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COMP 210: Principles of Computing & Programming

Instructor:	Prof. Walid Taha	Staff:	Gregory Malecha, Christopher Warrington, Matt Wilson, Ted Torous, Nathan Tallent, Angela Zhu
Lectures:	Duncan Hall (DH) 1046	Time:	MWF 10:00-10:50 am
Labs:	Sewell Hall 101 & Symonds II	Times:	W 2:30-3:50pm (SH101), W 7:00-8:20pm (Sym II), Th 2:30-3:50 pm (SH101) (sign up sheet)

Introduction

This course is an introduction to key concepts in programming and computing. The focus is on systematic methods for understanding problems and devising computations that solve these problems correctly. No prior programming experience is assumed, so non-majors are welcome in the course. We expect students to be comfortable with high-school math. Success in the course requires curiosity about the intellectual core of computer science, self-discipline, and an interest in working with other people on increasingly larger projects. Topics covered include functional programming, design patterns/recipes, data structures, procedural abstraction, reduction rules, use of control and state, and basic concepts in object-oriented programming. Students will learn practical skills required to write and modify programs. Labs and assignments use the Scheme programming language.

Required Text: How to Design Programs, Felleisen et al. QA76.6 .H697 2001 (Online).

DrScheme: Please download and use Version 370. To avoid compatability problems, please make sure you use this exact version.

Course Schedule

Note that future date schedules are only guidelines. Future homeworks and slides contain materials from previous years. New material will be provided before the corresponding class.

