Instructor: | Karl Abrahamson |
Office: | Austin 233 |
Office hours: | M-F 1:30-2:30 |
Phone: | 328-1879 |
Email: | karl@cs.ecu.edu |
Course web page: | www.cs.ecu.edu/~karl/3510/sum00 |
Text: | Data Abstraction and Problem Solving with C++: Walls and Mirrors (second edition) by Frank Carrano, Paul Helman and Robert Veroff. |
In this course, we will study advanced techniques in computer programming, using the C++ programming language. Topics to be studied include the following.
This course covers a lot of material, and also covers a wide range of material, from low level pointer manipulation to high level abstraction. As a result, there is a high failure/drop rate. I do not advise taking another course along with this course. Instead, plan to focus your efforts, and to work hard. You should count on spending four hours a day outside of class on this course, more on some days. Those who put in the work generally do well.
You must expect to do a significant amount of work outside of class. If you do not have time to devote to this class, drop the class now. Students who do not put in the work can expect to fail the class.
This is a programming course, and students are expected to complete programming exercises. You may discuss your ideas with other students, but your programs must be your own work. Copying of programs will be considered plagiarism.
Grading will tentatively be as follows. Programming assignments will count 35% of your grade. There will be two midterm exams counting 18% each and a final exam counting 29%. Tentative cutoffs are 90% for an A, 80% for a B, 70% for a C and 60% for a D. Those cutoffs might be adjusted to account for overall class performance and the difficulty of the assignments and questions, but they will not be raised.
Important proviso. It is not possible to learn the material of this course effectively without actually "getting your hands dirty" and doing the programming. Accordingly,
in order to pass this course, you must receive at least a 60% grade in the programming assignments and at least a 60% grade in the exams.This outweighs the score computed by adding grades together.
I will not be giving incompletes in this course except in extreme situations such as medical emergencies, and even then only if sufficient progress has been made in the course. In particular, no incompletes will be given due to a failure to complete the assigned programs.
-Wall -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith -OWarning flag -Wall causes warnings about use of uninitialized variables, but only if used in conjunction with flag -O, which causes the compiler to optimize code. (Uninitialized variables are detected during dataflow analysis, which is only performed as part of optimization.) Optimized code is more difficult to debug than unoptimized code. Your best bet is to compile with -O to get the warnings, but to recompile without -O before you run the debugger.
Programs will be graded according to the following broad criteria.
First, the program must compile without fatal errors.
A program that does not compile automatically receives a score of 0, regardless of how close to correct it might be.
The program must be acceptably well indented. I need to be able to read your programs, and I will not read a program that is extremely poorly indented.
A program that is extremely poorly indented will receive a failing grade, regardless of how well it performs the task that it is required to do.
The following are broad guidelines for grading. Some programs will not fit exactly into any of these classifications, but I will try to choose the best fit.
To receive an A (90-100), a program should work on all of the test cases that I use. (You will not be given my test cases.) It should be well indented and well commented. Comments should be clear, correct and complete. Every function should have a clear and correct contract. The program should be broken into fairly short, well-thought-out functions. Variable and function names should be sensible. It should follow all guidelines and requirements that have been set for the program. It should compile without warnings.
To receive a B (80-89), a program should work on typical test cases, though it might fail on more esoteric cases. It should be well commented and well indented, though minor problems might be present. It should be broken into fairly short, well-thought-out functions, with a contract for each function. It should mostly follow the guidelines and requirements that have been set for the program. The compiler should not report serious warnings that reflect mistakes in the program.
To receive a C, a program should work on at least some test cases. It must be reasonably commented and indented, though some comments might be misleading or incorrect. It should be broken into reasonable functions. It should make some attempt to follow the guidelines and requirements that have been set out for the program.
To receive a D, a program might not work correctly on any test cases, but the basics of the design must be present. The program should be acceptably well indented. I will not read a program that is very poorly indented. It should make some attempt to follow the guidelines and requirements that have been set out for the program.
You will be given two opportunities to do each program. After the first attempt, you will receive feedback, and can modify your program. If you miss the deadline for the first attempt, you will have only the second attempt.
Late submissions for the first deadline will not be accepted. Late submissions for the second deadline will be accepted with a 5 point penalty (out of 100) for each 24 hours that the program is late. Programs will not be accepted after the last day of classes.
I will provide some feedback on anything that is turned in as a first attempt. However, I do not guarantee to find all errors. You should certainly fix all errors that I point out, but that is not necessarily adequate. You are expected to fix those and any additional errors that might exist before turning in the second attempt.
If you turn in a high quality first attempt, then you can expect that the errors that I point out will be fairly complete, and your second attempt will consist mainly of fine-tuning. If you turn in a low quality first attempt, then you can expect that the feedback that I give will be quite incomplete, and you will have major work to do for the second attempt. If you do not turn in the first attempt, then you will have no feedback at all before turning in your second attempt.
Programs should be submitted by email to karl@cs.ecu.edu. All source files that are part of the program, including header files, should be attached to the email message. The body of the message should be empty. The subject of the message should have the following form.
3510 Assn k version n your namewhere k is the assignment number, n is the version number (1 or 2) and your name is your name. Do not attach executable files or makefiles. Attach the files under the exact names that you have used. Do not, for example, change the name to all upper case. Be sure that all files are plain text files, not forms such as Microsoft or Html word documents. Submissions of Microsoft word or Html documents as programs will be thrown away.
Include you name in a comment at the top of each source file.
You are encouraged to ask questions about your programs when you are stumped, especially if you come up against a difficulty with the language. Send questions early, to leave yourself time to make progress after receiving an answer.
If you have questions concerning programs, do not use a subject line that makes the inquiry look like a submission. Use a subject that begins
Question about ...so that I will not file your question among submissions. To ask a question about a program, attach any files that are relevant to your question.