CS 117
Syllabus
Winter 1997
The Instructor
I
can often be found in CMC 327. My office phone number is 646-4364,
and my home number is 663-7123. My office hours for the winter
term of 1997 are: Monday 2A, Tuesday 2:00-3:00, Wednesday 5A, and
Friday 2A. If you need help at some time other than office
hours, you are welcome to drop by.
Book
The textbook for this class is
Exploring the Science of Computing, Kenneth Abernathy and J. Thomas
Allen, PWS 1993. We will not go straight through this book, but
we will use most of its chapters by the end of the term.
Your Grade
Your grade in the course will be determined by your performance
on two exams given during the term, a final programming project due
on the last day of finals, and homework. Each of these four pieces
will count for 25% of your grade.
Working Together
Working together is good. Sharing ideas helps you learn, and it also
makes learning the most pleasurable social activity I know of. I
encourage you to work on homework together, with a couple of
restrictions. First, I don't want you to write programming
assignments in groups of more than two.
Second, if you use someone
else's idea, you should give that person credit in writing.
And finally, you will all write your final projects on your own.
Homework Policy
Almost all homework is due at the beginning of
class (period 3A) on the due date. Homework turned in on the due date
but after the beginning of class will be docked 25%. Homework
turned in the day after the due date will be docked 50%. Later
homework will be marked as handed in but not given a score.
Check with me ahead of time if you have need of an extension.
This policy is strict to protect the graders
(Amanda Ross (rossa) and Mike Walsh (walshm))
and to encourage you to begin
your work as early as possible. Writing good programs takes time.
I'll give you at least two class days' notice of each assignment's
due date. You should start early so you have time to think about
the programming problem, plan your solution, and, eventually, write
and debug your program.
The Mechanics of Getting Help
If you are working on a program and you need help, you can
consult with another student in the lab, you can ask a lab
assistant for help, you can talk to Mike Tie, and you can
talk to me. Before coming to my office, please send your
program to me by e-mail. If you include a brief note
with your program telling me what the problem is (send me any
error messages you are getting, too), I can try to answer your
question via e-mail, even from home if I'm logged on. Don't
worry about flooding me with e-mail--I'm already flooded, with
or without your program.
Jeff Ondich,
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science,
Carleton College, Northfield, MN
55057,
(507) 646-4364,
jondich@carleton.edu