Basics

Caveat

Copyright

Rules, expectations, etc.

Email

You have three university-sponsored email addresses: userid@cse.sc.edu, userid@cec.sc.edu, and userid@email.sc.edu. This last id is what replaces the old userid@mailbox.sc.edu. Although these are three different addresses, the first two are aliases for the userid@email.sc.edu account, and you are expected to be reading email sent to that account. There is also a CSE department email alias for CSCE 240, namely CSCE240-001 in the domain lists.cse.sc.edu. This alias sends email to the CSE departmental login userid@cse.sc.edu that you get with this course, and then that address is used as an alias for the userid@email.sc.edu account. A mass mailing to the entire class will be done through these mail aliases. Actually, any of you can send mail to this alias.

Texts, References, and Links to Useful Information

• Text:
  • The text for this course is Savitch, Absolute C++. We will be using the fourth edition. It is possible that the content of the third edition would be ok if that happens to be much cheaper, but you are responsible for verifying page numbers, homework problem numbers, etc., that tend to be what change from one edition to the next.
• Department and College Links:
  • The link to the Moodle website is here.
  • A (free download) reference for Moodle can be found here.
  • The college page about computing support.
  • A page on how to connect remotely to the college computer network.
• Linux/Unix:
  • Ubuntu/ Kubuntu.
  • Mandriva Linux.
  • Slackware Linux.
  • Fedora (Red Hat).
  • Other Linux distros.
  • Place to order it all cheap
  • WARNING: Not all Linux distros implement exactly the same C++ compiler or libraries. If you have your own version of Linux on a machine under your control, you should be careful to test on the lab machines anyway. The lab version of Linux, for example, has a couple of slight differences from vanilla Ubuntu. Part of knowing about software development in general is knowing how to verify that things work, and part of mature approaches to software development is doing that verification.
• Cygwin: a linux-like environment for Windows:
  • CygWin home page.
• The vi editor:
  • Vi for windows: Lemmy
  • Vi Text Editor: Tutorial (Purdue Unviersity).
  • Mastering the VI editor (University of Hawai).
  • The Vi Lovers Home Page (MIT).
• Links to other tools:
  • Some truths and cultural background about the writing of software.
  • The Eclipse website.
  • The A tutorial introduction to Emacs.
  • The A guided tour of Emacs.
  • The Emacs beginner's HOWTO.
  I personally use vi and not emacs. I recognize, though, that this is a theological and not a technical decision that people make. Emacs has the advantage that one can do compilation and debugging without leaving emacs, but it also requires knowing more in terms of magic keystrokes (no pain, no gain). You are certainly free to use emacs, but I won't "support" it in the sense that I won't be able to answer questions about how to do magical function X inside emacs.

Course Objectives

• Demonstrate mastery of object oriented programming concepts: inheritance, polymorphism, and operator overloading.
• Demonstrate mastery of pointers, iterators, memory management including object creation and destruction, and parameter passing in C++ and Java.
• Develop C++ code in a Unix Environment utilizing the C preprocessor, the debugger (gdb), make, source code revision systems (sccs), utilities such as those for transferring files to and from Unix and Windows.
• Demonstrate mastery of template functions and classes; understand underlying implementation of major containers in the STL.
• Develop object oriented models using UML.

Course Topics

• Unix Programming Environment: Unix tools, C preprocessor, Make, Shell, I/O redirection, debugging.
• Pointers: Pointer manipulation, functions and function pointers, virtual functions.
• Basic class management: constructors, destructors, data hiding, container classes.
• Memory management: object creation and destruction, memory leak.
• Advanced C++ features: operator overloading, iteration, special containers, inheritance, code reuse, multiple inheritance, virtual functions, polymorphism, templates, template libraries.
• Introduction to UML and object oriented modeling: use-case models, object identification, specifying static behavior, activity diagrams, collaboration diagrams and sequence diagrams, specifying relationships: generalization/specialization, aggregation, associations including multiplicity and roles, dynamic behavior using state diagrams.

Note: Course contents are subject to change without previous notice.

Tests and Assignments

The midterm exam will be on Tuesday 16 February 2010. This will allow me to get back the exams in class on Thursday 18 February. The last day to drop the class with a "W" grade is the following Monday, 22 February.

Homework assignments are to be written outside of class. They will be turned in electronically to the appropriate dropbox, and unless they are specifically assigned as a group project they must be done individually as your own work. See below for more information on the issue of academic integrity and how to judge what will be viewed as "your own work".

In order to be consistent and fair to all students, I report any and all instances of violations of the academic integrity regulations to the appropriate university office. See below for more details.

