Meetings: Tue & Thu 3-4:15 pm, Shaffer 301

Instructor: Dr. Joanne Selinski
Office: New Engineering Building, Room 314, (410)516-4117
E-mail: joanne -at- cs.jhu.edu
Office Hours: mornings and Mon/Wed afternoons are best (not available 12-1:30p MW)

Course Web Page: http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~joanne/cs120
This is a VERY important source of course information and must be checked regularly!!

Course Description: This course teaches intermediate to advanced programming, using C and C++. (Prior knowledge of these languages is not expected.) We will cover low-level programming techniques, as well as object-oriented class design, and the use of class libraries. Specific topics include pointers, dynamic memory allocation, polymorphism, overloading, inheritance, templates, collections, exceptions, and others as time permits. Students are expected to learn syntax and some language specific features independently. Course work involves significant programming projects in both languages. Pre-requisite: 600.107 or AP CS or equivalent.

Required Texts: Both texts were chosen to be very concise, and offer much programming wisdom beyond simply describing language features. Since they are small, we suggest reading them carefully & thoroughly. If you prefer a text with fuller explanations, Joanne probably has something you can borrow, or see below for recommendations.

Brian W. Kernighan & Dennis M. Ritchie, The C Programming Language, Prentice Hall, Inc., 2nd edition, 1988.
Andrew Koenig & Barbara E. Moo, Accelerated C++, Addison-Wesley, 2000.

Optional Reading: Several tutorials and reference cards have been posted on the main course webpage. Peter's resource page (www.cs.jhu.edu/~phf/2009/fall/cs120/resources.shtml) has lots of great info on other texts, tutorials and tools. I strongly suggest looking through them. Here are a few other texts you might find helpful:

• Lippman, Lajoie & Moo, "C++ Primer", Addison-Wesley
• Wang, "Standard C++ with Object-Oriented Programming", Brooks/Cole
• Weiss, "C++ for Java Programmers", Pearson/Prentice Hall
• Budd, "C++ for Java Programmers", Addison-Wesley

Grading: Students will complete programming projects, a midterm and a final. Each will be assigned a point value. Your overall program average will be computed as total points earned divided by total points possible. You are also expected to attend and participate in class and lab sections. These grading components will be weighted as below. Letter grades for the course will be subject to my evaluation of your overall class performance. Please keep your own record of your grades so that you will know your standing in the course and can double-check my records. All grades will be available on webCT.

• 5% - participation
• 55% - programming assignments (including final team project)
• 15% - mid-term (tentatively Thursday, 3/11, in class)
• 25% - final (??, 9am)

Programming Logistics: All programming assignments must compile with gcc/g++, according to individual assignment specifications, on the CS undergrad unix servers. NO CREDIT WILL BE GIVEN FOR CODE THAT DOES NOT COMPILE! This means that all components of a program must compile together with the required options or you will not receive any credit for any of them!! Many students prefer to write programs on their own computers. However, students will be given access to the CS Lab in NEB 225 in order to meet with course assistants and will be given a unix account from the CS department. If you don't already have an account or access, you must get a class account form from Joanne. You will then need to see Steve in NEB 226 (hours posted on the door) with your Jcard and form in order to get access. You are welcome to use any development environment you like, as long as your program compiles as specified with gcc/g++ and runs on the undergrad unix servers.

Late policy: No late homework or programs. If a program is not working perfectly, turn it in as is with detailed comments as to which parts are complete, and which are not. NO CREDIT WILL BE GIVEN FOR CODE THAT DOES NOT COMPILE! Exceptions for illness will be given only by Joanne (not by any TAs). Exceptions for poor planning will NOT be given. Now is a good time to develop incremental coding skills, so that you always have a working program to turn in, even if parts are incomplete.

Collaboration: Some programming assignments will be individual, others will require colloboration with a specified partner or small team. An individual assignment means that you may not consult other students for help, only the TAs or instructor. Any collaboration beyond the specifications of an assignment will be reported as an ethics violation. For homework help you may only consult the instructor, the teaching and course assistants, or tutors. You must abide by the Computer Science Academic Integrity Code (see below), as well as the University's Ethics Code.

Plagiarism: Code reuse is an important feature of moderm programming techniques. However, you are expected to write most of the code for your assignments from scratch. Using the language libraries according to assignment specifications and reusing your own code from prior work in the course is expected. Doing a web search to find and use partial solutions is an ethics violation. Reusing code from examples we do in lectures or from the textbooks is acceptable, but only with proper citation (a comment indicating the original source). Any uncited or illicit code reuse is a very serious ethics violation.

Miscellany: You are expected to attend and actively participate in all class sessions. Inevitably, students who do not attend regularly do poorly on tests and assignments. You are responsible for all material presented while you are absent. If you have trouble or need extra help, don't hesitate to contact a teaching assistant or me. Please don't wait until you're hopelessly behind.

Cheating is wrong. Cheating hurts our community by undermining academic integrity, creating mistrust, and fostering unfair competition. The university will punish cheaters with failure on an assignment, failure in a course, permanent transcript notation, suspension, and/or expulsion. Offenses may be reported to medical, law or other professional or graduate schools when a cheater applies.

Violations can include cheating on exams, plagiarism, reuse of assignments without permission, improper use of the Internet and electronic devices, unauthorized collaboration, alteration of graded assignments, forgery and falsification, lying, facilitating academic dishonesty, and unfair competition. Ignorance of these rules is not an excuse.

Academic honesty is required in all work you submit to be graded. Except where the instructor specifies group work, you must solve all homework and programming assignments without the help of others. For example, you must not look at anyone else's solutions (including program code) to your homework problems. However, you may discuss assignment specifications (not solutions) with others to be sure you understand what is required by the assignment.

If your instructor permits using fragments of source code from outside sources, such as your textbook or on-line resources, you must properly cite the source. Not citing it constitutes plagiarism. Similarly, your group projects must list everyone who participated.

Falsifying program output or results is prohibited.

Your instructor is free to override parts of this policy for particular assignments. To protect yourself: (1) Ask the instructor if you are not sure what is permissible. (2) Seek help from the instructor, TA or CAs, as you are always encouraged to do, rather than from other students. (3) Cite any questionable sources of help you may have received.

On every exam, you will sign the following pledge: "I agree to complete this exam without unauthorized assistance from any person, materials or device. [Signed and dated]". Your course instructors will let you know where to find copies of old exams, if they are available.

For more information, see the guide on "Academic Ethics for Undergraduates" and the Ethics Board web site (http://ethics.jhu.edu).