CS 1101 Aterm 12

Computer Science Department

CS 1101 A Term 2012
Introduction to Program Design

What this course is about

What drives someone to write a program? Once you have an idea for a program, what do you do next? What skills does it take to write useful programs? How does computer science interact with other disciplines? And what do computer scientists do besides programming anyway? CS 1101 introduces students to the worlds of computing and programming. Through a series of programming and information design exercises, students will learn how programmers view the world and how to turn problems into working programs. We'll study the various aspects of program design and write some fun programs along the way. This course assumes no prior programming background and is designed for both potential CS majors as well as curious students from other majors. Additional information about the course can be found in the WPI undergraduate catalog course description for CS 1101.

Course Objectives

CS 1101 is designed to help you identify problems that programs can solve and to learn how to design programs that solve problems. Program design involves a series of smaller skills, including information design, logic design, testing, and documentation. Improving your skills in these areas should help you with general problem solving even when you aren't programming.

Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

Understand when to use and write programs over structures, lists, and trees
Develop data models for programming problems
Write recursive and mutually recursive programs using the Racket programming language
Explain when state is needed in value-oriented programming
Develop test procedures for simple programs

Why DrRacket?

Why isn't CS 1101 taught using C/C++/Java...? None of the courses in the Computer Science department are intended to just teach you a programming language. Our courses use one or more programming languages to teach Computer Science concepts. DrRacket (a close cousin of the programming languages Lisp and Scheme) is particularly well-suited for teaching beginning programmers the essential concepts of program design, because its regular syntax makes it easy to learn how to program in the language and its simplicity means that students can begin writing complete programs from day one. Once you've mastered program design concepts, you'll find that additional languages can be learned more easily. And don't be fooled into thinking that DrRacket is a language for academics only. Some of the following readings provide details on Scheme (and Lisp) programming in academia and in the real world:

An article by Paul Graham describing how and why he (and a colleague) used Lisp to write the software for what is (now) Yahoo! Store.

Paul Graham's site has number of other articles discussing advantages of using Lisp in programming projects.
Common LISP's role in planning parts of the pathfinder mission
The Functional Programming in the Real World website, with pointers to a slew of real-world projects that use functional languages.
A Q&A on Scheme and Lisp
ITA Software relies heavily on Lisp for its technical success
Schemers.org, the online home for all things Scheme.

Staff

Instructor: Glynis Hamel (GH)

Teaching Assistants: Hien Duong (HD), Maryam Hasan (MH), Kenneth Loomis (KL), Olga Poppe (OP)

Senior Assistants: Xianjing Hu (XH), Brian Gaffey (BG), Nicholas Morin (NM), Wesley Ripley (WR)

Office Hour Schedule

(Note: TA/SA office hours will be held in FL A22. Glynis Hamel's office hours are held in FL 132.)

Day/Time 11:00 12:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00

Monday WR GH KL BG NM NM

Tuesday HD XH GH MH WR OP

Wednesday MH MH

Thursday HD HD BG KL KL OP OP

Friday BG GH XH XH WR NM

Glynis Hamel is available for additional office hours on Thursday by appointment.

CS 1101 Tutors

The MASH tutor for CS 1101 is Tim DeFreitas. Tim will hold MASH tutoring sessions on Monday and Tuesday, 7-8pm, and Thursday 5-6pm. MASH sessions take place in the Exam Proctoring Center. The sessions run from August 27 - October 5.

For more information about MASH and other tutoring services, check out the Academic Resource Center.

Class Discussion Board and Email

A discussion board for CS 1101 has been set up on myWPI. You are responsible for all announcements and information posted on the myWPI site - check it on a daily basis.

If you have a question regarding your grades in the course, send email to cs1101-staff *at* cs.wpi.edu. Mail sent to this address goes to the instructor and to the TAs. Include your section number in all correspondence.

The instructor's email address is ghamel *at* cs.wpi.edu. Please restrict your use of my personal email address to issues of a confidential nature. You will get a quicker response if you post your questions to the class discussion board.

Lecture and Lab Times

Lectures MTRF from 9:00 - 9:50am, and from 10:00-10:50am in FLPH-UPR. You should attend the lecture for which you are registered.

Labs meet on Wednesdays according to the following schedule:

Section Time Location Lab Assistants

A01 8 - 8:50am SL 123 Nicholas, Xianjing

A02 9 - 9:50am SL 123 Nicholas, Xianjing

A03 10 - 10:50am SL 123 Nicholas, Xianjing

A04 11 - 11:50am SL 123 Nicholas, Wesley

A05 12 -12:50pm SL 123 Brian, Xianjing

A06 1 - 1:50pm SL 123 Brian, Wesley

A07 2 - 2:50pm SL 123 Brian, Wesley

A08 3 - 3:50pm SL 123 Brian, Wesley

Textbook and Software

Textbook: The textbook for the course is How to Design Programs by Matthias Felleisen, Robert Bruce Findler, Matthew Flatt, and Shriram Krishnamurthi. MIT Press, 2001. You may use the online version or purchase a hard copy.

