• This means that you must never copy solutions from any source or give your homework to another student/pair (even if the deadline is past). You must not share code or show your code to anyone other than the instructor, the class TA, or your pair partner.
• However, you are allowed and encouraged to discuss the assignments. You may ask for suggestions when you are stuck and discuss examples that are not part of the assignment. The newsgroup is an ideal forum for this.
• Keep in mind that all assignments are checked for similarities and, if applicable, compared to assignments from past quarters.
• Cheating may result in a failing grade for the course. University policy requires that graduate students who are caught cheating are reported to the graduate school and undergraduates to the Dean.

Late submissions, Extensions

• You are advised to start your assignments early.
• 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.
• 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 work.
• If you know in advance that you will miss enough days to make it impossible to finish an assignment on time, please contact the instructor in advance to make arrangements. Unplanned absences will be dealt with in a case-by-case basis. Make sure you have documentation (e.g. doctor's note).
• Extensions will not be given unless in extreme circumstances. Lab downtime does not apply. Nuclear meltdown does. Make sure you always keep backups of your work. There will be no extension if you accidentally lose your files.

Grading policy

There is no option of doing additional work to improve your grade.

Regrading requests

• Requests for regrades must be submitted to the TA no sooner than 24 hours from having received the marked assignment, and no later than two weeks after your grade was given to you. If the appeal to the TA does not satisfy you, you can then talk to Vana. There will be no exceptions to these rules. You should expect a reply to your request within a week after it was submitted.
• At the end of the quarter you will be given a chance to review your final exam before the letter grades are submitted to the Registrar's office.

How to make the most out of this class

• Participate in class. Ask questions and don't be afraid to challenge the instructor. You are here to learn and you should take advantage of the fact that you have a live person teaching you and not a TV.
• Don't hesitate to come to office hours if you have additional questions on the material.
• Start your assignments early. The newsgroup is your friend. Posting your questions there will usually get you an answer much faster than if you email them to us, or wait until class/office hours.
• Do not wait until the day before the final to ask for help. Do not ask to be given additional work in order to improve your grade. If this was an option it would be applicable to the whole class, not individual students.
• If there is a minimum acceptable grade that you need (e.g. you are on academic probation or need good grades for a scholarship), and you seem to be having trouble achieving it, ask for help as soon as possible. Do not hesitate to ask for an appointment with the instructor or TAs to go over the material/assignments again.