CMSI 186 Programming Laboratory Home Page and Course Syllabus spring, 2007

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Brief contents

• Class Meetings and Personnel
• Objectives
• Prerequisites
• Coursework and Grading
• Recommended Texts
• Problem Sets

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• Class Meetings and Personnel

• Class Meetings: 10:50-12:05 pm - Tuesdays and Thursdays - at the Keck Lab (Doolan Hall 112-114)
• Instructor: Dr. Dorin - Doolan 102 - (310) 338-2832 - pdorin@lmu.edu
• Secretary: Jacqi Davis - Doolan 101 - (310) 338-7351- jadavis@lmu.edu
• Labs Manager: Caskey Dickson - Doolan 104 - (310) 338-5100- caskey@technocage.com
• Objectives

• We will attempt to perfect your programming style and methodology by working closely, in the Keck Lab, on about seven medium-sized applications. The problem areas usually include discrete simulation, algorithms for arithmetic, dynamic programming, backtrack search, Riemann integration, randomized estimation, plotting numerical functions and constructing simple GUI's.
• We will begin to use diagrams to help clarify our designs, especially the various relationships among classes and objects.
• We will concern ourselves with the build environment; to this end, we will construct simple build scripts.
• We will pay close attention to unit testing, and we will design countless such tests as a routine part of program development.
• We will cover more of the language Java, including multi-dimensional arrays, exception handling, event handling, and programming with graphical components.
• We will further explore issues of object-oriented programming that we only touched upon in CMSI 185, e.g., constructing packages and classes, subclassing existing classes, overriding methods, etc.
• Prerequisites

• You should majoring or minoring in Computer Science.
• You must have completed CMSI 185, or an equivalent course using Java, with a grade of C or better.
• Coursework and Grading

• A new problem will be assigned approximately every other week. For each one, we will discuss several possible algorithms, finally singling out one of them for implementation. I will then provide sketches of the important program structures, and your mission will be to complete the program. You will submit a formal lab report at the conclusion of each problem.
• You will do a lot of programming during the workshop itself; the remainder is to be done for homework. Your grade will be determined according to two factors:

1. The overall quality of the programs and lab reports that you submit.
2. Your class participation, including your attendance at the workshop and your preparation for them. Regular attendance is expected; absences should be formally excused prior to the scheduled class time.

• A word about collaboration with other classmates: It should be kept to a minimum. You may ask a classmate for help in diagnosing a syntax problem, or discuss the assignment in general terms; but, unless the assignment explicitly calls for pair programming, you may not share any code.
• Recommended Texts
It is not necessary to have the latest editions of these texts- recent editions will work:
• Flanagan. Java in a Nutshell.
• Flanagan. Java Examples in a Nutshell.
• Flanagan. Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell.
• Problem Sets

1. A New Dice Game - due January 25
2. Discrete Simulation - due February 8
3. Changemaking Revisited - due February 22
4. Arithmetic with Arbitrarily Large Numbers - due March 15
5. Riemann Integration - due March 29
6. Randomized Estimation - due April 12
7. Function Plotter - due May 3

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Revised: January 17, 2008