Software: We will use DrRacket (the latest version is 5.3), for all coding projects in the course. DrRacket is installed on all CCC lab machines. You can download DrRacket to your own computer; it's free and supports the usual OS's (Unix, PC, Mac).

Grading

Exams (60%)

Three exams will be given. Exams are tentatively scheduled for September 10, September 25, and October 11. You must have a passing average on the exams in order to pass the course. (A passing average on the exams is usually around 60%. We may lower this threshold if the exam averages are low; the threshold will not be raised).

Exams are closed-book, closed-notes. You may bring in one sheet of notes (one paper, 8.5" x 11.5", both sides) to each exam. You may not use any computers, calculators, cellphones, headphones, or other electronic devices during the exams.

There are no makeups for exams. Absence from an exam will be excused only for medical or emergency reasons. A note from your doctor or from the Office of Academic Advising will be required. In such cases your final grade will be recorded as Incomplete and you will be allowed to take a makeup exam the next time the course is offered (C-term 13).

Homework (30%)

Seven homework assignments will be given. Starting with Homework 2, homework assignments will be done in pairs. Homework assignments will be due on Tuesday evenings at 5pm. No extra credit or makeup assignments will be given. Read Homework Expectations for details on how to prepare your homeworks. The graders will follow these grading guidelines when grading your homework.

Labs (5%)

Labs will be given during conference sections on Wednesdays. To get credit for a lab you must attend at your scheduled time, sign the attendance sheet, actively work on the assignment during the lab period, and use turnin to turn in your work at the end of the lab period. Each lab will be graded as either credit (1) or no credit (0). At the end of the term, your 5 highest lab grades will be used to account for 5% of your final grade. You will not get credit for a lab unless you attend the section for which you are registered. There are no makeups for labs.

In-class assignments (5%)

Several times a week we will take a few minutes of class time for in-class group work. This will consist of one or two questions related to recently-covered lecture material or homework problems. Each assignment will be graded as either credit (1) or no credit (0). At the end of the term, five of these assignments will be chosen at random by the instructor, and these will count as 5% of your final grade. There are no makeups for group assignments.

Academic Honesty Policy

Please read WPI's Academic Honesty Policy.

Labs and In-class group work

Collaboration is encouraged for labs and in-class group work.

Exams

Collaboration is prohibited on exams.

Homework

Homework 1 is to be done individually.

Starting with Homework 2, you will be working with a homework partner. You may discuss problems in a general manner across homework pairs, but each pair is responsible for writing up their own solution from scratch.

As examples, each of the following scenarios would constitute cheating (this list is not exhaustive!):

Two different homework pairs share a solution to a single question on a homework assignment.
Students from different homework pairs sit side-by-side while writing up their solutions and one student copies down what the other student types up.
You send the code for a completed homework question to a friend in another homework pair "just so he can look at it to figure out how to do the problem".
You obtain a solution to a homework problem (or a problem similar to a homework problem) from on-line or from someone who took the course in a previous term.

In contrast, the following scenarios would not constitute cheating:

Students from two different homework pairs discuss a pair-assignment (its goal, what it is asking you to do, what the challenging parts are, or how to approach the problem).
You ask any member of the course staff (professor, TAs, or SAs) for help in understanding or completing an individual assignment.
Students from the same homework pair share code to a solution.
Students from one homework pair show their code to a student from a different pair and ask for help in understanding why their code is wrong. (This would become cheating if the non-pair student provided or dictated a reasonable amount of the solution to the original pair).

Cheating will not be tolerated. If you are unsure whether a given activity would constitute cheating, ask the instructor. Violations of the Academic Honesty Policy can result in an NR for the course, and violators will be subject to the procedures outlined in section 5 of the WPI Judicial Policy.

Late Policy

Late homework will be accepted within 24 hours of the due date. Each homework-partner-group will be allowed one late submission without penalty. Beyond that, late homework will incur a 25% penalty (i.e. 25% of the total possible points for the assignment will be deducted). Any homework turned in after the 24-hour grace period will receive a grade of zero. No exceptions will be made to the late homework policy. No extra credit or makeup homework assignments will be given.

Do not send email to the instructor or to the TAs requesting special exemption from the late policy. The late policy is applicable for all possible reasons for late submissions. In particular, one pair member forgetting to turn in an assignment on time will not be considered an acceptable excuse for an extension.

Homework Submission Policy

Homework must be submitted using the web-based turnin program. Homework submitted by any other means (paper, email, etc.) will receive a grade of zero.

Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accomodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Services Office (DSO) as soon as possible to ensure that such accomodations are implemented in a timely fashion. The DSO is located in Daniels Hall.

