McGill University - School of Computer Science

COMP202: Introduction to Computing 1

Time and Place

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:35-4:25
Macdonald Harrington G-01

Instructor

Anton Dubrau

Office hours:

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:30-6:00, in McConnell 234

Contact:

anton DOT dubrau AT mail DOT mcgill DOT ca (please put '202' somewhere in the message subject or body)

TA

Yasmina

Office hours

Mondays and Wednesdays, 13:00-15:00, in Trottier, 3rd floor (3130)

Contact

yasmina DOT schoueri AT mail DOT mcgill DOT ca

Course Objective

The course introduces students to programming, intended for those with little or no prior knowledge in the subject. We will learn the basic building blocks of programming languages, and some of the object-oriented programming paradigm. We will try to view these concepts with an emphasis on solving problems. We will use the java programming language as our specific programming language, but the concepts are applicable to many other languages.

Schedule

The set of notes can be found here. They match the course material for the most part, but do not represent the official material (the material for the final is whatever was covered in class, and the assignments). Use at your own peril.

	Date		Topic	Material/Readings	Assignements	Tutorials
T R	04.05 06.05	2 4	Intro Types/Vars	Chapter 1 Chapter 2	Ass1 out	Hello World Tutorial
T R	11.05 13.05	6 8	Conditionals Intro to methods	chapter 3 chapter 4 except 4.8-4.10	Ass1 due, Ass2 out
T R	18.05 20.05	10 12	Loops, fruitful methods	chapter 5 chapter 6	Ass2 due, Ass 3 out
T R	25.05 27.05	14 16	switch, Strings Recursion	chapter 7, official String, Scanner, Math documentation, sections 4.8-4.9, 5.8-5.10	Ass 3 due	Midterm Review Tutorial
T R	01.06 03.06	18 20	in-class Midterm, Netbeans Intro, Objects	chapter 8, official Point documentation	Ass4 out
T R	08.06 10.06	22 24	Making objects Arrays	chapter 9, 10, 11, 12	Ass4 due, Ass5 out	File I/O Tutorial
T R	15.06 17.06	26 28	Generics, Arraylists, Maps, Object Orientation	chapter 13, official HashMap, ArrayList, Character documentation, chapter 'X' - on subtyping and inheritance, Decent article on generics (from Wikipedia)	Ass5 due, Ass6 out
T R	22.06 24.06	30 32	Interfaces, javadoc, GUI -		Ass6 due, Ass7 out
T	29.06	34	Matlab			Final Review Tutorial

Assignments

Assignment 1, due Thursday, May 13th, at the end of the day. SolveSystem.java.

Assignment 2, due Thursday, May 20th, at the end of the day. ConnectThree.java.

Assignment 3, due Thursday, May 27th, at the end of the day. Fractal.java.

Assignment 4, due Tuesday, June 8th, at the end of the day. Interpreter.java.

Assignment 5, due Tuesday, June 15th, at the end of the day. Dna files: 1 2 3 4 5

solutions: DNAString.java, StringUtils.java, Main.java

Assignment 6, due Wednesday, May 23rd, at the end of the day. TranslationScanner.java.

language files: fr-eng-no-contractions.txt

Assignment 7, due Saturday, July 3rd, at the end of the day. data, Image.java.

Tutorial schedule

There will be 4 tutorials. Each one will be held once or twice. The review tutorials are there for your convenience, you are responsible for the others.

Tutorial	Time	Place	Description
Hello World Tutorial	Fri, 07.05, 10:00 Fri, 07.05, 12:00	Trottier	You will get set up on how to compile and run your first program. We will show you how to set up you lab account. Bring your own laptop if you have one.
Midterm Review Tutorial	Fri, 28.05, 12:00	Trottier	review and question session for the midterm
File I/O Tutorial	Wed, 09.06, 12:00	Trottier	you will learn how to read and write files in java, and what exceptions are
Final Review Tutorial	Fri, 02.07, 12:00	Trottier	review and question session for the final

Textbooks and Software

Course Textbook:

How to Think Like a Computer Scientist - Java Version, Version 4.1. Allen B. Downey. Available at http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkapjava/thinkapjava.pdf

Required Software

It should be possible to do all assignments in Linux, MacOs, or Windows. You can also do all the assignments in the computer labs in Trottier on the third floor (i.e. you don't need to use your own computer, and all the software is installed there). At the labs we use Linux.
You will need the java JDK, version 6
You will need a text editor with syntax highlighting (for example rtext).
Later in the course we will use the Netbeans IDE.

Grading and Lateness Policy

The final grade will be determined by one of the schemes:

Assignements	Midterm	Final
40%	20%	40%
60%		40%
40%		60%

Whichever scheme gives you the highest grade - this will be your final grade. I reserve the right to make the final assignment count more than the other assignments.

There will be a total of 5-7 assignments. There is a late penalty of 10% for the first day late, 100% for all following days.

Assignments and Plagiarism Policy

Official policy: McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offenses under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see http://www.mcgill.ca/integrity/ for more information).

Assignments should be your own. You may discuss the problems with your peers in person or on WebCT. You may never share actual code with anybody. Since the assignments constitute a large share of your final grade, there is a zero tolerance policy when it comes to plagiarism.

All assignments should have the student's name and ID at the top, and should be well commented. There will be penalties if these are missing. You may submit partially finished homework to receive partial credit. You must document what works and what doesn't in your program. You may be asked to present and explain your program to a TA or an instructor at any time.