LMU | CMSI 185
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
Syllabus • Spring, 2009
Ray Toal
rtoal@lmu.edu
Doolan 110
310.338.2773
Tuesdays and Thursdays
10:50 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.
Pereira 202
3 semester hours

Objectives

Students will learn how to

The course is designed for people that would like to eventually pursue a career in software development; however, in no way is this a problem for those students who simply have a passing interest or curiosity about programming. (If you are going to learn something, you should learn it properly.)

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites other than a desire not to give up. Previous programming experience is certainly not required, and in fact may even be harmful, unless accompanied by a willingness to break bad habits and start fresh if necessary. Programming, like any skill (such as those in music, athletics, or the trades), is best learned by making mistakes and understanding those mistakes.

Readings

Though this course is supposed to be about programming in general and not about programming in any particular programming language, we'll be using the Java language so that students can learn to code by actually writing and running real programs. There are many available books that teach Java programming; the one will be using is freely available online, but you can buy a printed copy if you like the look and feel of bound paper pages.

The following text is highly recommended for students wishing to do more with Java.

Additional papers and readings will be assigned throughout the course (including my own course notes, practice problems, and sample code). If you have projects or papers to work on, you'll have to find some additional readings on your own. Use judgment when researching on the web; a fair amount of information is often wrong, and much of the so-called sample code is especially atrocious. Regardless, you must take the time for effective self-study that includes practicing the craft of programming.

Assignments and Grading

You'll have several homework sets containing in-depth theoretical questions and non-trivial programming problems, and quizzes and a final exam with less difficult material. To help prepare you to meet industry expectations for college graduates, most assignments will take the form of open source software products. Unless otherwise specified, you are required to keep all work in your CVS repository and prepare all homework solutions with LaTeX document preparation system. Exams will cover material from lectures not previously assigned for homework: don't whine about this.

Generally, coursework may be done in groups of no more than two students; however, while only one solution set is turned in per group, both students are responsible for understanding all of its content and may be asked at any time for an oral explanation of any solution. Collaboration with other groups is fine but must be limited: you may share ideas and approaches but nothing resembling a solution (not even pseudocode). You must also acknowledge any help received. Academic dishonesty may result in expulsion; be certain your work meets the standards set forth in the LMU Honor Code.

Your final grade will be weighted as follows:

Homework sets
45 pts.
 
Quiz 1
12 pts.
 
Quiz 2
16 pts.
 
Final Exam
27 pts.
 

Letter grades are figured according to the usual scale: 90% or more of the total points gets you an A, 80% a B, 70% a C, and so on. These are minimal requirements; for example, if you get 82 points you are guaranteed a B- or better, though you might still get an A since 82 may be the top score.

Homework is due at the beginning of class; late assignments are docked 30% per class. Missing class just to get an assignment done on time will not be tolerated; the only good excuses for missing class are excellent surf conditions, family problems, sickness, and personal emergencies. Skipping class just puts your fellow students at an advantage: we often spend class time going over things that will be "on the exam".

Your programming style will play a huge part in determining your score on the programming assignments. I will not hesitate to assign D's or F's to working programs which are poorly structured, under-commented, have poor identifier names and abbreviations, contain inappropriate hard-coded values, or are not easily maintainable. Appearance of the grading policy in this syllabus constitutes fair warning of the consequences of poorly written code.

Topics and Tentative Schedule

We'll be following the textbook from the beginning up through Chapter 8, supplemented with a bit of material from the course notes.

University Links

All students will want to acquaint themselves with the useful information found in the following sources:

 

Ray Toal • Computer Science Division • College of Science and Engineering • Loyola Marymount University