Description

Computer science encompasses a wide range: designing and building computer devices (e.g., your cell phone, laptop, weather censors, robots), designing and building programming languages (e.g., Java, Python, C) and the supporting software that control these devices (e.g., operating systems, compilers), and the actual applications themselves (e.g., reading an x-ray, video animation, voice mail). This course focuses on how to write computer programs that solve problems on a general purpose computer.

Programming languages are one of the key tools that computer scientists design and use to help themselves and others use computers. This course will use a particular programming language, Java, to introduce you to how to use a computer to solve problems. In this course, most of your learning will take place when you are putting in to practice the concepts from the book and lectures to solve more and more complex problems using more and more sophisticated programming practices. You will learn through doing. Most of your grade will therefore be based on developing your programming skills.

Results

At the end of the course, you will be able to solve problems that are relatively modest in size and scope using Java, and you will understand enough about programming in general to be able to quickly learn another programming language. You will have been exposed to a wide variety of problems on which computer scientists work.

Computers and Accounts

You must apply for a computer science account no later than Friday January 19 at 1pm. You will have an opportunity to sign up in your discussion section on Tuesday January 16. It takes at least one business day for your account to be activated. You will use your account in all your discussion sections starting on Tuesday January 23, and for turning in you programming assignments. You may use the lab computers or your home computer to do your assignments.

To sign up, use your own computer or use the computers in the Micro Lab (PAI 3.12) or Elements Lab (PAI 5.38) and follow the instructions for: Online Account Sign up

We provide computers for you to use in the Painter Elements Lab (PAI 5.38) or the Painter Microcomputer Lab (PAI 3.06, 3.22). Normal lab hours are:

Monday-Thursday:	9 am - 1 am
Friday:	9 am - 8 pm
Saturday:	10 am - 6 pm
Sunday:	12 noon - 1 am

Communication

• Please frequently read the class announcements page.

• The class newsgroup is in the Blackboard. After logging in, go to the "Introduction to Computing" homepage in blackboard and check "Discussion board".

  Use the newsgroup for all but personal issues. You must read the newsgroup, and you should post course related technical questions and responses to this newsgroup. You should make heavy use of the course newsgroup and of TA support, if you have technical or administrative questions or problems.

• Email to the Instructor & TA. Please prepend "305j" to the subject of any email to me or the TA. We receive an enormous amount of email, and if you follow this rule we will be better able to address your questions in a timely manner.

• Checking your grades - use UTdirect's eGradebook . For each section, the direct link to the eGradebook is as follows: 54775, 54780

Materials

• Text: Cohoon and Davidson, Java 5.0 Program Design, 2004 ISBN: 0-07-296113-9.

• Online Text: Martin Stepp and Stuart Reges, Programming in Java.

• Supplemental Online Text: Bruce Eckel, Thinking in Java.

• Another Online Text: David J. Eck, Introduction to Programming Using Java.

• Course Web page: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mckinley/305j/

• Lecture notes: The webpage will contain a current detailed schedule (which is subject to change) with all assignments (written and programming), lecture notes (in powerpoint), and exam times. I will post the lecture notes before class. I expect you to take notes as well.

• Other Java References
  • Introduction to Java. A good on-line getting-started-with-Java reference.
  • A Java tutorial.
  • Another Java tutorial.

Course Structure

• The course will use a structure similar to that used for teaching spoken languages. Lectures will introduce programming language constructs through extensive examples, by developing Java programs and testing them in class.

• Discussion sections will start with a short 5 to 10 minute quiz on concepts introduced in lecture. In the remaining 40 minutes, you will complete a short programming exercise to help you master a concept you will need to successfully complete your weekly programming assignment.

• Each Thursday, you will complete a more substantial programming assignment that builds on concepts introduced in lectures and that you practiced using in your discussion section.

Requirements and Grading

You must attend class regularly, read the assigned reading before class, and participate in class discussions. The course will be graded on a curve.