#	Day	Date(2007)	Topic	Reading	Lectures	Problems	Due(2007)	Lab
1	Mon	Aug 27	Introduction		L 1	HW 0	W Aug 29
2	Wed	Aug 29	Simple programs, reduction, the recipe, and errors	Ch 1+2, Ch 2 Notes	L 2	HW 1 (Solutions)	W Sep 5	Getting Started: DrScheme, Design Recipe
3	Fri	Aug 31	Auxiliary functions, booleans, and conditionals	Ch 3, Ch 3 Notes	L 3
3+	Mon	Sep 3	No class (Labor Day Recess)	-	-	-	-	-
4	Wed	Sep 5	Effects and Structures	Ch 4, Ch 4 Notes, Ch 5, Ch 5 Notes, Ch 6, Ch 6 Notes	L 4	HW 2 (Solutions)	M Sep 10	cond , Structures and Varieties
5	Fri	Sep 7	Varieties and Variants	Ch 7	L 5
6	Mon	Sep 10	Syntax and Semantics of Beginner Scheme	Ch 8, Ch 8 Notes	L 6	HW 3 (Solutions)	M Sep 17
7	Wed	Sep 12	Lists, Recursive Types, and Functions that Process them	Ch 9, Ch 9 Notes	L 7			Lists
8	Fri	Sep 14	Putting the List Processing Template to Work	Ch 10	L 8
9	Mon	Sep 17	Natural Numbers	Ch 11	L 9	HW 4 (Solutions)	M Sep 24
10	Wed	Sep 19	Solving More Complex List Problems	Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 13 Notes	L 10			Natural Numbers and List Abbreviations
11	Fri	Sep 21	Trees	Ch 14	L 11
12	Mon	Sep 24	Mutually Referential Data Definitions	Ch 15	L 12
12+	Wed	Sep 26	First Exam (in class)	Old Exam 1 Solution				Trees & Mutually Recursive Data Definitions Lab
12++	Fri	Sep 28	Exam 1 Solution	Exam 1 Solution
13	Mon	Oct 1	Development through Iterative Refinement	Ch 16	L 13	HW 5 (Solutions)	M Oct 8
14	Wed	Oct 3	Processing Two Complex Pieces of Data	Ch 17	L 14			Arithmetic Imprecision Lab
15	Fri	Oct 5	Local definitions and Lexical Scope	Ch 18, Ch 18 Notes	L 15
16	Mon	Oct 8	Abstraction in functions and types	Ch 19	L 16
17	Wed	Oct 10	Functions are Values	Ch 20	L 17	HW 6 (Solutions)	W Oct 17	local and Scope Lab
18	Fri	Oct 12	Designing Abstractions from Examples	Ch 21	L 18
18+	Mon	Oct 15	No class (Midterm Recess)	-	-	-	-	-
19	Wed	Oct 17	Designing Abstractions with First-Class Functions	Ch 22	L 19
20	Fri	Oct 19	Mathematical Examples	Ch 23	L 20	HW 7 (Solutions)	M Oct 29
21	Mon	Oct 22	Defining Functions on the Fly	Ch 24, Ch 24 Notes	L 21
22	Wed	Oct 24	A New Form of Recursion	Ch 25	L 22			Abstract Functions Lab
23	Fri	Oct 26	Designing Algorithms	Ch 26	L 23
24	Mon	Oct 29	Graphs and Backtracking	Ch 27	L 24	HW 8 (Solutions)	M Nov 5
25	Wed	Oct 31	Cost of Computing	Ch 28	L 25			Generative Recursion Lab
26	Fri	Nov 2	Accumulators	Ch 29	L 26
27	Mon	Nov 5	More on Accumulators	Ch 30-32	L 27	HW 9 (Solutions)
28	Wed	Nov 7	Memory for Functions and assignment to Variables	Ch 34-35, Part VII Notes	L 28			Accumulators on Trees & Vectors Lab
29	Fri	Nov 9	Designing Functions with Memory and examples on Memory Usage	Ch 36,37	L 29
30	Mon	Nov 12	The Final Syntax and Semantics	Ch 38	L 30
30+	Wed	Nov 14	Second Exam (in class). Covers up to lecture 28.	Old Second Exam				No lab this week
30++	Fri	Nov 16	Exam Re-cap
31	Mon	Nov 19	Encapsulation	Ch 39	L 31	HW 10 (Solutions)	W Nov 28
32	Wed	Nov 21	Mutable Structures	Ch 40	L 32			No lab this week
32+	Fri	Nov 23	No class (Thanksgiving Recess)	-	-	-	-	-
33	Mon	Nov 26	Designing Functions that Change Structures	Ch 41	L 33	HW 11 (Solutions)	M Dec 3
34	Wed	Nov 28	Equality	Ch 42, 43	L 34			set! Lab
35	Fri	Nov 30	Equality and In-Place Sort		L 35
36	Mon	Dec 3	Doing things imperatively		L 36	HW 12 (Solutions)	F Dec 7
37	Wed	Dec 5	Review	Ch 54	L 37			Destructive operations on lists and vectors Lab Consuming and Producing Functions Lab
38	Fri	Dec 7	Review	Ch 54	Old L 39, 2005 Final, 2006 Final	-
	Fri	Dec 14	Final Exam (DH 1070) and Evaluations		Old L 40

Grading, Honor Code Policy, Processes and Procedures

Grading will be broken down approximately into homeworks (worth 40-45%), quizzes (worth 5-10%), and exams (10% for first exam, and 20% for the second exam and the final). It is important that your performance in each components be consistent.

Quizzes are to be taken on Owlspace, and should be taken as soon as possible once they are announced in class. The quizzes are closed-books, closed-notes, closed-internet, and should be done individually. Although you must use a web browser to do the quizzes, you may not use the computer to verify your answer or help solve the problems. You may, however, use a pencil and a piece of paper.

Exams test your individual understanding and knowledge of the material. Collaboration during exams is not tolerated.

