General Information

• Staff
• Class schedule and syllabus
• Prerequisites
• Software
• Textbook and recommended readings
• Grading and the Code Critic
• Course policies:
  • Cheating
  • Extensions, late homework
• How to do well

Teaching Staff

Instructor:

Class Schedule

Tech M164
MWF 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Syllabus

Prerequisites

EECS 211 or 231. You must be fluent in C++.

Software

In this class, we'll be using the GCC C++ compiler, version 4.x, the UnitTest++ unit testing library, and the Unix make and zip utilities. Instructions on installing and configuring these can be found here.

Textbook and recommended readings

Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C++ by Mark Allen Weiss, 3rd edition

The author's web site has errata for the book (most were fixed in the second printing) and source code.

This book assumes a working knowledge of C++. It is recommended that you acquire a C++ reference book. The Association of C and C++ Users has a searchable compendium of book reviews, of varying quality. Search for titles with C++.

Some titles I personally turn to all the time:

• Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo: not a massive boat-sinker but a short introduction to the good stuff in modern C++ programming.
• The C++ Standard Library by Nicolas Josuttis: An excellent reference and tutorial, on the entire C++ standard library, i.e., strings, I/O streams, and what's commonly called the Standard Template Library (STL). Never re-invent what the libraries already provide.
• The STL Tutorial and Reference Guide by Musser, Derger and Saini
• Generic Programming and the STL by Matthew Austern

C++ gives the programmer great power. But as Uncle Ben told Spiderman: "With great power comes great responsibility." Or, as Steve Haflich has said, "When your hammer is C++, everything begins to look like a thumb." There a zillion ways to do things badly in C++ (and C too), so it's good to have some books on avoiding the traps and pitfalls. The following are particularly good:

• Scott Meyer's three books on Effective C++ -- the first is a C++ classic
• Herb Sutter's Exceptional C++
• C Traps and Pitfalls by Andrew Koenig. There's a 29 page essay by him the same title available in PDF form.
• Expert C Programming by Peter van der Linden: practical, funny too

Some popular titles are:

• Absolute C++ by Walter Savitch (2nd edition)
• C++: How to program by Deitel & Deitel (5th edition).
• The C++ programming language by Bjarne Stroustrup (3rd edition): by the creator of C++

Grading and the Code Critic

This course has four programming assignments and two exams, weighted as follows.

You must submit program code to the Code Critic for review, before emailing a final complete package to me for testing.

Course Policies

Cheating

• In this course you are required to work individually for assignments to be sent to the Code Critic. There may be some projects that will be open to use pair programming. If so, these will be marked.
• Pair programming means that you must never copy solutions from any source or give your homework to another student/pair (even if the deadline is past). You must not share code or show your code to anyone other than the instructor, the class TA, or your pair partner.
• However, you are allowed and encouraged to discuss the assignments. You may ask for suggestions when you are stuck and discuss examples that are not part of the assignment. The newsgroup is an ideal forum for this.
• Keep in mind that all assignments are checked for similarities and, if applicable, compared to assignments from past quarters.
• Cheating may result in a failing grade for the course. University policy requires that graduate students who are caught cheating are reported to the graduate school and undergraduates to the Dean.

Extensions, Late submissions

These don't exist because there are no deadlines except the end of the course.

How to do well

This key to Critic-based courses is steady consistent progress. The most common reason for failure is bad time management.

I should be receiving code from you several times a week. If a week goes by with no submissions, you're falling behind. Two weeks and you should think seriously about dropping the course.

Your grade in the assignments is a combination of

• how far you got in the assignments
• how much effort you put in, as shown by the number of submissions of working code
• how much you've improved over the quarter, as shown by the quality (lack of critiques) of your later submissions

A pile of code submitted at the end fails on 2 out of 3 of these criteria.

Besides working steadily:

• Participate in class. Ask questions and don't be afraid to challenge the instructor. You are here to learn and you should take advantage of the fact that you have a live person teaching you and not a TV.
• Start your assignments early. The newsgroup is your friend. Posting your questions there will usually get you an answer much faster than if you email them to us, or wait until class/office hours.
• Do not wait until the day before the final to ask for help.