Course Syllabus CS 2530 Intermediate Computing Fall Semester 2012

Basics

Instructor: Eugene Wallingford

• Office: 305 ITTC
• Phone: 273-5919
• E-Mail: wallingf@cs.uni.edu
• WWW: http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/


• Click here for my my office hours and schedule

Resources

• Required texts:
  • Think Java, by Allen Downey
  • Java Notes, by David Eck

  These texts are both intro CS books that use Java. They provide nice basic introductions to the language and should be relatively easy to read. Both are available for free in digital form and in print for a price. You are not required to purchase a print copy of either.



• Optional texts:
  • Understanding Object-Oriented Programming with Java, by Tim Budd

  The Budd text is as good an introduction to object-oriented programming as I have ever found for a course like this. Unfortunately, it is a bit dated, available only in print, and rather expensive.



• Electronic resources:
  • The course web page, http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/teaching/cs2530/
  • The course mailing list, cs2530@cs.uni.edu

  Note: To send messages to the course mailing list, you must send from the mailing address from which you are subscribed. By default, that is your @uni.edu e-mail address. If you'd like to be subscribed from some other address, just let me know.

Course Goals

Your skill as a programmer depends largely on how many ways you can think about problems and solutions. At the most abstract level, flexibility allows you to be creative. At a more concrete level, flexibility allows you to learn new kinds of programming languages more effectively. And, at the most concrete level, such flexibility allows you to use individual programming languages more effectively.

This course aims to help you develop an in-depth understanding of a new way to think about computer programs: as collections of independent objects that collaborate to achieve some goal. It does so by giving you the opportunity to read, design, critique, and implement object-oriented programs in Java.

By the end of the semester, you should have a solid grasp of the object-oriented approach to software development. You should:

• know the basic features of OO techniques,
• know the vocabulary of object-oriented modeling,
• be able to analyze a real-world situation in an object-oriented way,
• be able to design an object-oriented model containing multiple classes and collaborations, and
• be able to implement such a model in Java using OO programming techniques.

Among the more general goals that you should have for the course is to learn both low- and high-level patterns of programming that will make you wonderful, intelligent programmers and designers.

The course is not a "Java course". As a result of the course, however, you will probably become a reasonable Java programmer. Likewise, the course is not organized so that you will be become expert 3:00 AM Java hackers, but that may happen anyway, depending on your programming habits.

Course Requirements

• Class sessions -- Our class meetings will consist of a mixture of short lecture, discussion, and in-class exercises. Nearly all of our lecture and discussion material will go beyond what you read in any textbook, so attendance is essential. I expect you to read assigned topics prior to the class session and to participate actively in class.


• Homework -- Over the course of the term, you will complete ten to twelve homework assignments. These assignments will involve applying analysis, design, and implementation techniques learned in class. Some assignments will involve writing and some will consist of paper exercises, but many will involve programming.
  
  
• Exams -- We will have one exam near the middle of the course and a comprehensive exam at the end of the course.

Course Evaluation

Grades will be determined on the basis of your performance on homework assignments and examinations. Final grades will be based on the following distribution:

Grades will be assigned using an absolute scale:

• 90% or above for an A,
• 80% or above for a B,
• 70% or above for a C,
• 60% or above for a D, and
• below 60% for an F.

This means that there is no curve.

Course Policies

• I try to accommodate student needs whenever possible, but I can only do so if I know about them. If you ever have to make alternate arrangements for a class session, an assignment, or an examination, please contact me in advance. The safest way to make such arrangements is by notifying me via e-mail or phone of your circumstances and of how you can be reached.


• My regularly-scheduled office hours are times when I am committed to provide assistance to you. No matter how busy I may appear when you arrive, the office hours are for you. You are welcome -- and encouraged -- to make use of that time. I am also available by appointment at other times if you cannot make an office hour.


• All assignments are due at their assigned date and time. In order to receive partial credit, always submit your best effort at that time. Late work will not be accepted.


• I encourage you to work together on homework assignments, as a way to help you understand the problems better and to encounter different points of view about possible solutions. However, unless the assignment explicitly states otherwise, any work you submit must be your own. Discuss ideas, but write your own answers, including all code. You should acknowledge any collaboration explicitly in the work you submit. Undocumented or unacceptable collaboration is considered a form of academic dishonesty.

  That said, the project that will account for most of your grade in this course may be done in teams of two or three. For the project, the above paragraph refers to the project team.



• UNI has an established policy of academic integrity. I will not tolerate plagiarism or any other form of academic dishonesty in this course. See the UNI catalog for details on the university's policy.

Computing Environment

In addition to our time together in class, we will communicate by e-mail and the web. I will post materials for the course to the course web page, and we will make use of other web-based resources when appropriate. We also have a class-wide mailing list, cs2530@cs.uni.edu, with which we can carry on discussion outside of class meetings. Be sure that you remain current in your use of these resources!

You will write all programs for the course in the Java programming language. Numerous Java resources are available on the web, and Java implementations are available for nearly every platform, including Unix, MacOS X, and Windows.

The base platform for the course is student.cs.uni.edu, the Linux system for CS students. It provides Version 1.6 of the Java Development Kit, a set of tools for compiling and executing Java programs. I require only that I must be able to compile and run your programs in a standard Java 1.6 environment. (I do most of my Java programming on a Mac OS X 10.6 system.)

Tentative Schedule

The following schedule gives a rough sketch of the topics we will cover and the distinguished dates this semester. It is tentative and subject to change at any time. I will announce any substantive changes in class and give you sufficient notice.

The FINAL EXAM is Thursday, December 13, from 3:00 PM-4:45 PM.