George Mason University
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Course Description: Section 001 -- Fall 2011
DESCRIPTION: CS 222 is a second course in computer programming, emphasizing programming concepts relevant to engineers. Topics include lower level language aspects and elementary data structures. Students are expected to have a basic understanding of the elements of programming in some high-level language. CS 222 will be taught using C, but students are not presumed to be familiar with C prior to this class. This course is intended as a terminal course in programming for engineers.
Prerequisite: C or better in CS 112.
COURSEWORK
Students are expected to attend all lectures each week and are responsible for all material covered in the lectures.
Programming Assignments: Programming assignments will be posted on Blackboard as they are assigned, and must be submitted on Blackboard by the assigned due date. If your program is incomplete, you may still submit it for partial credit. However, your code must run without obvious errors (even if not all functionality is present). Building your programs in a modular fashion and debugging as you go are crucial concepts in program development. Additionally, your TA relies on running your program as part of your grade determination. Accordingly, any programming assignment that is submitted but either does not compile or has major errors when it is run will receive no more than 50% credit.
Students are expected to work independently outside of class to familiarize themselves with the GMU computer systems, to read and review all assigned materials and to complete all homework and programming projects.
Reading: Students are responsible for reading and understanding all assigned material. Please note that not all material covered in class will necessarily be found in your textbook. If you do not understand any of the covered materal or reading assignments, there will be opportunities to ask questions in class, on Blackboard or during UTA/GTA/instructor office hours.
Due Dates: Due dates for all programming projects will be posted on Blackboard. Programming assignments are posted in advance, and are due in the manner stated in the specs (usually electronic submission through Blackboard) no later than the date specified.
Late work: Late projects will be penalized 10% per day (incl. weekend days/holidays). You should recognize that this can cause major penalties for incomplete programs, so start work early! If your program isn't the way you'd like it to be when the deadline is near, submit it anyway for partial credit. In fact, submit early and often! The system permits you to retrieve and resubmit your assignment until the due date, so you may resubmit if you improve your program prior to the deadline. (Resubmissions after the deadline require approval of your TA, since s/he may already have graded your project. If you know that you wish to resubmit a new version after the deadline, it is your responsibility to notify your TA no later than the time of the deadline, so s/he will not grade the on-time submission.) No resubmissions may be made after a project has been graded.
Your course grade will be a weighted average of the following items:
The above 25% for programming projects includes all writeups that may be done as part of the projects. Individual programming projects may be weighted differently from one another, at the instructor's discretion.
Instructor's evaluation may include in-class exercises, pop quizzes and short programming and/or homework assignments.
CS 222 will be using the Blackboard system for most class communications. You are responsible for any notifications or information posted on Blackboard either by your instructor, your GTA or the class UTA(s), and you will need to check Blackboard regularly for such notices. Some information may be disseminated through Blackboard rather than in class. Individual communications with the professor/GTA/UTA may be done by email using your GMU email account. When you email, please be sure to include your name, the class number and the topic in the subject header. (E.g.: Subject: Jim Jones / CS 222 / Project 2)
(1) No sharing or discussion of code. Unless specifically stated otherwise, all assignments are individual projects, not group projects. Students are expected to do their own work, not to share programs with each other, nor copy programs from anyone else. This means you may not discuss program design or strategize solutions with anyone except your instructor or a course UTA or GTA. However, you may offer more limited assistance to your fellow students regarding specific questions on their programming assignments by responding to queries on Blackboard. Any sharing of code or discussion of programming projects, except within the parameters of Blackboard, constitutes an honor code violation. Suspected honor code violations are taken very seriously, and will be reported to the Honor Committee. (See CS Department Integrity Statement and Honor Code)
(2) No incorporation of code from any source external to the course. You may not incorporate code written by others, such as can be found on the Internet or any of the numerous CS books available. You may freely use any code provided as part of the project specifications, without any need for crediting the source. However, if you use code provided by your instructor (other than that given as part of the project specifications) or from the course textbook, you must document what portion came from those sources.
(3) Blackboard. We encourage the use of Blackboard to discuss assignments and assist one another with programming questions. You may ask questions or respond to queries on Blackboard regarding projects or other assignments, so long as you do not post any C code or detailed pseudocode, and so long as you do not provide specific solutions to the overall problem or algorithm design (even in English). Often, students believe that "simple" code is acceptable to place on Blackboard. However, because there is a wide variation in what different students and instructors regard as "simple," we must be very strict about the ban against Blackboard code. Only an instructor, GTA or UTA is permitted to place code on blackboard unless it is code that has already been provided to all students (either as part of the assignment specification itself or within the class textbook).
(4) Discussing Blackboard postings outside of Blackboard. Please note that Blackboard assistance must remain on Blackboard. "Summarizing" Blackboard statements or responses to another student verbally regarding an assignment is *not* acceptable, and is subject to the above ban on discussing assignment solutions. While it may seem harmless, Blackboard was set up so that all assistance could be overseen by instructors/TAs/UTAs, and it is nearly impossible to truly duplicate Blackboard discussion outside of Blackboard, thus creating the potential for either (unknown) mistaken advice, or for unfair advantage by certain students. If you truly wish to assist a fellow student, encourage him or her to log onto Blackboard, and direct him/her to specific postings you find helpful.
(5) Back up your program regularly. You are expected to backup your program in separate files as you get different pieces working. Failure to do this may result in your getting a much lower grade on a program if last minute problems occur. (Accidently deleting your program, having problems connecting, etc., will not be accepted as excuses.)
(6) Keep an untouched copy of your final code submission. It is important that you not touch your programs once you have made your final submission. If there are any submission problems, consideration for credit will only be given if it can be verified that the programs were not changed after being submitted.
(7) Code must run on either Zeus or Mason gcc. Students may develop programs using any computer system they have available. Please note, however, that submitted projects must run under a C compiler available either on Zeus or Mason. Your documentation should clearly state which software was used for compilation, and once makefiles are introduced, a makefile should be included with each assignment submission. No extensions will be given due to compiler incompatibilities.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK: Hanly and Koffman, "Problem Solving and Program Design in C," 6th ed., 2010.
Graduate Teaching Assistant: TBD
Undergraduate Teaching Assistant: TBD
The following represents the basic schedule of topics that will be covered during the lectures in the weeks indicated below. Reading assignments from the text or from slides/handouts and homework/programming assignments will be provided in class or on Blackboard.
Week Topic Reading Assignment
1 Introduction / Syllabus / Simple Unix Ch. 0-1
Overview of Computing / C language elements / Unix/System Help Guides
2 Structure of a C program, operators, basic i/o Ch. 2-3
3 Top-down design with functions, selection structures Ch. 3-4
4 Repetition and Loops, modular programming Ch. 5-6
5 Simple data types, arrays, structs, arrays of struct Ch. 7-8
6 strings, string functions Ch. 9
7 Review and Midterm Exam (Tentative Date: Oct 13, 2011)
8 Recursion, Binary Trees Ch. 10 9 Structure and Union Types Ch. 11 10 Text and Binary File Processing Ch. 12 11 Programming in the Large Ch. 13 12 Dynamic Data Structures Ch. 14 13 Multiporcessing Using Processes and Threads Ch. 15 14 On to C++ and Review Ch. 16
15 FINAL EXAM (Covering ALL MATERIAL)
CAVEAT: This Schedule is subject to change to best serve the needs of the class.
** Final Exam: Thurs. 12/15 -- 7:30 am - 10:30 am
** CAVEAT: This Schedule is subject to change to best serve the needs
of the class.