Schedule & Assignments

Note: the instructor reserves the right to change the order of topics or the dates of the exams, if necessary.

http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~cs1101/a12/index.html

Day/Time	11:00	12:00	1:00	2:00	3:00	4:00	5:00	6:00	7:00
Monday			WR	GH	KL		BG	NM	NM
Tuesday	HD	XH	GH	MH	WR	OP
Wednesday	MH	MH
Thursday	HD	HD	BG	KL	KL	OP	OP
Friday	BG	GH	XH	XH	WR	NM

Section	Time	Location	Lab Assistants
A01	8 - 8:50am	SL 123	Nicholas, Xianjing
A02	9 - 9:50am	SL 123	Nicholas, Xianjing
A03	10 - 10:50am	SL 123	Nicholas, Xianjing
A04	11 - 11:50am	SL 123	Nicholas, Wesley
A05	12 -12:50pm	SL 123	Brian, Xianjing
A06	1 - 1:50pm	SL 123	Brian, Wesley
A07	2 - 2:50pm	SL 123	Brian, Wesley
A08	3 - 3:50pm	SL 123	Brian, Wesley

Week	Reading	Topics	Assignments	Extra Notes
Aug 23 - 24	HTDP Chapter 1 HTDP Chapter 2	Intro to Programming and Racket Expressions, Images, and Functions	Homework 1 (due: Tuesday, August 28)	Lecture 1 objectives Lecture 2 objectives Using Images Creating Operators
Aug 27 - 31	HTDP Chapter 3 HTDP Chapter 4 HTDP Chapter 5 HTDP Chapter 6	Function Composition Conditionals Symbols and strings Structures Nested structs	Lab 1, Wed 8/29 Homework 2 (due: Tuesday, Sept 4)	Lecture 3 objectives Lecture 4 objectives Lecture 5 objectives Lecture 6 objectives Symbols and Strings Study Guide on Functions Study Guide on Structures tiger data definition (notes from class) A brief intro to event-driven programming (read before you try Lab 2)
Sept 4 - 7	HTDP Chapter 7 HTDP Chapter 9	Mixed data (Unions) and the Design Recipe Lists Templates for lists	Lab 2,Wed 9/5 Homework 3 (due: Tuesday, Sept 11)	Lecture 7 objectives Lecture 8 objectives Lecture 9 objectives Data Definitions and Templates for Structs[pdf] Design Recipe Worksheet[pdf] Exam preparation Guidelines Sample Exam 1 [pdf] Where are the answers to the Sample Exam? Data Definition and Template for Lists[pdf] When to Think While Programming contains-milk? code from Friday's class
Sept 10 - 14	HTDP Chapter 10.1 HTDP Chapter 10.2	Exam 1, Monday, Sept 10 Producing lists Lists of Structs	Lab 3, Wed 9/12 Homework 4 (due: Tuesday, Sept 18)	Lecture 10 - Exam 1 Lecture 11 objectives Lecture 12 objectives Lecture 13 objectives Data Definition and Template for List of Struct[pdf] Solutions and additional problems from Lecture 12 (Thursday) Answers to the "CD Inventory" class problems (DrRacket file)
Sept 17 - 21	HTDP Chapter 14.1 HTDP Chapter 14.2 HTDP Chapter 15.1 HTDP Chapter 15.2	Trees Hierarchies More on Hierarchies	Lab 4, Wed 9/19 Homework 5 (due: Tuesday, Sept 25)	Lecture 14 objectives Lecture 15 objectives Lecture 16 objectives Lecture 17 objectives Exam preparation Guidelines Sample Exam 2 [pdf] Why aren't answers to the sample exam published? Tree Data Definitions (.pdf) Solution to ancestor tree problem from Lecture 15 (update-year) On filling in templates Solutions to Thursday's lecture problem (count-older-blue) Solutions to Friday's lecture problem (gather-green-eyed) Tree terminology
Sept 24 - 28	HTDP Chapter 19 HTDP Chapter 20	Sorting Exam 2, Tuesday, Sept 25 Intoduction to higher-order functions Filter/map	Lab 5, Wed 9/26 Homework 6 (due: Tuesday, Oct 2)	Lecture 18 objectives Lecture 19 - Exam 2 Lecture 20 objectives Lecture 21 objectives Problems from Monday (people-with-kids, find-person) Problems from Thursday's lecture Problems from Friday's lecture
Oct 1 - 5	HTDP Chapter 31 HTDP Chapter 34 HTDP Chapter 35 HTDP Chapter 36 HTDP Chapter 37.1	Accumulating data Introduction to set! Program design with set! Changing struct contents	Homework 7 (due: Tuesday, Oct 9) Lab 6, Wed 10/3	Lecture 22 objectives Lecture 23 objectives Lecture 24 objectives Lecture 25 objectives Notes from Monday's lecture on accumulator-style programming How to write accumulator-style functions Notes from Tuesday's lecture on set! Code for Vending machine (Thursday's lecture) Exam preparation Guidelines Why aren't answers to the sample exam published? Sample Exam 3 [pdf] Notes from Friday's lecture (set-structure!) Guidelines for choosing between set! and set-structure!
Oct 8 - 11	HTDP Chapter 40.3 HTDP Chapter 40.5	More on set-structure! Counting cycles Wrap-up, course evaluations Exam 3, Thursday, Oct 11	Lab 7, Wed 10/10	Lecture 26 objectives Lecture 27 objectives Lecture 28 - Exam 3 Code from Lecture 26 - data with cycles

CS 1101 A Term 2012 Introduction to Program Design