CS 181 -- Course Information -- Spring, 2000

            Instructor:  Dr. H.E. Dunsmore
        E-Mail Address:  dunsmore@cs.purdue.edu
                Office:  CS 170
                 Phone:  494-1996
            Class Time:  7:30 - 8:20 am Tues/Thur
            Class Room:  CL50 224

  Course Administrator:  Vinayak Tanksale
        E-Mail Address:  tanksale@cs.purdue.edu
                Office:  Math 411
                 Phone:  494-5231

     Lecture Assistant:  Leyna Cotran
        E-Mail Address:  leyna@purdue.edu

C++: How to Program, Second Edition, Harvey and Paul Deitel, Prentice Hall, 0-13-528910-6 [NOT REQUIRED]

PREREQUISITE

COURSE WEBSITE

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• More adept at Java programming
• More comfortable with the object-oriented paradigm
• Ability to use classes and objects and to extend classes
• Adept at creating Java applets
• Exception handling
• Concurrent processes (threads)
• More ability with data structures
• Learn to program in C++

GRADES

  20%  13 Lab Assignments
  40%  8 Programming Assignments
  40%  Two Exams (20% each)
       Exam 1: Thursday, March 2, in class (CL50 224)
       Exam 2: Wednesday, May 3, 3:20-4:20 pm, CL50 224

IMPORTANT -- Exams can only be "made up" in extraordinary circumstances if arrangements are made with CS 181 Course Administrator Vinayak Tanksale. Such arrangements should be made at least one week before the exam. "Made up" exams must be taken before the time the rest of the class takes the same exam.

In CS 181 it is most likely that we will use the following grading curve:

  90-100 = A
  80- 89 = B
  70- 79 = C
  60- 69 = D
below 60 = below D

LECTURE, LAB, RECITATION

RECITATION -- [1 hour Friday]
Your Recitation Instructor (CS graduate student) will explain any concepts you do not understand from lecture or lab and will usually present additional examples. Your Recitation Instructor will also discuss assignments. Later those assignments will be turned in via email to your section's grader. Your Recitation Instructor will not discuss labs.

LAB -- [2 hours Monday]
Your Lab Instructor (undergraduate student -- typically one who has taken CS 181 fairly recently) will give you programming problems to complete during the 2-hour lab period and will help you complete them. Your Lab Instructor will not usually discuss the lectures or assignments, but can certainly answer questions about them if time allows.

HELP SESSIONS

POLICIES

Lecture Absence "Penalties"

Absences	Change
0-4	0
5	-1
6	-2
7	-3
8	-4
9	-5
etc.

Past experience has shown us that students who attend lecture regularly do better on labs, assignments, and exams -- even those who think they already know the material or who think they can learn it on their own. For that reason attendance in lecture is required in CS 181. Class roll will be taken daily. You will have an assigned seat beginning in Week 2. Attendance will be taken toward the beginning and toward the end of each class session. If you are absent for either, you are considered absent for that day.

The table to the right indicates how lecture attendance will affect your final average in this course. For example, if you have a final percentage of 83%, but have 8 absences, your final percentage will be decreased to 79% ... dropping you from a B to a C.

Note that you have 4 free absences! BUT, do not plan to use these. Save them in case of serious illness, family emergency, or official university commitments. Absences will NOT be excused for any reason. At the end of the semester, if you are on the borderline for a grade and have no (or almost no) absences, it it very likely that we will give you the higher of the two grades.

(2) You should read the material in the textbook according to the class syllabus. In most cases, you will read about a concept in the book, then Prof. Dunsmore will cover it in class, then it will be discussed in recitation, then you will use it in lab, then it will be used on a assignment, and finally it will be tested on an exam.

(3) The Purdue University Computing Center (PUCC) provides the workstations that you will use for assignments. These workstations may become heavily loaded as an assignment deadline nears. Waiting until the last minute to work on your assignment is dangerous! Our CS 181 policy is NOT to extend deadlines unless most workstations are unavailable for an extended period (like 10-12 hours) near the end of a assignment.

(4) NO LATE assignments or labs will be accepted. There will be NO EXCEPTIONS to this rule except under extreme circumstances approved in advance by your Recitation Instructor or Lab Instructor. Failure to turn in a assignment results in a loss of all the points allocated for the assignment. The same holds true for a lab assignment.

(5) For each assignment, students are told to direct all assignment-related questions to one of the CS 181 Recitation Instructors. That Recitation Instructor will answer all questions about the assignment and will post general interest questions and answers to the class Bulletin Board. We can answer questions asking for clarifications on the assignment. We can address problems that arise if the assignment specification is unclear or does not adequately address an area the assignment covers. However, that person should not be asked questions specific to your own individual program. Those kinds of questions should be taken to a CS 181 Help Session or to a Recitation Instructor's office hours.

(6) In most cases no credit will be given for programs that do not compile (that is, execution is suppressed due to compilation errors). Programs which execute but are not correct or complete will be considered for partial credit. To receive full credit, your program must produce correct results, be well-designed, and be efficient.

(7) WE ALWAYS WELCOME YOUR CONSTRUCTIVE COMMENTS. Please do not hesitate to bring any shortcomings to our attention.

CHEATING

It is also considered cheating to obtain or to view a copy of our solution to a lab or project before it is posted for everyone to see.

In accordance with Purdue University policy, anyone discovered cheating on an exam, assignment, or lab will be reported to the Dean of Students. Penalties for cheating are severe and usually result in a failing grade for the course. In some circumstances, cheating results in expulsion from the university.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that changes in a program (such as altering comments, changing variable names, or interchanging statements) will avoid detection. We use software that can detect cheating in all those instances. If you cannot do the work yourself, it is extremely unlikely that you will succeed in disguising someone else's work. We will be checking your assignments not only against your fellow students' work, but also against similar software available on the Web.

We are adamant that cheating in any form will not be tolerated. Even the most trivial assignment is better not submitted than if you cheat to complete it.