Week 1

MONDAY

Overview/Intro
Explain syllabus

• To increase our understanding of computer technology.
• Tool for solving problems
• Tool for building other tools
• Learn new problem solving skills, reasoning skills
• It's fun. Rewarding to master the computer, create something, solve puzzles
• Self-discovery

• You have to learn a language including vocabulary and grammar.
• You have to learn design and problem solving methods.
• You have to acquire a new world view: information and algorithms.
• Learning French and Quantum Physics simultaneously analogy
• Like learning carpentry and architecture simultaneously
• Teaching languages versus Industrial languages
  
• No slack time. Topics are cumulative. Requires lots of practice.

• Many beginners get an A in the course.
• Computer itself is a teaching aid.
• Lots of resources available.

• Instructor doesn't teach what's in the book, because it's specific to one language, not general concepts and principles. The course is titled "Fundamentals of CSC" not "C programming".
• Cope with rapidly changing technology.  Half-life of technological knowledge is 4 years.
  
• Don't focus on your first job after college, but your nth job.
• E.g., John has programmed professionally in eleven different programming languages. And he isn't even a full time developer.
  
• Emphasize:
• strategies for learning new tools quickly.
• general problem solving skills: abstraction, decomposition, reduction, etc.
• CSc concepts and general principles: algorithms, general cross-lingual programming concepts. (Not "C" programming).
• Engineering approach to complete software development process.
• Architect vs. Contractor analogy

Optional topics:
Lab Notebooks
Example course outcomes
Demo of Playlist Calculator (cp -i  ~cs101-1/Programs/songdata.txt  $HOME; ~cs101-1/Programs/playlistcalculator.exe)
Professional responsibilities lecture - I don't want to teach hackers.
Academic Integrity

Lecture on Chapter 1

• Ch 1.2 - Computer Concepts - conceptual anatomy of a computer 
  
• Ch 1.3 - Distinction between operating system and application software.
  
• Language Translation Process - Fig 1.12 (pg 18)
  
• Ch 1.4 -  Software Lifecyle

Lecture on Ch 2
Algorithms + data structures = programs
Program Structure - Fig 2.1 (pg 35)
Hand trace technique  "a representation of the dynamic behavior of static source code."

Suggested Topics

Evolution of Software

• Software evolves from machine-oriented to problem/user-oriented.
• Models - we are trying to create models of real world phenomenon that we can manipulate to help us solve problems.
• Building models is easiest if we have tools that use a vocabulary or notation that closely resembles the problem domain. E.g. WYSIWYG vs text formatters.
• We want tools that let us express our solutions using the language of the problem domain and that hide the details of the machine implementation.

How to Study CSc 101 (Learning Strategies).  (Assign Ch 2 reading due before this topic, so students can compare their current study habits to those recommended).

Success Tips:

• If you encounter a problem that keeps you from moving forward, contact the instructor.
• Get started on the assignments promptly so if problems occur there is time to resolve them.
• Attention to detail is a vital skill.
• Patience
  
• Start Early
  
• Get Help: Instructor, tutors, peers
  Limit headbanging to 30 min.
  

Character, Integer, Floating Point, Fixed Point, Boolean, String

• Purposes
  
• Declaration
• Definition
• Invocation

• Procedure: Fig 3.14 pg 120
• Redundant Code example
  
• Function: Fig 3.21 pg 128, Fig 3.24 pg 133
  

Introduce Exploration Strategies

Sample explorations: Revenue,  Triangle

• Input parameters
• Exploration: Fig 3.5 Flat Washers Program,  modified to use circumference and area functions
  

• discuss use of functions in this week's lab and programming projects
  

Discussion: What makes good software?  (Background for coding standards discussion)

• Usability, Correctness, Maintainability, Efficiency
• How would you rank them in order of importance?
• Software economics
  

• The "true" part of an if statement always follows the "if" and the "false" part always follows the "else."

     Boolean operators: &&,|| vs AND, OR
     Uppercase keywords (if allowed)
     Braces: always!
     indenting
     Nested if vs sequence of if's

Lecture

• Hand trace technique for selection statements
• Example: Table 4.9 pg 164-5
  

Test Plans for "if" statements

     Test plan demo: Today is a cold/nice/hot day example
     "Minimum Complete Coverage" - the minimum set of test data that guarantees that each branch in the program is
     executed at least once.
     Boundary cases.
     FindHypotenuse and GiveNotice examples

Switch Statements (Ch 4.8)

IF and SWITCH statement pitfalls in C.  (CH 4.9)

Boolean Functions

• Def: a function that returns a boolean value
• You can declare a boolean function and then invoke it as the conditional in an "if" statement.

Summary review of textbook chapter on iteration. (Taxonomy of loop structures)

Pseudocode for loops

Table of Cubes data validation loops example (in Java; need to convert to C)

Finding loop defects with a hand trace.

FRIDAY

Loop design problems

• lizard island
  
• GPA calculation
  
• circus tax
• car-train collision
• Occurrence of first and last 12 example

MONDAY

Lecture Ch 6

• Subprograms with output parameters

WEDNESDAY

Structure Charts lecture (Ch 3.3 and Ch 6)

Examples:

• First and last 12 example
• "Find the Hurkle" lab activity on previous page.

Parallel Arrays exercises

Exam Scoring problem design activity

Discuss Compare Lists solution.

Lab Exploration: Arrays with non-integer subscripts - letter count,  table lookup

• Remove Duplicates problem (paired problem solving)
• Critique instructor solution.
• Compare while vs for loop implementations of search method.
• Compare search vs contains/indexOf
• Comparing design alternatives: tradeoffs.
  

WEDNESDAY

Lecture Ch 13 -Programming in the large

1. Multiple File Linking
2. Implementation versus Interface

Examples and demonstration of multi-file programs