Course Description - CSCI 200L, Spring 2012

• Y. D. Liang, Introduction to Java Programming (Comprehensive Version, 8th Edition), Prentice Hall, January 2010.

You will learn the following mechanisms in Java:

• Java I/O
• Inheritance, polymorphism and Java Generics
• Java Collections Framework
• Event-driven programming and graphical user interfaces
• GUI components, Layouts, Java Swing
• Java multi-threading using condition variables

It is also your responsibility to make sure that your mailbox is not full. If you miss some important announcements because your e-mail service provider is dropping your messages on the floor, it cannot be used as an excuse.

You must go to the lab section for which you are registered. Occasionally, if you have legitimate reasons why you cannot make it to your lab but would like to attend a different lab, you need to make a request to your lab TA and get it approved.

During your lab, the TA will be asking you questions about your code for any work you do on your own. Be prepared to discuss your design and implementation when you come to the lab. You need to demonstrate your lab work to your lab TA during your lab session.

[BC: updated 2/4/2012 to be consistent with the first 4 pages of Lecture 5]
You must finish your current lab and get it graded during your lab time. Late lab will get a zero. When you are ready for grading, append your name to the list on the board and wait your turn.

In case your lab cannot be graded during your current lab. You may get your lab graded during your lab TA's office hour or by appointment (you cannot just show up at the TA's office hour to get your lab graded) and grading must be completed before the beginning of your next lab. But please note that you can only do this if you have pre-approval from your TA. Your TA will only give you pre-approval if both of the following conditions are satisfied:

1. You were working on the lab the whole time during your lab session, and
2. The TA is convinced that you have completed a reasonable amount of your lab work.

If you have legitimate reasons why you cannot make it to your lab but would like to attend a different lab, you need to make a request to your lab TA and get it approved. If there is room and you have not done this for more than two times, your TA will approve it and inform the other lab TA. You can do this at most two times (your lab TA will keep track). Afterwards, your request will be denied.

[BC: paragraph added 1/22/2012]
As mentioned in Slide 3 of Lecture 2 on 1/11/2012, to encourage you to do your HWs early, you will get extra credit if you turn in your programming assignment 2 or 3 days before the deadline. If your submission (the one we end up grading) is more than 72 hours before the submission deadline, you will get an extra 10% or your score. If your submission is between 48 and 72 hours before the submission deadline, you will get an extra 5% of your score.

IMPORTANT: All homework assignments will be graded on the aludra/nunki.usc.edu UNIX systems from the grading account (which you do not have access to). Way before you submit your code, MAKE SURE that your code compiles and runs properly on aludra/nunki because that's where it will be tested and graded. Also, aludra/nunki may have a SLOW Internet connection. Your program must function reasonably under such a condition. An excuse such as "It runs just fine on my computer!" will not be accepted. If we have to grade your homework assignment on any machine other than aludra/nunki (e.g., your laptop, a lab machine, etc.), we will deduct 35% from your grade.

You must follow the Electronic Submission Guidelines when you submit your homework assignments. You should also verify what you have submitted is what you intended to submit by following the Verify Your Submission procedure. Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted valid submissions.

Good Design and Style Are Expected

Since you all have the CS 102 background, the assumption in our class is that you know about Object-Oriented programming. Therefore, you should continue to use your knowledge of Object-Oriented programming in this class (AND your future classes). You should also understand that it is EXPECTED that you continue to use what you have learned in early classes and apply them to your later classes at USC! That's just how it works!

IMPORTANT: [BC: updated 2/17/2012] If you want extra credit, your program must work very very well in all aspects and you must have a very very good and very very clean design. What's "very very well/good/clean"? Don't know! It's not science. It's art. It's what you are suppose to strive for!

In this class, we expect that for every class you have developed, you do Unit Testing!

• You need to demonstrate that you have done some reasonably amount of testing.
• Do not turn in "un-tested" code!

[BC: added 2/17/2012] Starting with HW2, you may lose up to 1 point if you show no evidence of unit-testing your code.

This is the new extra credit policy for HW2 and beyond.

1. If you show that you have done a thorough job doing unit testing, you can get up to 1 extra credit point.
2. If you have a good Object-Oriented design and give good arguments about your design choices, you can get up to 2 extra credit points.
3. If your implementation has a clean user interface, clean code, interesting and fun to run/play, and have good performance, you can get up to 2 extra credit points.

It will be the grader's call whether you get any extra points or not.

