CPSC 120 Sections 516-518:
Programming II (Data Structures in Java and C)

Course Information
Spring 1998

Labs: All sections meet Tuesday, Thursday, HRBB 203.
Section 516, 12:00--12:50 PM
Section 517, 4:00--4:50 PM
Section 518, 5:00--5:50 PM

Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Welch
Office: 415 H.R. Bright Bldg
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday 2:00--3:30 PM; other times by appointment
Email: welch@cs.tamu.edu
Office Phone: 845-5076
Home Phone: 774-0680 (please don't call after 9:00 PM)

Teaching Assistant: Utkarsh Dhond
Office: 419D H.R. Bright Bldg
Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 2:00--3:30 PM; other times by appointment
Email: udhond@cs.tamu.edu
Office Phone: 862-4535

Course URL: http://www.cs.tamu.edu/course-info/cpsc120/spring98/welch. Check here frequently for updates.

Textbooks:

1. Data Structures in Java, Thomas A. Standish, Addison-Wesley, 1998.
2. On To C, Patrick Henry Winston, Addison-Wesley, 1994.
3. Supplementary: Computer Science: An Overview, Fifth Edition, J. Glenn Brookshear, Addison-Wesley, 1997.

At the end of the semester you should:

• be fluent in the use of the basic data structures mentioned above;
• understand and apply the principles of abstraction, modularity, and information hiding;
• appreciate and adhere to good software development practices;
• be able to program competently in the subset of Java and the subset of C covered in the course; and
• be familiar with many of the computer science problems and issues that will be studied later in the curriculum.

Course Content and Tentative Schedule: The course will cover the following topics. The relevant chapters of the textbooks are indicated; more detailed reading assignments, including possibly supplemental readings, will be given later.

• week of Jan 20: introduction to data structures (Standish, Ch 1) (Brookshear, Ch 7)
  object-oriented programming and Java (Standish, Ch 2 and Appendix A)
• week of Jan 26: linked lists (Standish, Ch 3)
• week of Feb 2: recursion (Standish, Ch 4)
• week of Feb 9: abstract data types (Standish, Ch 5)
• week of Feb 16: basic C (Winston, Chs 1-15, 26, 27)
• week of Feb 23: objects and pointers in C (Winston, Chs 16-25, 37)
• week of Mar 2: misc C (strings, file I/O) (Winston, Ch 31-36)
  EXAM I ON WEDNESDAY MAR 4 (TENTATIVE)
• week of Mar 9: stacks and queues (Standish, Ch 6)
  MIDSEMESTER GRADES DUE MAR 9
• week of Mar 16: SPRING BREAK
• week of Mar 23: lists, strings, and dynamic memory allocation (Standish, Ch 7)
• week of Mar 30: trees (Standish, Ch 8)
• week of Apr 6: hashing (Standish, Ch 9)
  LAST DAY TO Q-DROP APR 6
  NO CLASS ON FRIDAY, APR 10
• week of Apr 13: sorting (Standish, Ch 10)
  EXAM II ON WEDNESDAY, APR 15 (TENTATIVE)
• week of Apr 20: databases (Brookshear, Ch 9)
• week of Apr 27: artificial intelligence (Brookshear, Ch 10)
• week of May 4: computability and complexity (Brookshear, Ch 11)
  CLASS ON TUESDAY, MAY 5
• Monday, May 11, 8:00-10:00 AM: FINAL EXAM

Your grade will be based on four components:

• exams 35%
• programs 25%
• homework 20%
• quizzes 10%
• culture 10%

Exams: There will be two mid-term exams (worth 10% each) and one final exam (worth 15%). The exams will be held in class.

Programs: There will be several programming assignments, both in Java and in C. You will receive another handout with more details about the programs. Most of the lab time with the TA will be for you to work on your programs with help close at hand. Occasionally the lab may be used for other purposes (e.g., a quiz or additional lecture).

You will be expected to conform to this style guide for your Java programs. A similar style guide will be available soon for your C programs.

Homework: The bulk of the homework will consist of take-home pencil-and-paper assignments. Sometimes I will ask you to work a problem in class and turn it in.

Quizzes: At least once a week there will be a five-minute quiz, typically at the beginning of lecture, consisting of a few simple questions (short answer, true-false, or multiple choice) concerning the reading and/or the material covered in the last class. The purpose of the quiz is to encourage you to do the reading in advance and to stay caught up in the class. I will drop a few of your lowest quiz grades.

Culture: This component is to round out your classwork. Five activities are required. Acceptable activities are:

• attend a technical CS seminar and turn in a one page report
• read an article in a technical CS journal and turn in a one page report
• writing a short biography of a famous computer scientist

No late assignments, including programs, will be accepted and there are no make-up exams. Discuss unusual circumstances in advance with the instructor.

Course grades will be assigned according to this scale:
A for 90% or above of the total points,
B for 80 to 89%,
C for 70 to 79%,
D for 60 to 69%,
and F for less than 60%.

Collaboration: Discussion of concepts with others is encouraged, but all assignments must be done on your own, unless otherwise instructed. If you use any source other than the text, reference it/him/her, whether it be a person, a book, a solution set, a web page or whatever. You MUST write up the solutions in your own words. Copying is strictly forbidden.

University Regulations, Section 42, define scholastic dishonesty to include acquiring answers from any unauthorized source, working with another person when not specifically permitted, observing the work of other students during any exam, providing answers when not specifically authorized to do so, informing any person of the contents of an exam prior to the exam, and failing to credit sources used. Disciplinary actions range from grade penalty to expulsion.