Slide 1Slide 2Slide 3Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10Slide 11Slide 12Slide 13Slide 14Introduction to CSCI 1311Dr. Mark C. Lewis8/29/2009Opening Discussion●I will start off every class with a little discussion. Typically this discussion includes questions about the previous class.●Today I want to use this time to get to know a bit about you.●I'd also like to give you a brief introduction to me so you can know some of the things that motivate me.Course Basics●Course web site: http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~mlewis/CSCI1311-F09/●Office: HAS 201K●Office hours: 2:30-5:00pm M, 2:00-4:00pm W, 10:00-12:00pm R, 1:30-5:00pm R or by appointment. The afternoon hours MR are open labs.●Phone: 7022●E-mail: [email protected] (This is the best way to reach me most of the time.)●There is a schedule on the web site listing all topics and when things are due. There are links to lecture notes.Text●I am working on the text for this class. The links page has a link to the PDF file. It is a work in progress and will be changing over the course of the semester.●Mostly it should be getting longer as I add some chapters.Course Description●This course provides an introduction to programming with a primary focus on problem solving and logic.●The course will specifically teach you how to program in Java. We will be using different environments for Java programming. Everything can be done in Windows.●My courses tend to be somewhat rigorous. My overriding objective is to make you think. Because of the nature of this course I want to go beyond just giving you new things to think about, but instead give you tools to think about things in new ways.Creativity of CS●Writing great programs is more art than science.●Computers are the ultimate creative medium and also the ultimate creative outlet. The way we interact with them seems formal to some, but there can be a lot of fun in just looking for ideal ways to express ideas in the formal systems of different computer languages.●I will try to let you express creativity in the work you do for this class.Projects●The largest chunk of your grade in this class is determined by the two projects that you will do.●These projects will be fairly large scale where you apply all of the elements that we have learned about in each language.●You can work with others on design and get help on specific problems, but what you turn in must be your own construction. Everything you turn in for a grade is pledged under the honor code.Grading●Your grade comes from four different components.–Projects (2) – 40%–Tests (2) – 30%–Quizzes (6 with lowest dropped) – 10%–Interclass Problems – 10%–Class Participation – 10%●The midterm and final are both equally weighted.●The quiz questions are modeled after test questions so you will have an idea of the style to expect on the test.●Interclass problems are presented about once each week.●Class participation includes attendance and your actual participation during class.Interclass Problems●I use interclass problems to help you determine how much you have to read to master each topic, and to give you programming experience. Each of you will be called on a total of five times with each time being worth two points to your final average.●If you don't have anything to show you get zero points. Complete and working answers get two points. Limited efforts and incomplete results will give you one point.What is a Program?●A program is a set of instructions we give to a computer to make it do something.●There are many languages we can do this in.●A general commonality is that the instructions must be explicit and precise. Programming languages do not allow ambiguity.●This is what makes programming so helpful for all people to learn.Why Should You Care?●Programming is an obvious skill for the computer scientists. Why does it matter to other people?–Logic and problem solving–Tedious/repetitive tasks–Number crunching: Excel macros–Communicating with technical people–Understanding of technologyEnvironment for this Class●We will be using Windows for all of the instruction in this class.●We will start off using Greenfoot. Let's go ahead and open it up and see how it works.●Later in the semester we will add the BlueJ and Eclipse environments. We won't really worry about that until we get there.●Things should work fairly well on a Mac as well.Basics of Greenfoot●Let's open up Greenfoot on these machines and look at it briefly.●Greenfoot is an environment that helps you learn programming by attaching a 2-D environment to everything that you do.●Java is an “object-oriented” language. The graphical environment helps to make abstract concepts more concrete.Minute Essay●At the end of each class I ask one or more questions and you are supposed to answer them on a piece of paper. Make sure it has you name as this is how I do attendance.●Do you have any questions about the course or what we will be doing?●You should install Greenfoot on your computer. Load in each of the scenarios and play around some. Start reading the preface and chapter 1 of the
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