Front Door

Welcome to the Fall 2000 session of Grinnell College's CSC 152, Fundamentals of Computer Science II, which is described relatively well in the official blurb. My own take on this course is that we'll be expanding your knowledge of Computer Science and of computer programming, while emphasizing the development and analysis of common data structures and algorithms. We will be using Java as our development language. As in all Grinnell callses, we'll also be working on general thinking and work skills.

In an attempt to provide up-to-date information, and to spare a few trees, I am making this as much of a ``paperless'' course as I can. You may also want to read the basic instructions for using this course web.

Warning! Experience shows that CSC152 is a significantly more time-consuming and accelerated course than CSC151. Expect to spend about twice as much time on CSC152 as you spent on CSC151, and expect to go about twice as fast through the material.

Basics

Meets: MTuWF 9:00-9:50 a.m.

Instructor: Samuel A. Rebelsky, Science 2427. Office hours: MW 1:15-3:00, Tu 1:30-3:00. (I tend to follow an open door policy: Feel free to stop by when my door is open)

Teaching Assistant: Nathan Corvino. Hours (in MathLAN): Sunday 6-8, Monday 8-10

Grading (subject to change): Labs and attendance: 10%; Homework: 30% (3-5 graded assignments out of 6-10 total assignments); Project: 30%; Exams: 30% (3 graded take-home exams).

The final examination for this course is optional. It can be used as a makeup for one examination. Like the other examinations, it will be a take-home examination.

Labs: While you won't do as many labs as you did in CS151 (if you took CS151), Labs are for your benefit, not mine, so I won't be grading most of them (other than to check that you completed them).

The Project: Over the past few semesters, I've found that building a large class project gives students a particularly beneficial (if painful) experience. This semester, we'll be working together to build a program that helps students think about their four year programs.

Extra Credit: I will occasionally give you quizzes to ensure that you're keeping up with the reading. Correct answers on the quizzes will give you some amount of extra credit. I may also give some extra credit for corrections to Java Plus Data Structures.

Throughout the term, I may suggest other forms of extra credit.

Books and Other Readings

Rebelsky, Samuel (2000). Experiments in Java. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley Longman. This is the laboratory manual that we will use for the first few weeks of class. It is temporarily available online, but you are expected to purchase copies. (I receive no royalties.)

Bailey, Duane A. (1999). Java Structures: Data Structures in Java^tm for the Principled Programmer. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. The primary text for this class. You should expect to read about one chapter each week.

Rebelsky, Samuel (2000). The CS152 2000F Course Web. The hypertext that you are currently reading. All of these materials are optional, but you may find them useful. You should make it a point to load the page of the day at the beginning of each class to check announcements and such.