CS 35 Algorithms and Object-Oriented Programming
TR 9:55-11:10am, SCI 240
Fall 2005
Swarthmore College

Contents

• Course Description
• Text and Useful Links
• Grading
• Course Policy
• Course Schedule
• Course Assignments

From the department course description: This course completes the broad introduction to computer science begun in CPSC-021 and CPSC-022. It provides a general background for further study in the field. Topics to be covered include object-oriented programming in Java, advanced data structures (priority queues, trees, hash tables, graphs, etc.) and algorithms, software design and verification. Students will be expected to complete a number of programming projects illustrating the concepts presented.

The text for the course is Data Structures and Problem Solving Using Java, Third Edition by Mark Weiss. All of the code from the text is available on the author's website: http://www.cs.fiu.edu/~weiss/dsj3/code/code.html

Useful Links

• Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel (Local version Frames - No Frames)
• The Java Tutorial from Sun.
• Java 1.5.0 Documentation (java.sun.com) (local copy)
  • API Specification (java.sun.com) (local copy)
  • java.lang package (java.sun.com) (local copy)
  • java.util package (java.sun.com) (local copy)
  • java.io package (java.sun.com) (local copy)
  • java.awt package (java.sun.com)
  • javax.swing package (java.sun.com)
• Collections (also known as Containers)
• Professor Newhall's Tips on How to Compile, Run and Debug Java Programs
• Local Computer Help Pages
• Common Java Error Messages

Java Documentation

Grades will be calculated based on the following distribution:

• 50% - Homework/Projects
• 20% - Midterm Exam
• 30% - Final Exam (Cumulative)

Programming projects will generally consist of two major components:

1. An underlying data structure implementation
2. An application of this data structure

If a portion of your program is not working correctly, please clearly indicate it in the comments at the beginning of the file and in the methods that are not working. Problems that I discover are graded more severely than those you discover.

Attendance

Regular class attendance is expected. I am required to report to the dean any student whose repeated absences is impairing their performance in the class.

Please talk to me if regular class attendance is going to be a problem.

Programming Assignments

There will be a number of assignments made in this class. I expect every student to attempt each assignment and turn in the results. Do not expect to pass this class if you do not submit something for every assignment. You are encouraged to complete every assignment as this is one of the most effective ways to learn the material.

When homework is assigned, a due date will be made available (usually Tuesday at 11:30pm). You are responsible for submitting your answers before the deadline.

If you know that for some reason you will not be able to submit the assignment before the deadline, you should contact me in advance of the deadline. Extensions are only granted in exceptional circumstances, but need to be done in advance.

Note on late projects: Normally, I do no accept late projects. This semester I am going to deviate from my policy and allow students to submit assignments late with the following penalty scale:

• -10% for the first 8 hours
• -20% for the first 24 hours
• -40% for the first 48 hours

Extra credit will not be accepted after the initial deadline.

Grading

Programming assignments will be graded on both correctness as well as programming style. Good programming style includes the following:

• A descriptive header for each file including author's name and the date
• Descriptive and meaningful variable and method names
• Logical organization
• Sufficient comments, but not overly commented
• Appropriate use of white space to separate sections
• Consistent indentation and style

Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty

The College's Judiciary Committee (CJC) handles plagiarism offenses. The penalties for plagiarism are quite severe: usually the first offense leads to failure in the course, but it may additionally result in suspension. The following constitutes plagiarism on CS programming assignments:

Under no circumstances may you hand in work done with (or by) someone else under your own name. Your code should never be shared with anyone; you may not examine or use code belonging to someone else, nor may you let anyone else look at or make a copy of your code. This includes sharing solutions after the due date of the assignment. Failure to abide by these rules constitutes academic dishonesty and will lead to a hearing of the College Judiciary Committee.

Discussing ideas and approaches to problems with others on a general level is fine (in fact, we encourage you to discuss general strategies with each other), but you should never read anyone else's code or let anyone else read your code. If you are in doubt about some help that you received, then credit the person(s) from whom you got help by citing them in a comment at the top of the file and discuss the situation with your instructor.

Clinic

The CS35 clinician is an additional resource to help you with this class. The clinician is available for 3 hours per week and will help you with any problems you are having in the class. If you use the clinician to help you with your homework, please cite their help.

Clinician: Bronwyn Woods Location: SCI 240 Hours: Tuesday, 6-9pm

Clinician: Dan Amato Location: SCI 240 Hours: Sunday, 1-4pm

In order to obtain and submit assignments for this class, we'll be using two tools:

First, you will need to run

update35

Once an assignment is made, you can run update35 again and this will copy all needed files to ~/cs35/homework/X/ where you can then work on them. In class assignments will be distributed in a similar fashion.

To submit your work, run

handin35

Last Modified: Tue 29 Nov 2005 11:51:09 AM EST - Benjamin A. Kuperman