CMSC--202 , Section 1 Computer Science II for Majors
Fall 1997 25 August 1997 Prospectus
This course has six main objectives:
Class meets Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30 - 3:45 p.m. in LH-5.
The regular discussion sections meet Tuesday 4:00 - 4:50 p.m. in SS-103 and Thursday, 4:00 - 4:50 p.m. in MP-104. You may attend either discussion section each week.
The honors discussion section meets Tuesday, 4:00 - 4:50 p.m. in MP-104
Tom Anastasio
Please use the above e-mail address for course-related mail. Do not use any other address.
To be announced.
To be announced.
The course text is Programming Abstractions in C by Eric Roberts, Addison-Wesley, 1997. It is available at the campus bookstore. You should also have a good reference text for the ANSI C language. Suggestions are:
Course grades will be calculated on the following work:
The course grade will be determined as follows:
These levels may be adjusted slightly in the student's favor, but grades will not be ``curved.''
As per University policy, incompletes will be granted only under extraordinary circumstances. Students who are enrolled after 10 November should be prepared to receive a grade of A -- F.
There will be eight homework assignments. Each assignment will have a due date. There will also be an automatic extension of 2 days. Assignments submitted by midnight of the due date receive 5 bonus points. Full credit is given for assignments submitted by midnight of the extended due date. No credit is given for assignments submitted after the extended due date. No further extensions will be given except in the most extreme circumstances and when requested prior to the regular due date.
Homework submission will usually be done electronically. It is considered to be ``on-time'' if received before midnight of the relevant date. To receive more than token credit, a program must compile and run. Programs with compilation errors will not receive much credit. Programs with compiler warnings will be heavily penalized. Grading will be based on the criteria of Design (including algorithm, data structures, modularity, etc.), Implementation (including correctness, robustness, etc.), and Documentation (including comments, layout, etc.).
There is a substantial penalty for not following directions. For example, you will lose many points if you do not comment your code as required. Please consult the ``Programming Guidelines'' handout.
General student accounts (``gl'' accounts) are available on umbc8, umbc9, and umbc10. Your account will allow you to use both terminals and the UCS SGI workstations. You may also telnet in by modem.
Your programs must compile and run on a ``gl'' machine. You may develop your programs on any machine you wish, using any compiler you wish. For example, you may develop your programs on a PC at home using a Borland compiler. Although you may develop it any way you wish, it must compile and run on a ``gl'' machine.
If you do not yet have a computer account, go to any UCS laboratory that has SGI workstations, login as register, and follow the instructions (you can also telnet to umbc8 and login as register). You are issued a single account for all your classes, and you keep this account as long as you are registered at the University. A UCS Help Consultant can provide further directions, if needed.
You are strongly encouraged to attend a discussion section each week. You may attend either the Tuesday or the Thursday section each week. The sections will be used for answering questions from the lectures, for discussing the homework assignments, and for preparing for exams. Quizzes will be given at some meetings. Such quizzes will be graded immediately, thereby giving you and the course staff feedback on your progress. The quiz grades do not count toward your course grade. An additional 5 points will be given to you if you miss no more than three section meetings over the semester. If you miss four or more meetings, you will not get the additional credit.
There will be two ``midterms'' and a final. The material covered by the exams will be drawn from the lectures, from handouts, and from the homeworks. Each exam will be cumulative, but will emphasize the material covered since the previous exam. Each exam is full period, closed book, closed notes. A list of questions will be provided before each exam. The exam will be drawn entirely from the list. Every question on the exam will be from the list of questions. Of course, there will be many more questions on the list than on the exam. Exams will have no surprises and no ``trick'' questions. Studying the list of questions should be an effective way of studying for the exam.
Handouts will be provided throughout the semester (starting with this
Prospectus). Other handouts will be for homework/project assignments,
discussion of important topics, and other course information.
Handouts will be distributed during lectures.
All course handouts are available on-line on the course
web page
www.gl.umbc.edu/~anastasi/202/202-homepage.html
You are encouraged to check the course web page frequently for announcements and other information. If you miss or lose a handout, you should obtain it on-line.
The Computer Science Help Center (CSHC) provides tutoring help on homework, projects, exams, and general concepts. The service is available on a ``drop-in'' basis 5 days per week. Information on the CSHC is posted on the course web page. The CSHC is designed to augment the instructor and TA, not to replace them. Please feel free to take advantage of course staff as well as the CSHC.
Tutors are available in the Learning Resources Center, ACIV-420
(www.umbc.edu/lrc). There is no charge for this service.
Cheating in any form will not be tolerated. In particular, examinations are to be your own work -- not your neighbor's and not your notes. All exams are closed-book, closed-notes. You may discuss your programming assignments with anyone, but it is never allowed to copy code from someone else nor to provide code to someone else. Discussion of general concepts and approaches is encouraged, sharing code is not. Here is a general rule for you to follow: having someone else's work in your possession, even briefly, is dishonest. Each semester finds a few students who copy code from one another. These events always result in zero for the project for all involved, usually resulting in a very poor grade for the course. If you are having difficulty with a homework or project, ask for help from the course staff or from the CSHC or from the Learning Resources Center. Do not wait till the last minute to submit a project or a homework. Begin to work on the assignment as soon as possible. This will allow you time to think about it and discover problem areas early. It also gives you some ``slack'' in case of mishaps. The computers may not be available at the last minute, the network may be slow, you may not be able to reach the machines by modem. There are a million reasons for late or incomplete submissions. None of them matter -- late is late, and no special consideration will be given.