CSC 160
A First Course in Computer Programming

Fall, 2002

Syllabus

Calendar

Homework Assignments

PSP

Downloadable Examples

About the Final Exam

Here's my summary of what to expect of the final.

Kinds of questions

• Here's some Scheme code; what does it do? What would this function do, print, or return if I called it with these parameters?
• Here's an English description of one or more functions; write contracts, examples, and definitions for them. (You've seen several likely examples in homework 8.)
• Here's a real-world problem; design a data type to help you solve it, with data definitions, define-structs (if necessary), contracts for the functions provided by define-struct (if necessary), one or more examples of the data type, and an input template.
• Here's a real-world problem that requires several functions; give contracts and examples (but no definitions) for the functions you would write to solve it.

Topics to study

• Basic Scheme syntax (the six or seven rules we've learned)
• Definition by parts vs. definition by choices
• Lists and recursive functions on lists
• Lists of structs and structs containing lists
• Recursive functions on natural numbers
• set! to modify existing variables
• begin to combine several expressions with side effects
• local definitions, and how, when, and why to use them
• display, newline, and read for non-graphical I/O
• Functional abstraction, i.e. functions that take other functions as parameters
• list notation: you may use whichever notation you like, but I'll use list notation in writing the exam, and it may save you some writer's cramp.

Logistics

The final exam will be in our usual classroom. The 9:25 section will have its exam on Thursday from 10:30-12:30, and the 12:15 section will have its exam on Tuesday from 1:00-3:00. Yes, that's two hours. I'll take the final myself, and if it takes me more than half an hour, it's too long and I'll trim it down. It will be on paper, not on the computer. It will be closed-book and closed-notes. If you have any other questions about the final exam, or your homework, or Scheme, e-mail me.

Getting Help

• Tuesday/Thursday 11:00-12:00
• Tuesday/Thursday 2:00-5:00
• Wednesday 9:00-11:00
• Other days and times by appointment.

We also have several tutors capable of helping with this course:

Aisha Ahmad

MW 12:00-2:00, TTh 1:00-2:00 or by appointment

Faith Barclay

office hours MW 4-6 PM, TTh 11 AM-12 noon, F 11-2, in Alumnae 112

Arvind Budhram

by appointment

Sasha Pogornets

in class (TTh 9:25-10:40 and 12:15-1:30)

Textbook

The main textbook for this class is How to Design Programs, by Felleisen, Fisler, Flatt, and Krishnamurthi, published by MIT Press. The text of the book is available on-line, but I've also ordered the printed version through the bookstore; you are encouraged, but not required to buy the printed version.
This textbook uses the Scheme programming language. Why Scheme?

Partners for upcoming assignments

Recipes and Syntax Rules

Software support

We use the freely-downloadable software package DrScheme.

I've set up some forms for entering and viewing PSP data. You may use these forms to record defect and time information. To use the forms successfully, make sure your browser accepts JavaScript and cookies. (For those with a moral opposition to cookies, I assure you that they're all "temporary" -- they disappear as soon as you quit the browser.) (For more information about PSP, see the PSP page at Carnegie-Mellon or read Watts Humphrey's Introduction to the Personal Software Process.)

Reading List

• Read (and use!) the Design Recipe(s).
• See my folder of programming examples on composing functions, working with booleans, writing with conditionals, defining and using structs, mixed-type data, etc.
• Skim my Adages on Software Engineering and Object-Oriented Programming; in particular, read the few paragraphs about "the joys (and woes) of the craft".
• On Pair Programming: read All I Really Need to Know about Pair Programming I Learned in Kindergarten
• My page on the minimal Scheme language treats Scheme as a foreign language, with its own spelling, punctuation, grammar, vocabulary, and idioms.
• You might also be interested in Jack Crouch's CS1 Web site. Jack Crouch teaches a course on beginning programming, using Scheme, DrScheme, and How to Design Programs; the difference is that he's teaching high school freshmen rather than college freshmen.

Who should take this course?

This course is intended primarily for people who have not previously studied computer programming, both CS majors and non-majors. For non-majors, this course counts towards your math/science distribution requirement. Students who have passed at least a semester (half a year) to this page since June 4, 2001.