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Primary Text

Java By Dissection: The Essentials of Java Programming, Ira Pohl and Charlie McDowell.

Course Description

In this second course in Computer Science we will focus on programming techniques and program design. We will spend the first several weeks covering the basics of programming (for, while, if...). The remainder of the semester will focus on the design of complex programs through use of abstract data types (classes). We may also introduce several common data structures used in computer science (stacks, lists and queues). Along the way you will be expected to design, code, test and debug complete programs. All of these issues will be explored through the use of the Java programming language.

What should you expect in this course? This course serves two purposes, it is the second course in our lab science sequence and it is also the first intensive programming course for CS majors. In other words, this is a course in computer programming! You will be expected to write many programs of varying length and difficulty. You will be expected to complete daily reading assignments from the text to prepare you for class. Associated with each reading assignment there will be several review questions that you will need to answer. Programming assignments will be given in the form of 1 week long labs. While labs are the only programming assignments that will be collected it is strongly recommended that, for practice, you complete several of the programming exercises at the end of each chapter in the book.

How much time should you expect to spend on this course? To quote the Dickinson College catalog "...Each course, unless otherwise noted in the course description, is equivalent to four semester hours. Credit for courses is based on the assumption that at least three hours of study accompany each period of recitation or lecture." (p. 194) Therefore, given four meetings per week it is expected that you will spend an average of 12 hours of week outside of class completing the readings, review questions and labs.

Grade Determination

	Review Questions:	10%
	Labs:	35%
	Midterm Exam 1:	15%
	Midterm Exam 2:	17%
	Cumulative Final:	23%

All assignments will be graded on an absolute scale. At the end of the semester a curve may be applied to the total absolute grades for the entire class to determine each individual's final grade.

Review Questions

You will be asked to submit answers to review questions for each of the reading assignments. These questions will be due via E-mail before 6:00am on the day we will cover the readings. The purpose of these questions is not to test you on the material before we have had it in class. Rather they serve to ensure that everyone is prepared to get the most out of our class time. I will not grade or return these questions, however you will receive one point for each question that you make a serious effort to answer.

Labs

The labs in this course are open labs. They will be distributed on the Monday of the lab period and will be collected on the Monday following the lab period. Do not expect to complete the entire lab during the lab period. You are expected to work on the lab outside of lab time. The purpose of the lab time is for you to ask questions of myself and the TA's about problems you are having with the lab. I highly recommend that you start the labs prior to the lab period so that you can make the most productive use of the lab time.

Labs will be graded based on your answers to any questions that are asked in the lab and the code that you write. Your programs will be graded according to the criteria in the Program Design and Style Guide.

Cheating and Plagiarism

This class follows the definition of plagiarism adopted by te Academic Standards Committee in November 1965. In addition to that definition I would like to make several clear statements about what is permissable collaboration in this class and what is not.

• You may discuss the homework assignments and your ideas for solving the problems. However, after your discussions you must write your own solutions. Everything you hand in must be your work and only your work! To be safe I suggest that you do not write anything down while discussing assignments or ideas with others. Then following your discussion sit down by yourself and write up your own solution. If you are unable to reconstruct the idea for yourself then you do not fully understand it!
• On lab assignments you may again discuss general ideas for how write the required programs. Under no circumstances may you show another student your program code. They may not look at your screen, a printout, an electronic copy or any hand written code or notes. All help writing and debugging your solutions to the labs must come from the TA's or myself.
• You may incorporate code that appears in the text or on the class web site into your solutions. When you do so you must indicate the code that was copied and where it was copied from (page # or URL). Under no circumstances may you use code written by a current or previous student, code from another text, instructor, friend, relative or downloaded from the internet.

Got the idea? Do you own work and do it honestly! If there is every any question about whether what you are doing is permitted then most likely it is not! Please ask for clarification on any issues related to this policy before it becomes an issue!

In Class Exams

All exams will be timed (50 min.) and given in class. These exams will be closed book. However, you will be permitted one 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper (both sides) of hand written notes that can be read with the naked eye.

Late Work Policy

Absolutely no late work will be accepted without penalty!

However, since I am not a complete tyrant, I am implementing what I call the "NEET" late policy. NEET stands for "No Excuse Extension Time" and you can use it to extend any due dates you choose. The rules of NEET are as follows:

• Each of you will receive 2 days worth of NEET.
• NEET can be used only in full day chunks.
• So if your assignment is 1 hour late you just burnt one full day of NEET.
• NEET may be applied to (almost) any assignment.
  The only assignments that NEET may not be applied to are in class exams, presentations and any assignment due on the last day of finals week.
• Using NEET on a group deadline costs each member of the group the same amount of NEET.
  So if your project is a day late every member of your group looses 1 day of NEET. If a member of your group doesn't have any NEET left and the deadline is missed that member will suffer the penalty as described below.
• Use your NEET wisely.
  No other extensions will be granted without an act of your respective deity. I recommend saving them for emergency use.

Late work handed in after all your NEET has been used will be penalized 30% the first day and no credit will be given after the first day. Again any portion of a day counts as a full day. Any assignments handed in late must be given to me in person so that I may account for your NEET.

Attendance Policy

We are all adults and therefore I expect that you are here because you want to learn. Class participation and attendance do not directly factor into your grade. However, much of what we discuss in class will be directly related to the exam questions and programming assignments. Therefore, it is in your best interest to attend and participate in class. If you miss class the assignments are posted on the Web. It is your responsibility to make sure you hand in all assignments on time.