All homework assignments must be turned in on time. Late submissions will receive severe penalties. Due to clock skews, electronic submissions of homework assignments will be accepted within 15 minutes after the specified deadlines without penalties. If you submit within 24 hours after the grace period, you will receive 85% of your grade. If you submit within 48 hours after the grace period, you will receive 70% of your grade. If you submit within 72 hours after the grace period, you will receive 55% of your grade. Although right after midnight, you will lose 1% every 5 minutes. When the penalty reaches the day limit, it flattens out. For example, if your submission has a timestamp that is 32 minutes after the grace period, 7% will be deducted from your homework assignment after grading; if your submission has a timestamp that is 3 days, 4 hours, and 35 minutes after the grace period, you will receive a score of zero (and your homework assignment will not be graded). The figure below summarize the deductions.

If you are unable to complete a homework assignment due to documented illness or documented family emergency, please notify the instructor as soon as possible to get an extension. A doctor's note is required as proof of illness or emergency. In general, when you get sick, it's best to see a doctor and get a note just in case you may need it later.

Modifications after Deadline

You are allowed to submit small number of modifications via e-mail to the grader and copy your e-mail to the TA. The first 4 lines of modifications are free of charge. Additional modifications cost 20% per line of modification.

One line (128 characters max) of change is defined as one of the following:

• Add 1 line before (or after) line x of file y
• Delete line x of file y
• Replace line x of file y by 1 line

where x is a line number and y is a specified file.

Please note that this applies to code and documentation files. (It may not be worthwhile to modify a documentation file at the cost of 20% per line of modification.)

Please also note that if you submitted a file you did not meant to submit, or if you have submitted a broken submission file, or if you have forgotten to include a file in your submission, the only way to change your submission is to use the process described right here.

The exams are usually closed book, closed notes, and closed everything (and no "cheat sheet"). Also, no calculators, cell phones, or any electronic gadgets are allowed. There will be assigned seating.

Old Exams

• Fall 2011 (by Bill Cheng): Midterm #1, Midterm #2,

Assignment	% of Final Grade
5 Homeworks	40%
6-8 Labs	20%
10-12 Lecture Reports	5%
2 Exams	35%

Percentage	Letter Grade
95% or higher	A
90-95%	A-
87-90%	B+
83-87%	B
80-83%	B-
77-80%	C+
73-77%	C
70-73%	C-
67-70%	D+
63-67%	D
60-63%	D-
below 60%	F

Pleaes note that we will not assign incompletes unless it is for a documented medical reason (in accordance with USC policy).

So, if you visit a doctor at the Student Health Center, please make sure you fill out one of these forms, check the "limited discussion with faculty" checkbox, get it stamped, signed, and dated by someone there (a clerk/receptionist would sign at the "witness" line), and bring it back to me. This would satisfy the "note from a doctor" requirement so that you can get an extension.

If you visit a doctor somewhere else, please either bring a "note from the doctor" or a similar authrozation letter so I may contact them.

For exams, in order to be eligible for regrades, you must write your entire exam in ink.

You are strongly encouraged to come see the instructor if you feel that you are in trouble with anything related to the course. Don't wait till the deadline gets close.

In this class, we will use sophisticated automated program checkers to detect cheating. Be aware that the program checkers have demonstrated very good results and are widely used within the academic community. Any student caught cheating will be given zero credit and will be disciplined.

It is the students responsibility to submit their assignments in time.

Students are expected to be familiar with programming in Java on the UNIX platform. No special assistance or consideration will be offered if your background is inadequate.

Java:

• To download a version of Java for any machine you might want to build and run Java on, go to: http://java.sun.com. There are lots of different flavors and APIs for Java that Sun makes available.
• IBM also does a lot of Java and has a number of nice tools as well. You can see them at: http://www.ibm.com/java.
• Painting in AWT and Swing
• Java 2D API
• Java 2D API Code Samples
• Java 2D Graphics Tutorial

• cygwin (BSD system with X11R6 on Windows XP)
• Some Often-used UNIX Commands
• UNIX Shell Programming (Chapter 2 of this book gives a good introduction to UNIX)
• UNIXhelp for Users from the University of Edinburgh
• Makefile tutorial (at Colby College)
• C/C++ Documentation (compiling, linking, additional libraries, include files) from USC ITSWeb
• UNIX Documentation (concepts, commands, X-Windows) from USC ITSWeb
• Emacs Documentation from USC ITSWeb
• Vi Text EditorDocumentation from USC ITSWeb
• General information on operating systems, productivity applications, Internet connectivity, e-mail and web publishing at USC, can be found at the ITS software site. You can click on your operating system and download useful software from there. For example, for the Windows platform, you can find things like X-Win32, FileZilla, and PuTTY there.