The final exam will be cumulative.

The registrar's calendar says that final exam is scheduled for Thursday, 29 April 2010, at 9:00 a.m.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS AND THEIR STANDARDS

The homework assignments can be found on the Moodle website for this class.

The homework assignments will have very strict standards and must be written according to the specifications or you will lose points. The style sheet standards can be found on the Moodle website.

It has been found, and should come as no surprise to anyone, that attendance at class correlates positively with your GPA. I will be taking attendance from time to time in various ways. The university policy on attendance can be found here. It reads in part, "Absence from more than 10 percent of the scheduled class sessions, whether excused or unexcused, is excessive and the instructor may choose to exact a grade penalty for such absences." . For every three (3) unexcused absences, your grade will be lowered by one full letter. The judgement as to accepting the excuse is mine. Illness, family emergencies, and such are excusable. Returning home late from Myrtle Beach to avoid the traffic jam is not an excusable absence.

Note also that the exams count a total of 50% of your grade. Your grade is heavily dependent on your homework assignments. What this means is that there is in the grading system a strong incentive for you to keep up to date with assignments and to come to class and labs. It is NOT possible in this class to slack off through the semester and then somehow make up the difference with a strong final. The final exam just doesn't count enough to pull up your grade, not even when combined with the two regular exams.

Notwithstanding the 50-50 distribution of grade based on homeworks and exams, it is necessary that you do acceptably well on both homeworks and exams in order to get a C or better in this course. If you have the highest scores in the class on the programming assignments, and the lowest scores in the class on both midterm and final, for example, you can expect to receive an F for the course.

Unless otherwise indicated, there are no bonus points that can be earned in this class. If you want to total up points so as to get a good grade, then do the homeworks and do well on the exams.

Academic Support

Some of you may find this course difficult. If so, you are encouraged to talk with some of your fellow students in the ACM chapter, because ACM can provide both formal and informal tutoring and assistance.

Version Control

Everything we will use in this course either comes with the textbook or is free and available on the web for download. However, things are are available for download tend to change versions on a regular basis. Your programs will be graded as if they had been compiled and run on the linux lab machines in the department. If you choose to use a different development environment, compiler, or operating system (even a different flavor of linux), you do so at your own risk and must provide me with whatever it takes to test your submissions with no greater effort.

Actually, if you think about it even for just one moment, it's clear that whatever "software engineering" is, it involves the production of a piece of code that can be executed effectively by its intended user. Since the intended user of your submissions is me, it becomes part of the core material of this course that you are responsible for making your code work if run by the intended user on the intended platform.

Academic Honesty

Assignments and examination work are expected to be the sole effort of the student submitting the work. Students are expected to follow the University of South Carolina Honor Code and should expect that every instance of a suspected violation will be reported. Students found responsible for violations of the Code will be subject to academic penalities under the Code in addition to whatever disciplinary sanctions are applied.

There seems to be a widespread misunderstanding of the concept of "your own work." In addition to the USC Code, some good sources of text for what is or is not acceptable behavior are the academic honesty policy statement from Harvey Mudd College, the policy statement from Professor Steven Huss-Lederman at Beloit College, and the text of part of the collaboration policy statement from MIT. You can expect your programming assignments to be checked against those turned in by other members of the class as well as code that I can find on the web. I expect the correlations between your work and that of others to be minimal.

I can also offer an operational definition of what you can do and of how you can distinguish "learning from a group discussion" and "turning in someone else's work." If, after having participated in a group activity, you can walk away, put the books down, have lunch, and then come back afterwards to re-create from your own head the material and techniques you discussed as a group, then you can legitimately say that you have learned from the group but the work you turn in is your own.

A second operational definition of what is acceptable might be something like the following: It is not relevant if you feel that what you have written is your own work. It is not relevant if your supervisor feels that what you have written is your own work. What is relevant is if your competitor's attorney feels that what you have written is not your own work. For the sake of time and our joint sanity, please do not submit grey material whose whiteness or blackness can only be determined after a lengthy and detailed examination.

On the Proper Use of Computing Resources

Students are expected to be aware of the university policy on use of computing resources, including the Student Guidelines for Responsible Computing, as well as the college and departmental policies on proper use of computing resources. Every instance of a suspected violation will be reported. Students should be aware that neither the instructor nor the department are responsible for making alternative arrangements should improper use leading to revocation of access to departmental or college resources make it impossible for you to complete the programming assignments on time.

On the Nature of Academic Work

Students might also find relevant an essay from a professor at Georgia Tech.