Lectures are from 9:30pm to 10:45pm Tuesdays and Thursdays in A102.
The class has one lab section which meet in the CS PC Lab, S 332 (the Crawford Science Building) at 3:00pm to 4:50pm on Monday. The lab instructor is Rishi Gupta e-mail address rgupta@cs.fit.edu. The lab WWW site is http://www.cs.fit.edu/~ryan/cse1001/lab
CSE 1001. An introduction to software development as it applies to small programs. Students learn to program in a higher-level language and will learn to read, understand, write and evolve typical small-higher-level programs.
In this class we expect students to learn
Another document gives a more detailed list of topics to be covered in this class. And another WWW document gives a syllabus with links to the example programs covered in class.
Students often come with a wide variety of backgrounds and vastly different experience. As a consequence some students may be bored and some may be lost. Your patience, support of your classmates, and participation in class are appreciated.
The textbook for this class is the
Nell Dale, Chip Weems, and John McCormick. Programming and Problem Solving with Ada. D. C. Heath, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1994. ISBN 0-669-29360-1.We will follow the book quite closely. We expect to cover all the chapters in the text up to 12. If time permits, we may cover some additional material.
The book comes with a diskette containing all the Ada programs appearing in the book; the programs are also available on the WWW (see below).
You do not need to get an Ada compiler; will be using the GNAT compiler and it is available both in the CS PC lab (S 332), and by anyone with an account in the Harris Lab.
If you would like your own Ada compiler, and you have a (large and fast) computer, the GNAT compiler is free and runs under Linux and Windows 95. Down-load the distribution from the Ada Core Technologies WWW Page. The distribution for Windows 95/NT includes the IDE and is 12 MB large. A local copy convenient for downloading is in the directory gnat.
A CD is available to purchase with software for Windows 95 on it. This CD also contains the example programs, course notes, and exam questions.
No Ada program will be considered completely correct unless it is a model of clarity and good style. You must compile all programs with the -gnatr option to enforce a minumum level of compliance with these generally accepted standards. A separate document gives some advice on style. A lengthy and detailed style guide for Ada 95 is available on the WWW. It gives specific and sensible advice about writing clear Ada programs.
There will be three midterms and a final in the class. Lab projects will count 40% of the total grade. Each midterm will count 10% and the final 30%. Each exam and lab project will be assigned a numeric score. The average numeric score is roughly equivalent to a C+/B- letter grade. The letter grade for the class will be assigned to each student based on the weighted sum of these numeric scores. Your grade is determined by how you do relatively to the rest of the class, not by the magnitude of your numeric scores. No letter grades will be determined until the final grade. Florida Tech use the A, B, C, D, and F system--no pluses and minus. Some cutoffs between grades will inevitably be close. Please do not take it personally--try to be above the cutoff!
All work is to be your own. Please keep in mind the CS honor code. On tests, be sure to explain your answers as if you were tutoring someone else. Anything in the textbook may be on the test, even if we do not cover it in class. Read the book; to prepare for the tests do the problems at the end of the chapters. Some of this problems will be on the tests.
For each student the numeric scores for the lab assignments and exams are recorded. If you have any question about your standing in the class, or if some score has been recorded wrong, please contact me immediately. Corrections will not be made long after the due dates.
Please note, that copies of some work (homework, projects, exams, etc) is kept on file for review by the CSAB, for the purposes of maintaining the accreditation of the CS program.
Fall 1994 Fall 1995 Fall 1996 Fall 1997 Spring 1998 Fall 1998 A 5 15% 12 25% 8 16% 9 17% 1 5% 6 12% B 11 32% 18 38% 17 35% 13 24% 7 37% 11 22% C 10 29% 12 25% 11 22% 18 33% 4 21% 20 39% D 4 12% 3 6% 8 16% 8 15% 5 26% 7 14% F 5 15% 3 6% 5 10% 6 11% 2 11% 7 14% ------ ------ ------ ------ ----------- -------- 34 48 49 54 19 51
Monday, January 11, 1999 | first lab |
Tuesday, January 12, 1999 | first lecture |
Tuesday, February 9, 1999 | first midterm, Chapters 1-4 |
Thursday, March 4, 1999 | second midterm, Chapters 5, 6 |
March 8 -- March 12, 1999 | Spring break - no classes |
Thursday, April 1, 1999 | third midterm, Chapters 7-9 |
Thursday, April 29, 1999 | last lecture |
Monday, May 3, 1999 | final exam (3:30pm-5:30pm), Chapters 1-12 |
We now know that a programmable computer is no more and no less than an extremely handy device for realizing any conceivable mechanism without changing a single wire, and that the core challenge for computing science is hence a conceptual one, viz. what (abstract) mechanisms we can conceive without getting lost in the complexities of our own making.
E. W. Dijkstra, "On a Cultural Gap," The Mathematical Intelligencer, volume 8, number 1, 1986, page 49.