System Programming for
Non-Majors
CS
2301
D-Term 2009
CS 2301 is intended for non-computer science majors who are
likely to need to write programs in C
or other “low-level” computer languages in their studies at WPI and/or in their
careers in their chosen professions. It is also intended for non-computer
science majors who wish to take upper-level courses in the systems area of the
computer science curriculum.
Index
- Prerequisites
- Overview
- Course Outline
- Administrative
Information
- Grading Policy
- Goals and Outcomes
- Lecture Notes
- Programming
Assignments
- Laboratory Sessions
- Late Assignment Policy
Prerequisites
CS 2301 assumes some prior programming experience, which may be a previous Computer
Science course at WPI such as CS 1101 or CS 1102, a computer programming course
in high school using a language such as Java, or a job in which you had to
write or participate in the development of a non-trivial program in any
programming language.
Students who
attempt to take CS 2301 as their first
computer programming experience generally leave the course in frustration after
wasting a few weeks.
Also, it
does not usually work very well to take this course while carrying an overload.
Overview
CS 2301 has three main components:–
- Lectures, which
introduce and discuss the principle components of the C language and the most common data structures that technical
professionals typically need when programming in C. These data structures are arrays (including strings),
lists, trees, and hash tables.
- Programming
Assignments, in which students write and debug programs to use
the language constructs and data structures introduced in class. There
will be approximately six programming assignments, typically assigned on
Tuesdays and due at 11:59 PM about one week later. Timely completion of all programming assignments is required to pass this course. If, after a good faith effort to attempt
an assignment, it proves too difficult or there are fundamental things you
do not understand, then submit an incomplete assignment with your own
analysis of your difficulty.
- Laboratory
sessions, in which students learn how to use the various systems and tools
needed to write and debug programs in C.
(Students who are already proficient in these tools may also earn
laboratory credit by learning Eclipse
or Microsoft Visual Studio and
demonstrating to the professor or a TA their proficiency with those
tools.)
There will also be three exams, scheduled
for April 3, April 17, and May 5. See below for more information about exams.
Course Outline
The following is a rough outline of the
course. Dates of some topics may change, depending upon how the class goes.
- Week 1:– Introduction to the course, numerical computation in C, input and output, scanf() and printf()
- Week 2:– Expressions, assignments, operator precedence, loops,
conditionals, and introduction to functions
- Week 3:– Functions, recursive functions; role of the stack during execution. Exam #1, Friday, April 3, 2009
- Week 4:– Pointers, arrays, and strings; dynamic memory
allocation, malloc() and free()
- Week 5:– Structures, unions, and introduction to lists. Exam #2, Friday, April 17, 2009
- Week 6:– Lists and trees. (Only one class this week — i.e.,
Friday, April 24.)
- Week 7:– Hash tables, bitwise operations; interface with
operating system
- Week 8:– Final Exam,
Tuesday, May 5, 2009.
Administrative
Information
CS-2301 meets for two 2-hour classes per
week for a seven-week undergraduate term (28 hours).
Time and Place: Tuesdays and Fridays, 8:00 — 9:50 AM, Fuller Labs 320
March 17 – May 5, 2009. There is no class on Tuesday, April 21, because
WPI follows a Thursday schedule that day.
Professor:
Email:
<professor’s last name>@cs.wpi.edu
Office hours: by appointment, or (normally) 1 hour
after each class; other scheduled times TBD
Office:
Fuller Labs, Room 137
Teaching Assistants:
Rabin Karki (email: rabin), Fuller A22
Jeff Zhou (email: jeffz), Fuller A22
(see
below for office hours)
Senior Assistant:
Brian Bates (email: bsbates), Fuller A22
Textbook: Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie, The C Programming Language, 2nd
edition, Prentice Hall, 1988.
