CSC 172
Introduction to Algorithms and Data Structures
Dr. Stephen Bloch
Fall, 2001
is available in HTML,
LaTeX, and
DVI forms.
Schedule
An updated schedule
contains the latest updates to homework due dates, lecture topics, etc.
Please check the schedule regularly and keep up on the assigned reading!
Software support
I've set up some
forms for entering and viewing PSP data.
Please 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.)
Not all of the forms are working yet, but
I'll install the rest as I get them debugged.
(For more information about PSP, see the PSP page at
Carnegie-Mellon.)
We'll do most of our programming this semester using Microsoft's Visual C++
development environment, which is installed on many of the
microcomputers on campus (Windows only; apparently Microsoft doesn't
want Macintosh or Linux users to buy its software. Or maybe Microsoft
doesn't know there are Macintosh and Linux users in the
world....)
Getting Help
My office hours
(in Alumnae Hall 114; if I'm not there, look around the corner in 118)
are
- Tuesday/Thursday 4:30 PM - 5:15 PM
- Wednesday/Friday 9:00 AM - 12:15 PM
- Other days and times by appointment.
We also have several
tutors capable of helping with this course.
Examples
I've set up a folder for programming examples.
Please read and understand these. (I'll try to keep the same files on
the lab's N: drive too, but things have a habit of disappearing from the
N: drive.)
Textbooks
Our primary textbook will be Carrano & Pritchard's Data
Abstraction and Problem Solving with C++: Walls and Mirrors, third
edition. (The second edition contains most of the same material, but in
a slightly different order, and without mentioning UML.)
We'll start with Appendix A, to review the basics of the C++ language
and fill in some gaps that you may not have seen last semester, and then
go through approximately the first ten chapters.
It's available from amazon.com for $76,
bn.com for $80, fatbrain.com for $76
(even though Fatbrain is owned by Barnes & Noble!), and
bookpool.com for $72.
For supplementary material on the C++
language, I've ordered Bjarne Stroustrup's The C++ Programming
Language, third edition.
This is not a textbook, but rather a reference for
programmers who already know one or two
other languages, but don't know C++.
A "Special Edition" came out in 2000, but if you have the third (1997)
edition, you can use that instead.
The Special Edition is available from amazon.com, bn.com, or
fatbrain.com for $60, or from bookpool.com for $47.50.
As another supplementary text, we'll use Watts
Humphrey's Introduction to the Personal Software Process.
This book treats not ``how to program'' but rather ``how to be a
programmer''; exercises in this book will help you study your own skills
and abilities, discover your own strong and weak points, improve your
time-management skills (especially, though not exclusively, in relation
to programming), and become more efficient. It's available from
amazon.com, bn.com, or fatbrain.com for $25, or from
bookpool.com for $20.
For further reading...
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