Spam from Sam

Here you will find most of the email that I sent out this semester.

[CSC-207-02 2024Sp] Update on sorting competition (Wednesday, 2024-04-10)

Dear Sort Specifiers,

Thanks for participating in today’s competition. A few notes.

• Those who did not have working code can send me a new copy by 8am Friday morning and we’ll run a quick sub-competition for those folks.
• The top four folks in the competition will get to choose snack food for class next Wednesday. (Why not Monday? Some folks won’t be here on Monday.)
• A few of you called a different constructor in specifying your sorter. Make sure that you construct an object in your own class.

Regards,

– SamR

[CSC-207-02 2024Sp] Upcoming classes (Thurday, 2024-04-04)

Dear CSC-207 Students,

I hope you are well.

I wanted to report on plans for upcoming classes.

Friday: Doubly Linked Lists

• We will spend class time doing lab. I will limit my start-of-class comments to give you time to get work done.
• You should plan to work with your MP7 partner(s).
• In praparation, you should do the reading on Doubly Linked Lists. https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC207/2024Sp/readings/doubly-linked-lists.html
• You may want to review the reading on list iterators, which summarizes what we discussed on Wednesday. https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC207/2024Sp/readings/list-iterators.html
• You may want to read “Lists with Current Considered Harmful”, which provides some explanation of why we use iterators rather than some alternatives. http://csis.pace.edu/~bergin/papers/ListsWithCurrent.html

Monday: Array-Based Lists

• Our class coincides with the eclipse. Hence, class will be “Do the lab on your own.” I will determine a place that’s easy to find me outside and you can come ask me questions.
• Our lab will be on array-based lists.

Wednesday: Sorting competition

• Just what it says. We’ll do a “March Madness” with your sorting algorithms.
• Everyone should encourage Elene to write one, too.
• You have nothing to do in preparation for this class.

Friday next, Ethics

• We will read and discuss the ACM code of ethics.

As always, let me know if you have questions.

Regards,

– SamR

[CSC-207-02 2024Sp] A few notes (Saturday, 2024-03-16)

Dear Breakers of Spring,

a. For those of you who were in class

• Prof. Curtsinger says that he’s only made one change to the schedule I shared, and that one shouldn’t affect you.
• The Registrar tells me that they plan to release the schedule of courses on about March 22nd.

b. For those of you who were not in class

• We missed you.
• Class policies say that you are responsible for notifying me that you will be missing class. Very few of you did so.

c. For everyone

• Have a great break!
• Take care of yourselves.
• I’ll be on Teams intermittently if you have questions.

Regards,

– SamR

[CSC-207-02 2024Sp] Pop Quiz! (Friday, 2024-03-08)

Dear Recurrence Relators (not Recurrence Realtors),

Happy Friday! I look forward to seeing you this afternoon.

Yes, there will be a pop quiz today on recurrence relations. It will take place from 1:00 to 1:20.

If you want extra time on the quiz (either because you have an accommodation or because you just want extra time), you may show up at 12:45.

If you aren’t able to make it to class today, there will be a makeup available in the near future.

Regards,

– SamR

[CSC-207-02 2024Sp] Pre-reflections for MP5

Dear Array Associators,

I’ve “graded” all of your pre-reflections for MP5. We’ll discuss some key issues in class tomorrow. Feel free to bring new questions.

I’ve answered all of the questions I received and put them at the bottom of the mini-project page.

See you Monday!

– SamR

[CSC-207-02 2024Sp] Finding SamR today (Thursday) (2024-02-01)

Dear Encryptors and Decryptors,

I was able to solve two “connect to GitHub” problems yesterday. Yay!

I’ll be hanging out in our classroom (Science 3813) from 8:00-10:30 and from 2:00-3:30 today (Thursday) to answer questions from students. Perhaps I can help with your GitHub or VSCode problems, at least in MathLAN. I have one student who booked time at 10:00 a.m., but other than that, it will be more-or-less first come, first served.

Starting next week, my regular office hours will be Tuesday 10:00-11:30 and Thursday 2:00-3:30. I should have those up on bookings soon.

– SamR

[CSC-207-01 2024Sp] Welcome to the course / Work for day one (2024-01-20)

Dear CSC-207-01 Students,

Welcome back to campus! I hope that you had a good break and that you are finding ways to stay warm. I have some notes and work for you as you get ready for the first day of class. Let’s see …

1. You can find the course Web site at https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC207/2024Sp/

2. We will be meeting in Science 3813 (“the CSC-151 classroom”) rather than Science 3815 (“the CSC-161 classroom”). I look forward to seeing you there Monday at 1pm.

3. When students come back together from across the world, they tend to bring back illnesses from across the world. I’d recommend that you consider masking. I will do my best to ensure that there are masks at the back of the classroom.

4. Most of the readings in our course will be materials I’ve written for the course. I will also assign some readings from CLRS (aka Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein, Introduction to Algorithms, aka “The brick”). You can access CLRS for free through Grinnell’s library.

   https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/grinnell-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6925615

5. I’d like you to do three short-ish readings before the first day of class. You need not understand them completely. Bring questions.

   • https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC207/2024Sp/readings/oop-basics.html
   • https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC207/2024Sp/readings/designing-adts.html
   • https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC207/2024Sp/readings/designing-data-structures.html

6. You may also find it useful to review the syllabus and schedule. Both are still under development.

   • https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC207/2024Sp/syllabus/
   • https://rebelsky.cs.grinnell.edu/Courses/CSC207/2024Sp/schedule/

7. At some point in the near future, you will need an account on GitHub. You may find it useful to sign up for one sooner rather than later. Note that I will be asking you to post things publicly, so you may want a separate GitHub account from your primary one.

8. These days, GitHub is easiest to use if you have an SSH keypair set up. There are instructions at https://mathlan.sites.grinnell.edu/ssh/fastx/2019/07/22/Public-Private-Key-Pair/.

Feel free to send me questions on Teams or via email if there are things you’d like to know before the first day of class.

Regards,

– SamR