CISC 2000: Computer Science II
CISC 2010: Computer Science II Laboratory

Faculty

• Office: Rm 815D.
• Phone: (212) 636-6325
• Email: agw STRUDEL dsm.fordham.edu. (STRUDEL is a thinly-disguised @, to thwart the amount of spam that your instructor receives.) [1]

Class meetings:

• CISC 2000: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., in Room LL 908.
• CISC 2010: Wednesdays, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
  • Most of the time, we will meet in the lab (Room 812).
  • If there are no programming assignments outstanding, we will meet in Room 908; I will send the class an email announcement should this be the case.
• Special scheduling notes:
  • Our first meeting is CISC 2010 (lab) at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 28, followed by CISC 2000 (lecture) at 1:00 p.m. It doesn't make sense to have a lab before we've covered any material. Hence the "lab" meeting will be a lecture, to be held in Room 908. Depending on how things work out, we might be in a position to do some lab work during the nominal lecture period meeting later that day. We'll need to have a little flexibility here.
  • Monday, September 2 is a University holiday (Labor Day). To make up for same, the University has declared Wednesday, September 4 to be a "virtual Monday". Hence only CISC 2000 is scheduled to meet on that date (i.e., no lab for that day). However, since September 4 is the day before Rosh Hashanah, I am moving this class to the same timeslot on Monday, December  9, which is a reading day.

Office hours:

• Mondays: 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
• Wednesdays: 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Class email list:

cs2 STRUDEL dsm.fordham.edu. This can be used for both announcements and discussion.

Text and Readings

The text for this course is:
Bjarne Stroustrup, Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++, Addison-Wesley, 2009 (ISBN-13: 978-0-321-54372-1).
We hope to cover Chapters 12–22 of the text; if time permits, we'll cover additional chapters.

The author has a website for this text. It has a lot of useful material. For starters, you should consult his style guide.

Note: It is sometimes possible to get cheaper "international editions" of textbooks. However, these books may not be a 100% match of the original text. I have sometimes seen cases where the exercises of the international edition do not match those in the standard edition. For this reason, I highly suggest that you obtain the standard edition of the text. If you opt for the international edition, it is your responsibility to ensure (e.g.) that the exercises in your edition match those in the standard edition; I am not going to grade two different sets of exercises.

Grading

You will receive the same grade for both components of the course (CISC 2000 and CISC 2010). This grade will be determined as follows:

• programming assignments: 50%, each graded according to the following standards:
  
  

  Documentation (pseudocode and comments)	20%
  Correctness of algorithm	20%
  Correctness of program	20%
  Overall style of program	20%
  I/O Interface (e.g., quality of output)	20%

  
  
• One midterm exam: 20%
• One final exam: 20%
• Class attendance: 10%. Please read the attendance policy for this class.

Protocol

• Examinations: There will be a midterm exam and a final exam. The midterm will be on Wednesday, October 9, during the usual class period for CISC 2000. The final examination will be on Monday, December 16, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
• Homeworks: Programming assignments (as announced in class). I hope to assign one program for each chapter we cover in class. In addition to handing out the assignments in class, I will also post them on the class website. The earlier programs (being simple) will be due at the next class session; the due dates for the later ones will depend on their complexity.
• Attendance: Attendance for this course is mandatory. You will be granted up to four absences from the class lectures. You must inform be by email in advance for a non-emergency absence.

Other important information

• The official class syllabus.
• The cheating policy for this class.
• The make-up exam policy for this class.
• I have written a guide to getting better grades. Read it!
• The author of our text (Bjarne Stroustrup, the inventor of C++) has a website for this text. It has a lot of useful stuff. For starters, take a look at his style guide.
• This is a "convenience" link for accessing the overhead slides for this course. Given that the slides have white print on a dark background, you probably don't want to print them. So I've put together handout (black on white) versions of these slides, which are printable.
• You can find a lot of useful goodies in the directory ~agw/class/cs2/share. In particular, you'll find the source code for all the examples in the text, as well as support material for all the projects that we will be doing. The former material can be reached via the Web, but the latter material is only reachable via the Departmental Liunx systems, and not via the web. That's because most of the time, you'll simply want to copy some of the latter material (either a file or an entire directory) into one of your own directories.
• Since this is the second semester of the CS1/CS2 sequence, I'm assuming that you have some experience programming on our Departmental Linux systems. Here are some resources that might help you in this regard, should you need them:
  • There is an online introduction on using the Linux computer systems at Lincoln Center that belong to the Computer and Information Sciences Department.
  • Our departmental machines run Linux, which is a free Unix-like operating system. Many websites have material on Unix and Linux. I have collected a sample of same. You should especially look at the material for beginners.
  • We strongly encourage you to use the emacs editor.
  • When you eventually get into templates, you'll find that they can be tricky. You'll also find that the C++ compiler will sometimes generate a bewildering maze of error messages when dealing with same. There's a program named gfilt that can help you tame this beast.
• Material that I wish to share with the class may be found in the "share directory" ~agw/class/cs2/share, which may be accessed from any of the Linux computers in the dsm.fordham.edu subnet. (They cannot be accessed via the Web.) Here you will find things such as the following:
  • Source code for the book's examples (in the support-code subdirectory of the share directory.
    Note: By popular demand, the author's source code is accessible here.
  • Support material for programming assignments, each in its own subdirectory.
  • Other material that I think will be of general interest.

• If you believe that you have a disabling condition that may interfere with your ability to participate in the activities, coursework, or assessment of the object of this course, you may be entitled to accommodations. If so, please schedule an appointment to speak with me immediately or you may go to the Office of Disability Services (LL207, x6282). Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, all students, with or without disabilities, are entitled to equal access to the programs and activities of Fordham University.

[1] In case you were wondering, "strudel" is the Israeli term for the "@" sign found in email addresses. If you look at the end of a strudel, it somewhat resembles an "@". (Back.)