Class e-mail lists: The following two lists are in the domain cs.wpi.edu:–
o cs2301-all
— to reach all students, TAs, SAs, and the professor
o cs2301-staff — to reach just the TAs, SAs, and the
professor
Course
web site: http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~cs2301/d09/
Absences: Students needing to be absent from class should
notify the professor by e-mail or in person as soon as possible. Likewise,
students needing to schedule assignments or presentations around religious
holidays, projects, or interview trips should notify the professor at the beginning of the course.
Class cancellations and snow dates: Consult official WPI sources regarding the cancellation
of classes due to snow and for rescheduling of those classes.
Office hours:
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Day/Time |
10:00 |
11:00 |
12:00 |
1:00 |
2:00 |
3:00 |
4:00 |
5:00 |
6:00 |
7:00 |
8:00 |
9:00 |
10:00 |
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Sunday |
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BB |
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Monday |
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JZ |
JZ |
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Tuesday |
HCL |
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RK |
RK |
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BB |
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Wednesday |
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JZ |
JZ |
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Thursday |
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RK |
RK |
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Friday |
HCL |
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HCL |
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Grading Policy
Final grades will be computed as follows:
- Exams: 45%
- Programming assignments: 45%
- Labs and class participation: 10%
It is unlikely that a student can pass
this course if he/she does not submit programming assignments or attend class
regularly. In particular, good grades on exams are not a substitute for
submitting the programming assignments.
If there are any circumstances that limit
or restrict your participation in the class or the completion of assignments,
please contact the professor as soon as possible in order to work something
out.
Exams
Exams will be one hour in length and will
be closed book, but students may bring one 8˝ -by-11 inch sheet of prepared
notes (two sides). You may not use
any computers, calculators, mobile phones, music players, or any other electronic
devices during the exams.
Prior to each exam, there will be a brief
review period in which students may ask questions and discuss topics relevant
to the exam.
There
are no makeup 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 extreme
circumstances, the Professor will try to help you find a way to pass the
course.
Students with Disabilities
Students with disabilities who believe that they
need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability
Services Office (DSO) as soon as possible to ensure that such accommodations
can be implemented in a timely fashion. The DSO is located in Daniels Hall. The
Professor must receive requests for
accommodations at least one week prior to an exam.
Academic Honesty
Students are strongly encouraged to work
together, help each other, reinforce each others’ knowledge, and consult experts
and resources outside the course on all topics. Like most professional
environments in your future, success depends upon how well you do when you have
access to a full array of resources, not how much you remember by rote.
Once
you and your classmates have worked out a solution to a problem, you must write
it up in your own words or code it in your
own coding style. Some assignments may be team assignments. For these, it
is expected that all team members participate with roughly equal levels of
effort. When you put your name on a team submission of an assignment, not only
are you testifying that you have fully participated in that assignment, but
also your teammates are also testifying that you have fully participated.
For all assignments, the WPI Academic
Honesty Policy applies:–
http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/Policies/Honesty/policy.html
Late Policy
Late
programming assignments will be accepted within 24 hours of the due date. Each
student will be allowed one late submission without penalty. Additional late
submissions will incur an automatic 25% penalty. Any assignment turned in after
the 24-hour grace period will receive a grade of zero. No extra credit or
makeup programming assignments will be given. If you have special
circumstances, contact the Professor at least 24 hours before the assignment is due.
Goals and Outcomes
The C
programming language exposes details of how the underlying hardware stores data
and executes software. It is commonly used in situations where there is no
support for higher-level languages — e.g., operating systems, device drivers,
and embedded systems — and in specialized systems where no higher level
languages have been implemented.
Upon successful completion of this
course, the student should
- Be able to implement, test, debug, and document programs in C
- Understand how a program in a procedural language transforms
data by changing the contents of memory cells
- Be able to program with pointers and perform pointer arithmetic
- Be able to write programs that perform manual memory management
- Understand how to write and use functions and how the stack
implements function calls
- Understand low-level input and output routines
- Use Unix commands to manage files and develop programs,
including multi-module programs
- Understand and use the common data structures typically found in
C programs — namely arrays,
strings, lists, trees, and hash tables