Computing Science 265---Course Information Sheet---Spring 1997

Computing Science 265

Course Information Sheet---Spring 1997

Overview:

The goal of the course is to improve your programming productivity by helping you to write code that is demonstrably correct, by making effective use of software tools, and by developing familiarity with the program development environment.

An on-line version of this document can be found at http://malun1.mala.bc.ca:8080/~pwalsh/teaching/teaching.html . Students are advised to check this web side weekly to ascertain up-to-date information.

Texts:

The following books are strongly recommended (available from MUC bookstore):

Randal L. Schwartz, Learning Perl, O'Reilly, 1993. ISBN: 1-56592-042-2.

R. Nigel Horspool, The Berkley UNIX Environment (second ed.), Prentice Hall, 1992. ISBN: 0-13-089368-4.

Other materials will take the form of on-line class notes and the on-line documentation for commands already available on the computer system.

Instructor: Dr. Peter Walsh

Office: Bldg 315 Room 209
Phone: 753-3245 Ext 2363
E-mail: pwalsh@malun1.mala.bc.ca

Evaluation:

Assignments (5 pex, 5 lex)	35%
In class quizzes (5)	10%
Final Examination	55%**

** Students may choose to split the 55% associated with the final exam into a project (25%) and the final exam (30%). Please see me during the first week of term if you wish to choose this option. The projects will mostly involve working on industry-supplied case studies on an Intel/Microsoft platform.

Grade Conversion: The following scale will be used but the instructor reserves the right to lower the numerical score required for a particular letter grade if that seems appropriate, but the same conversion will be applied to all persons in the class. Under no circumstances will the numerical score required for a particular letter grade be raised.

90-100	A+
85-<90	A
80-<85	A-
75-<80	B+
70-<75	B
65-<70	B-
60-<65	C+
55-<60	C
50-<55	D
<50	F

You must pass (>= 50%) the final exam to pass the course.

Topic Outline

Scripting languages (such as shell scripts, Perl scripts, AWK files).
Shell commands for managing files and directories.
Commands for maintaining software (such as make), for searching files (grep), for debugging (dbx), and for profiling (prof).
Testing techniques, based on stubs and drivers, on selection of appropriate test input values, and on checking output.
Code inspection methods, incorporating assertions, transition functions and invariants.
Use of archive libraries.
Object-oriented programming concepts and techniques, including templates, class libraries, exceptions and dynamic binding.

Assigment Submission:

Each assignment has a due date and time and, one or more assignment identifiers (eg Pex 1). All assignments are to be submitted by e-mail to csci265@malun1.mala.bc.ca. Assignments must be received before the due date and time. In addition, your e-mail must have the assignment identifier as its subject. All other methods of submission will not be accepted. You will receive no credit for an assignment submission that fails to adhere to this convention.

Guidelines Concerning Fraud

These guidelines concern the type of fraud where a student presents another's work as his or her own, or allows another to do so.

As fraud invalidates the evaluation of a student's progress, it is the duty of instructors, teaching assistants, and laboratory assistants to take measures to prevent fraud and to be vigilant towards symptoms of fraud.
Students are encouraged to study together. But, unless the contrary is indicated, submitted work is to be done by students individually. Students are to collaborate on submitted work only when this is explicitly permitted by the instructor. In such a case, the names of all students who have collaborated on a piece of submitted work should be indicated on all submitted material. As in all academic endeavour, due credit must be given to all reference material. Students should consult the course instructor if they are not certain which outside material is appropriate for use in a course. The collaboration is to involve reasonable effort on the part of all students involved. In a situation where this is clearly not the case, appropriate action will be taken with regard to those students who have not fully contributed to the collaborative effort.
In case fraud is detected, credit is withheld from the work affected. The students involved are reported to the department chair who may take additional disciplinary action commensurate with the severity of the fraud and the past records of the students.

Peter Walsh's Teaching Page