• 60% - 11 Programming Projects

• 10% - Quizzes and Programming Exercises administered in discussion sections

• 30% - 2 Exams, 15% a piece (no make up exams)

  • Exam 1: WED 2/28/2007 5:30-7:30, first half of course

  • Exam 2: WED 5/2/2005 5:30-7:30 second half of course

Pair Programming

Pair Programming. You must do the assignments in a pair. We use pair programming because it is a more effective and time efficient way to learn the material. Researchers have shown that students perform better in the class in which they use pair programming than without, and also they perform better in subsequent classes with or without it. These results indicate that you learn more and better with pair programming. Please read:

• All I need to know about pair programming I learned in kindergarten, L. A. Williams and R. R. Kessler, Communications of the ACM, 43(5): 108--114, May 2000.

• Pair programming productivity: Novice-novice vs. expert-expert, K. M. Lui and K. C.C. Chan, International Journal on Human-Computer Studies, 64: 915--925, June 2006.

You must follow the pair programming guidelines: the pair must sit, design, and program together at least 80% of the time, and split keyboard time evenly. Each student can work independently for at most 10% of the effort/time. The person at the keyboard is the driver, and the person sitting next to him/her is the navigator. We recommend you alternate driving and navigating every 30 minutes.

Find a partner in your discussion group since you will be working together both in the discussion section on assignments and on the weekly programming assignments. You may keep the same partners for the entire course or change partners between assignments. If we have an odd number of students, one student will pair with the TA or proctor.

Once you begin an assignment with a partner, you cannot re-pair for that assignment. In an emergency (your pair gets sick, flips out, etc.), you may independently do that one, and only one, assignment. You must first send an email to the instructor and TA. With their approval, you may turn in your assignment. In the comments of your class file(s), you must include (1) your initial partner, (2) a copy of the email correspondence with the TA and/or instructor.

Due Dates and Late Policies

• No makeup exams. If you cannot make the evening exam times, you may take the exam earlier the same day. If you miss an exam due to illness, you must obtain a doctor note and send me an email before the exam. Your other exam score will then count double.

• No makeup quizzes. All quizzes are administered in your discussion sections. You must attend your discussion section. We will provide solutions in the same class period (to give you quick feedback).

  This course covers a lot of material and late assignments will seriously impact your ability to learn the next section of the course. For documented illness or death in the family that results in missing quizzes, the assignment will be excluded from your grade average.

• All programming assignments (labs) are due at 10pm on Thursday nights, as recorded by the "turnin" program timestamp.

• Lab Late policy. No assignment may be more than 4 days late (no assignments accepted after 10pm on the next Monday). You will have 6 free late (slip) days in 1 day units (1 minute to 24 hours = 1 day) for all but the first programming assignment. You may divide your slip days across the remaining projects in any way you wish to extend deadlines for the projects, subject to the 4 day maximum. Both members of a pair use their own slip days, and both must have the requested number of slip days. To help the TA track your slip-day status, add the following comment to the top of your assignment.java file:

  Pair Name 1: Slip days used (this project): _______     Slip days used (total): ______
  Pair Name 2: Slip days used (this project): _______     Slip days used (total): ______

  No other extensions will be granted. We recommend that you plan to turn your assignments on time and only use your slip days for unexpected illness. We will grant extensions on labs only for documented illness and death in the family that consumes more than 4 days.

Cooperation and Cheating

Feel free to discuss homework and labs with other members of the class, the instructor, or the TA. However, do not look at or copy another student's or pair's solution to a homework or lab. We are not concerned with how you come to understand the problem and how to solve it, but once you have the background necessary to solve it, you must provide your own solution. Exchanging homework or lab solutions is cheating and will be reported to the University. At minimum, you will fail the course.

The Student Code of Conduct documents your rights and responsibilities as a student.

I used course materials from Jim Cohoon, Jack Davidson, Stuart Reges, Marty Stepp, Roger Priebe, and Mike Scott to prepare some of the course materials. Thanks!

Copyright Notice: All of these materials are part of a first course on programming. You must ask me permission to use these materials. I do not grant to you the right to publish these materials for profit in any form.

Kathryn S. McKinley, Professor, The University of Texas at Austin