Mailing Lists:

• comp210-discussion-l@mailman.rice.edu (subscribe here):
  • This is where important announcements related to the class will be posted.
  • Students are required to sign up to this list.
  • You may use this list for open discussions relating to the course. Postings are expected to abide by standard Netiquette.
• comp210-teachers-l@mailman.rice.edu:
  • Any questions relating to the course can be sent to this list.
  • Specific questions about homework problems and grading can be directed here.
• cs-events-l@mailman.rice.edu:
  • Announcements relating to talks and other interesting events hosted by the CS departments.
  • Subscription to this list is optional but highly recommended

Online help:

• IRC Channel

Questions

If you have a question about homework -- you're not sure what is expected for a given problem, you haven't received feedback from a previous assignment, or you don't understand or agree with the assessment of your work, for example -- you can raise the question with a TA in lab or on the teachers mailing list (questions of general interest may alternately be raised on the discussion mailing list). If, after doing so, you don't feel that your concerns have been addressed, you may wish to contact Dr. Taha directly.

When addressing concerns about your grade, keep in mind that while you should certainly not be marked off for a correct solution, the exact amount of partial credit to award where your solution is not correct is inherently subjective. In this case, try to defer to your grader's judgement.

Homeworks:

Homeworks help you check your understanding of the material and prepare you for the exams. You are encouraged to discuss the homework problems with the instructors and staff. Help from other students, including Comp 210 graduates, is also encouraged (but should be cited, naturally), although that does not include giving or receiving complete answers. All homework partners are responsible for knowing all the submitted material. If you fail to understand the homework solutions, you won't succeed on the exams.

Homeworks will generally be handed out on Mondays, and will be due before class the following Monday.

You are expected to work in groups of two.

You may change partners during the semester.

Partners should work together on all aspects of the homework -- all students are expected to contribute equally. You and your partner should hand in exactly one solution.

Late homework will not be accepted without prior arrangement or exceptional cause. "I have a lot of work in other classes" is not sufficient grounds for an exception.

We recommend that you review the homework guide as you develop your solutions. Review the submission checklist when you turn in your homework. Your work will be graded as documented on the grading page.

Reading: For each lecture, there is associated reading. Students are required to complete the reading before the class associated with this reading.

Quizzes: After each class, a quiz will be announced on the mailing list, and can be taken on WebCT. The purpose of the quiz is to give the instructor feedback on how well you understood the reading, and to provide you with a chance to ask questions about the new material. By simply taking the quiz you get 70% of the mark. The quiz is closed book, closed DrScheme, and closed notes. No collaboration is allowed. The quiz is due before 8 am the day of the next class. Responses to student questions submitted with the quizzes can be found here.

More (but possibly out-of-date) advice can be found here. We expect to add new guidelines in the next few weeks.

Other Resources:

• Practical matters:
  • DrScheme Programming Environment
• Special interest groups:
  • CSters
  • Computer Science Club
  • ... (please send in suggestions!)
• Last year's COMP 210 web page

Additional References:

Here is a nice article about the basic approach taken in this course.

More on CS:	The New Turing Omnibus, A. K. Dewdney	QA76 .D448 1993
	Algorithmics: The Spirit of Computing, David Harel	QA76.9 .A43 H37 2004
	Computers Ltd.: What They Really Can't Do, David Harel	QA76.5 .H3575 2000
	Great Ideas in Computer Science, Alan W. Biermann	QA76 .B495 1997
	Computer Science: An Overview, J. Glenn Brookshear	QA76 .B743 1997
	Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas Hofstadter	QA9.8 .H63 1980
	Metamagical Themas, Douglas Hofstadter	Q335 .H63 1985
If you liked Scheme, you'll love these resources:	Scheme for the Complete Idiom, Ian Barland	(Online)
	Google's MapReduce	(Online)
	The Little Schemer, Friedman & Felleisen	QA76.73 .S34 F75 1996
	The Seasoned Schemer, Friedman & Felleisen	QA76.73 .S34 F77 1996
	Developing Applications with Objective Caml, Emmanuel Chailloux, Pascal Manoury, and Bruno Pagano
	The Haskell School of Expression: Learning Functional Programming Through Multimedia, Paul Hudak	QA76.62 H83 2000

Accomodations for Students with Special Needs

Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact me during the first two weeks of class regarding any special needs. Students with disabilities should also contact Disabled Student Services in the Ley Student Center and the Rice Disability Support Services.

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