| General | Description | Requirements | Readings | Topics | Policies | Schedule |
Instructor: Bert Huang. Office hours
Tuesday 2:30 PM - 4:30 CEPSR 624 (or by appointment)
TA:
Deergha Sahni, UNI: ds2664, Office hours Wednesday 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM TA Room
http://ta.cs.columbia.edu/tamap.shtml
TA: Peter Lu, UNI: yl2505, Office hours Thursday 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM TA Room
TA: Sharath Avadoot Gururaj, UNI: sa2617, Office hours Monday 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM TA Room
Time: Tuesday and Thursday 1:10 PM - 2:25 PM
Location: Mudd 834 Changed to Mudd 233
Courseworks site (message board
etc.): http://courseworks.columbia.edu/
From the university bulletin: A general introduction to computer science concepts, algorithmic problem-solving capabilities, and programming skills in C.
In particular, this course will teach algorithmic problem-solving and analysis skills that will be applied specifically to C programming in the Linux environment.
(This list is not in any particular order, nor is it comprehensive. It should however provide an idea of what the course will cover.)
History of C, pseudocode, commenting, code style, basic complexity, Big-O notation, compiling (gcc), abstraction, scope, functions, basic input/output (I/O), conditionals (if, switch, etc), loops (while, for, do), recursion, basic data types (boolean, char, int, long, float, double), complex data types (arrays, enum, structs, unions), memory management, pointers, file I/O, macros, header and src files, basic computer architecture, testing, documentation, debugging, introduction to object-oriented programming, etc.
The course will have four homework assignments distributed throughout the semester. Each will be a combination of programming problems and "pencil-and-paper" computer science problems.
There will be a midterm exam and a final exam. Both will be open book and open notes, since our goal is to teach problem-solving skills, not memorization. Unfortunately, due to the need to avoid communication during the exams, no electronic devices will be allowed.
Finally, students will also be graded on class participation. The final grade will be a weighted sum of the following:
(This breakdown is subject to change, but it should be similar to the percentages listed above.)
Please read through the department's policies on academic honesty (http://www.cs.columbia.edu/education/honesty/). In this course all work is to be done individually.
I will not be keeping attendence but it is in your best interest to come to every class.
If you found an error in grading, please type and print your argument on paper and deliver it to a TA. The TA will respond to your complaint and if there is still a disagreement, repeat the same written-argument process with the instructor (Bert) and he will make a final decision on the disagreement.
| Date | Topic | Links and Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday, 9/2/08 | First class. History of C. Computer Science and Programming | PCP Ch. 1 (very short). Slides |
| Thursday, 9/4/08 | Computer History and Basic Architecture | Cunix tutorial: http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~bert/courses/1003/cunix.html, Slides |
| Tuesday, 9/9/08 | Linux tutorial. Hello World. Coding style and comments. | Homework #1 assigned |
| Thursday, 9/11/08 | Variables and Types. | PuTTY setup notes. Read PCP Ch. 3 and 4. Slides. |
| Tuesday, 9/16/08 | More Types: Arrays, Strings. Command line arguments. | Slides. Read PCP Ch. 5 |
| Thursday, 9/18/08 | Conditionals and Loops | Slides. Read PCP Ch. 6 and 8 |
| Tuesday, 9/23/08 | Functions | Homework #1 due. Homework #2 assigned. Slides. Read PCP Ch. 9 |
| Thursday, 9/25/08 | Recursion | Slides. hanoi.c. How to check your tar file |
| Tuesday, 9/30/08 | More Types: unions, structs, typedef | Slides |
| Thursday, 10/2/08 | File I/O | Slides. counter.c, reader.c |
| Tuesday, 10/7/08 | C Preprocessor | Slides. Read PCP Ch. 10 |
| Thursday, 10/9/08 | Bit Operations and Boolean Logic | Slides. Read PCP Ch. 11 |
| Tuesday, 10/14/08 | C Standard Libraries | Slides. Homework #2 due |
| Thursday, 10/16/08 | Midterm Review | Slides |
| Tuesday, 10/21/08 | Midterm Exam | Homework #3 assigned. |
| Thursday, 10/23/08 | Pointers | Slides. Read PCP Ch. 13 |
| Tuesday, 10/28/08 | Memory Management | Slides |
| Thursday, 10/30/08 | Big-O Notation and Sorting | Slides |
| No class: Election Day | ||
| Thursday, 11/6/08 | Program Design, Pseudocode, Headers | Slides. count.c,main.c,count.h |
| Tuesday, 11/11/08 | Modular Programming (object-oriented thinking), Makefiles | Homework #3 due. Homework #4 assigned. Slides. Read PCP Ch. 18 |
| Thursday, 11/13/08 | Pointers Revisited: Functions | Slides. TCPL Ch. 5 |
| Tuesday, 11/18/08 | Basic Data Structures | Slides. PCP Chapter 17 |
| Thursday, 11/20/08 | Software Engineering | Slides |
| Tuesday, 11/25/08 | A look at C++ and Java | Slides |
| No class: Thanksgiving Day | ||
| Tuesday, 12/2/08 | Artificial Intelligence (Free Topic) | Slides |
| Thursday, 12/4/08 | Last class. Final Review. | Homework #4 due. Slides |