Course: Computer Science 135 A, Computer
Programming 1, Fall 2002, Central
College.
Professor: Tom Linton, 312 B Central
Hall, (641) 628-5264, email: lintont@central.edu.
Class Meets: MTWF 10:00 to 10:50
AM in Central Hall 310.
Office Hours: 1 PM Mon, 9 AM Tues,
1 PM Th, 11 AM Fri, or by appointment.
Text: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming with JAVA,
2nd edition, by C. Thomas Wu.
Technology: We will make extensive
use of computers and software related to "programming". No prior
knowledge of these tools is assumed. The class web page is located
at the URL http://www.central.edu/homepages/lintont/classes/fall02/prog1frameset.html
and information relevant to this course may come via email. You
should check your email and the class web page on occasion.
Final Exam: Wednesday December
18, 8 AM, 310 Central Hall.
Class Overview This course is intended for students
with a serious interest in programming and computer science. This
course meets the m core requirement for mathematical reasoning,
and will involve a significant component of abstract thinking, problem
solving, and mathematics. If you have concerns or questions about this
course, please talk to me at your earliest convenience. Computer programming
is introduced using an object-oriented programming language (we'll use
Java). Algorithms, program control structures (sequence, selection, repetition),
graphical user interfaces, classes, objects, methods, files, and arrays
will be covered. Students will spend a significant amount of time out
of class designing, writing, collaborating on, and debugging computer
programs.
Goals and Objectives Upon completion of this course,
students will:
- be able to understand and write relatively straightforward
programs in the object-oriented language Java;
- understand the basic principles of objects, classes,
and methods;
- be familiar with control structures such as conditionals
and loops;
- be familiar with simple data structures such as variables
and arrays.
American Disabilities Act Central
College abides by interpretations of the Americans with Disabilities
Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that stipulates
no student shall be denied the benefits of an education “solely by
reason of a handicap.” Disabilities covered by law include,
but are not limited to, learning disabilities, hearing, sight or mobility
impairments, and other health related impairments. If you have
a documented disability that may have some impact on your work in this
class and for which you may require accommodations, please see me and
Nancy Kroese, Director of Student Support Services and Disability Services
Coordinator, (x5247) so that such accommodations may be arranged.
Grades, based on the letter, or A, A-, B+, B, B-, . . . system,
will be based on a curve of the total points in the class. The curve
used will be the traditional 100-93 A, 92-90 A-, 89-88 B+, etc. (or
an easier curve). The breakdown of the points in the class is given
below. There is no extra credit for this class. You are encouraged to
work together on group assignments (including homework), but copying
answers of others (including those in the back of the text) will result
in no credit. Several assignments in this class will be completed on
an individual basis (working with others is forbidden).
Exams We will have three (or perhaps just two) midterm exams.
These exams will follow the completions of chapters 3, 6, and 8.
Estimated dates for these exams are September 18, October 14, and
November 22. We will also have a cumulative final exam on Wednesday,
December 18 at 8 AM.
Homework and Activities I will assign and collect homework problems
on a regular basis. Recording "just the answer" will receive little
or no credit. You should show and/or explain your work on all assignments
for this class. You are encouraged to work together on homework assignments,
but this does NOT mean copying the work of others nor answers from
a solution set. We will do several in-class activities throughout the
semester (where new concepts are introduced, or old notions are examined
in more detail). Most of these activities will be done in groups, and
all will contain questions similar to homework problems.
Programming Assignments We will complete several (6 to 12) programming
assignments. You will be allowed to work in pairs on some of these,
but others will be done individually, where sharing code will be strictly
forbidden.
Participation You are expected to be in class each day. If you
miss a day of class, you are still responsible for the materials-activities
completed that day. You are expected to participate in class discussions,
ask questions, and to be engaged in the day to day actions of the
class.
Your final grade in this course will be based on participation, homework
assignments, programming assignments, activities, the midterm exams,
and the cumulative final exam. These items will be weighted as follows:
5% participation
20% homework assignments and activities
30% programming assignments and
lab activities
30% midterm exams (10% each)
15% final exam
Academic Dishonesty
Plagiarism (which includes working together on an individual
assignment), or copying answers from other people or books without
citing the source is a serious offense and will result in no credit for
the work. It is OK to discuss your answers with other groups on
group assignments, but the work you turn in must be your own.
Central College's Academic Honesty Policy
"Academic dishonesty is defined as behavior that is inappropriate
for academic pursuits, including plagiarizing, cheating and other
such dishonest activities. Some examples of misconduct are
- presenting other's work as your own:
copying homework or test answers from other students, unauthorized
collaboration on class activities, using unauthorized materials in
a test, having someone else write your paper or test,
- improper computer usage: inappropriate
or illegal use of computers, including such things as pirating of programs
or files, unauthorized access to files or passwords, altering records,
and/or damaging programs
- plagiarism and/or misuse of ideas from other sources:
deliberately using or adopting materials, ideas, or images produced
by another person and taking credit for them, regardless of the format
in which they originally appeared, including books, journals, web
pages, video or audio recordings, and/or computer files, accessing
or using privileged information without authorization, quoting, paraphrasing,
and/or copying materials without footnoting or proper attribution,
using privileged information without authorization.
Depending on the nature of the offense, the penalty for
academic dishonesty ranges from permission to redo the project (if
plagiarism was inadvertent), failing the project, to failing the course.
A second offense is grounds for dismissal from Central College."
We will be using the development environment Bluej to write our programs.
Bluej is a Java development environment specially designed for teaching
introductory programming concepts. It was designed by educators from
Austrailia and Denmark. Here is a somewhat technical tutorial on using Bluej.
The author of our text has written a package of useful classes (Java
programs) for us to draw upon, so that we can develop meaningful
programs from the start. The package is named Javabook and
can be downloaded (for free) from the text's website.
An introduction to classes, objects, methods, and bluej.
The galapagos documentation
(turtle that draw).
Activity 2, using turtles
to write our initials.
The Java
API documentation (a local copy).
Java doc documentation
for the javabook package.
Exam 1 practice
problems.
Installing bluej on your
computer.
Data class
activity.
Exam 2 practice problems.
Practice writing loops.
The ResponseBox and
Format classes.
Strings and ciphers.
The Vigenere programming
assignment.
The Card game programming
assignment.