There is no assigned textbook. I strongly recommend that you purchase
the Mathematics Department's notes on C programming (written by Professor
Yohe). They are available in the department office, Room 100 Cupples I.
The cost is around $12. I also recommend that you acquire a
comprehensive reference manual if you are serious about programming. Some
recommendations may be found in my
guide to C literature.
Most of the material that we will cover is discussed at an
elementary level in Professor Yohe's notes. In many cases, however, the
class lectures will cover the same ground in more detail. Some
topics that we will cover will not be covered in the notes. In some
of these cases, web-posted material will be available. As usual with
university courses, the material that you are responsible for is the
material that has been covered in class.
There will be three graded programming assignments. These will not be enormous in scope but they will be nontrivial for beginning programmers. Any nontrivial assignment can take a nontrivial amount of time. Keep up with the class and try the exercises so that you will not have too much difficulty completing the assignment in the given time period. Each homework assignment will be worth 10/100 of the final grade.
There will be a programming project that is to be handed in no later than the last scheduled class. This is to be a major program. It will be graded more or less like Olympic diving. The number of points that you get will be an execution score multiplied by a degree of difficulty. The submission of a perfectly coded "Hello World" program, for example, would get 0. As we progress and you see more of the things that you could be capable of doing with C, you should try to think of a programming project that would interest you. Ideally, your concept would allow you to utilize most of the topics covered in the course. Please e-mail me a description of your project by November 9 1998. If I haven't heard from you by then, I will pick something for you. No Othello games! The project is worth 15/100 of the total grade.
There will be a final exam. I did not schedule it. Check course listings for its official time. It is worth 30/100 of the grade.
Unscheduled in-class quizzes make up 25/100 of the grade. A few of these will be dropped in consideration of their unscheduled nature and the necessity of occasional absenses. At least two will be dropped, possibly more - depending on how many quizzes there will be. The real purpose of the quizzes is to encourage class attendance. If you are present for the full number of quizzes that will count for the final grade, then poor scores will not adversely impact your grade. If you miss some and also do poorly, then that will have a negative effect.
| ID # | Jan 31 | Feb 6 | Feb 13 | Feb 20 | Feb 20 | Feb 25 | March 11 | April 1 | April 18 | April 18 | Assgnt 1 | Assgnt 2 | Assgnt 3 | Project | Final Exam | Letter Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3310 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | A | B | B+ | A | 83 | A |
| 7836 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | A | C+ | A | A- | 40 | B- | |||
| 9105 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | A- | C- | B- | C | 60 | B- |
| 7433 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | B+ | B+ | B+ | C | 58 | B- |
| 9660 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | A | A- | A | A | 76 | A |
| 4115 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | A | C- | D | D | 50 | C | ||
| 9914 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | A | A- | A | A | 71 | A- | |||
| 7153 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | A | B | A | A | 67 | A- |
| 2342 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | A | A | A | B- | 80 | A- |
Brian E. Blank