CISC 280  -   Programming Development Techniques  -   Spring 2008

Instructor: Daniel Chester	TA: Miao Tang
Office: 101E Smith Hall	Office: 102 Smith Hall
Hours: Mo 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm, Th 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm	Hours: TuTh 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Phone: 831-1955	Phone: 831-3132
Email:	Email:
User: chester	User: tang
Domain: cis.udel.edu	Domain: cis.udel.edu

Textbook

The textbook is online HERE.

Web Page

http://www.cis.udel.edu/~chester/courses/280.html

Course Description

• building abstractions to hide details and to separate specification from implementation
• establishing conventional interfaces to allow the creation of standard, "mix & match" modules
• establishing new languages for describing a certain class of designs, emphasizing some things and downplaying others

Course Objectives

• Have a good feel for the elements of style and aesthetics of programming
• Have command of the major techniques for controlling complexity in large systems
• Feel secure in reading and modifying large programs written in exemplary style
• Be able to use modern approaches to dealing with time computationally (objects with state, functional programming, concurrent programming).

Learning Experiences

Topics

Grading

Homeworks:

There will be about 10 homework assignments. They will not be accepted after their solutions have been posted by email.

Labs:

There will be weekly lab assigments to be completed in the Lab.

Projects:

There will be two projects.

Exams:

There will be two midterms (March 14 and April 25) and a final exam.

Overall Course Grade:

          16.66% Final
          16.66% Midterm 1
          16.66% Midterm 2
          16.66% Homework
          16.66% Labs
          16.66% Projects

Policies

• Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Late assignments will lose 10% of the number of possible points and will be accepted until I email the assignment solution. That will usually be about a week after the due date, but will sometimes be shorter, especially before the midterms. Turn late assignments into me at class, while I am in by office or in my mailbox (in the CIS office). Do not slip your assignment under the door of the CIS office; put late assignments in my mailbox during the open hours of the CIS office.
• The syllabus and all accompanying dates are subject to change at any time; all such changes will be announced in class and updated on this web page.
• Cooperative efforts at understanding the material conceptually are encouraged. Discussing bugs and suggesting debugging strategies is fine. However, all written work and programs you turn in must be your own (except for the shared Scheme library code we will be using, as explained in the programming assignments). Submitting work that is not your own is considered cheating, as per Departmental and University policy.
• If you can't come for scheduled office hours, please send me email; I'll be happy to schedule a meeting at some other mutually-agreed upon time.

Software

Documentation for Dr.Scheme is part of the package (use the HELP menu), however some basic information to get you started may be found HERE. Local, UD documentation is HERE.

Information on our version of Scheme (called MzScheme, from Rice U.), and many other free Schemes, compilers, interpreters, etc. can be found online. (Chez Scheme has a free version of their commercial product called Petite Chez Scheme.) A useful programming textbook based on Dr. Scheme can be found online HERE.