Class 01: Introduction

Held: Monday, 20 January 2003

Summary: Today we begin CSC195 by considering the core subject matters of the course: Lower-level programming, memory management, and program verification.

Assignments:

• Scan through the various administrative handouts (due Tue).
• Fill out the introductory survey (due Tue).
• Take the administrivia quiz (due Tue).
• Read Gries 0-1 (due Tue).
• Homework 0: Binary Search (due noon Tue).

Notes:

• Don't forget about the MLK day events tonight. See the college Web page for more details.

Overview:

• Definitions: Computer science, computer programming, computing, algorithm, and more.
• Course basics.
• Getting started with the ECA.
• Administrative issues.

About This Class

• Computer Science 195 is a new course in the computer science department. It's only been offered once before, but will soon become part of the core curriculum.
• Why are we adding this course?
  • One reason: Your education is now missing a core topic. A few years ago, we switched the introductory sequence from Pascal in both CSC151 and CSC152 to Scheme in 151 and Java in CSC152. Neither language deals explicitly with pointers or memory.
  • Another reason: There were a few topics (particularly pointers and C programming, but also some basics of the Von Neuman model) that we found ourselves teaching in multiple courses because we couldn't be sure that students had the topic in a previous course.
  • Another reason: To complete the primary paradigms trilogy.
• So, what is the course about?
  • Primarily: Imperative Programming. It's useful to think in a language in which your primary operation is assignment. C also forces you to think closer to the hardware.
  • Additionally: Memory. Both Scheme and Java let you build lots and lots of things and don't require you to worry about what happens when you no longer need them. C requires you to think more carefully about memory.
  • Additionally: Program Verification. Since C makes it easy to do things wrong, we want you to study mechanisms for making sure that you don't do things wrong.

Paradigms for Problem-Solving

• You may have noted that I said that we'll study two paradigms of problem solving.
• Over the years, computer scientists have designed (discovered?) a number of techniques for looking at how to write solutions to problems. There are four basic ones.
• We'll visit each in terms of making cookies (or at least we'll try).
• Imperative: Solutions are a collection of basic instructions with some additional sequencing.
  • Sift dry ingredients.
  • Stir 50 times.
  • ...
• Object-Oriented: Solutions are a collection of interacting objects.
  • Head chef: Hand bowl of ingredients to mixing sous-chef.
  • Sous-chef: Upon receiving bowl of ingredients, mix.
  • ...
• Functional: Solutions consist of function definitions and function applications. It's often useful to think of a function as a form of filter: it converts its input to output.
  • The mixer converts separate ingredients into a consistent mush.
  • The oven converts raw dough to cooked dough.
• Declarative: Solutions consists of collections of facts.
  • To bake cookies, you cook at 375 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes.
  • Chocolate chip cookies contain ...

Class Format

• How will we conduct this class? My goal is to alternate two primary teaching mechanisms:
  • Collaborative labs, as you've seen in 151
  • Interactive lecture.
• Since this is a new cousee, I'm not sure how many labs we'll actually have (since I have to write them).

ECA, The Electronic Course Assistant

• Many of the administrative details of the course (e.g., quizzes, homework submissions) will be handled by an Electronic Course Assistant that I'm in the process of writing.
• Tonight, you will use the ECA to fill an introductory survey and take a take-home quiz on administrative details for the course.
• For now, you'll take a sample quiz.
• See the Handout on the ECA for more details.

HW0: Binary Search

• Summary: Implement binary search.
• Purposes: (1) To see how you write binary search starting from scratch. (2) To provide fodder for tomorrow's class.
• Please don't look for other solutions (including your own).
• Please don't test each other's code.

Administrative Issues

• Please refer to the course web site for more details.
• Teaching philosophy: I support your learning.
• Policies
  • Attendance: I expect you to attend every class. Let me know when you'll miss class and why.
  • Grading: I'm a hard grader. I don't grade everything.
  • Course web.
  • ECA. We'll use it for turning in homework and quizzes.
  • Etc.
• Daily work
  • Attend class, work on lab and participate in discussion.
  • Finish the lab in the evening.
  • Do the reading for the next class in the evening.
• The exams
  • Three take-home exams during the semester. Plan to spend ten hours on each one.
  • An optional final to make up for a bad exam grade.
  • Take all three exams anyway.
• The labs
  • Available online.
  • Being written as the semester progresses.
  • I'll require more formal writeups of a few labs a semester.
• The homework
  • About ten
  • One makeup at the end of the semester.
• Academic honesty
  • Core to the academic process.
  • My basic policy: Don't cheat.
  • The college's basic policy: Cite carefully.
  • Significant breakdowns in CSC151 a few semesters ago.
  • Read my handout on academic honesty carefully.