Course Expectations and Tentative
Syllabus
CSC:230
Programming Concepts and GUIs Fall 2006
Section 01 Meets: MWF 12:00noon-12:50pm Room: 201 Olney Hall
Lab Tues 2:00pm-3:45pm Room
201 Olney Hall
Professor: Dr
Redmond Office Hours: MWF
10:00-10:50am
330
Olney Hall (215) 951-1096 M
2:00-3pm
redmond@lasalle.edu
Th 10:30am-12:30pm http://www.lasalle.edu/~redmond/teach/230 And at other times by appointment
Text:
Zak,
D., Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Reloaded, Second Edition, Thomson Course
Technology, 2007
ISBN: 1-4188-3623-0
Course
Description:
This
course is an introductory computer science course, primarily for computer
science, information technology, mathematics, and science majors. Not to be
confused with an introduction to using computers (151/152/154), this course
places a heavy emphasis on learning to write computer programs. It introduces
the major types of programming constructs that are common to most languages. It
emphasizes proper programming techniques, to give a firm foundation for future
courses and for the workplace. This course also provides exposure to the Visual
Basic programming language, which is popular in the marketplace due to its ease
of creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs).
An
important part of the class is the two-hour lab each Thursday. Your regular
attendance is expected, as with other class meetings.
Prerequisite: You must be competent in basic
operation of a computer, (which can be demonstrated by successful completion of
CSC 151, 152 or 154 OR by passing the competency test administered by the
department during DAY ONE).
Grading: Final
Grades:
Quizzes 10% B+ 88-89 C+ 78-79 D+ 68-69
Assignments 20%
A 92-100 B 82-87 C 72-77 D 60-67
Exam 1 20% A- 90-91 B- 80-81 C- 70-71
Exam 2 20% F < 60
Final 25%
Class Participation 5%
Quizzes will be short, 10
minutes or less, with one or a few questions, given at the beginning of class,
typically on Friday. Latecomers to class will not be given extra time to
complete the quiz. Lowest quiz score (or one missed quiz) will be dropped.
Assignments will typically be assigned on a Wednesday,
possibly with “pre-lab” preparation work to do, hands on time in the lab on Thursday,
and “post-lab” work to do, due the following Wednesday.
Do
your own assignments !!!! Work that is copied or done with somebody
(when not assigned to a group) will be punished. If programs are copied, both
students will receive a zero for the assignment. Changing
small aspects of a copied program does not make it not a copy.
Asking another for help on a step or two in a many-step assignment is
acceptable; looking at another person’s program is temptation for cheating;
handing in a program with even section(s) that are nearly duplicate
is cheating
Late Assignments -25% per weekday (NOTE -
NOT per CLASS. I want work turned in on time)
UNLESS SPECIFIED OTHERWISE ASSIGNMENTS
ARE DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS
-10% if handed in after start of class
and before I leave for the day.
Makeup exams only by advance arrangements or
for documented real emergencies, such as medical problems. Makeup may involve
double-counting your final exam.
The Final Exam is cumulative, though it will
focus more on the (previously untested) final third of the course.
Class participation grade will be assigned
based on 1) attendance, 2) in class contribution, and 3) “minute papers” turned
in at the end of each class. These minute papers may vary in content, including
reflection, questions, etc from class. More details will be given in class. The
formula for calculating class participation is available upon request.
Materials:
You will need a means of handing in assignments – CD or diskettes
usually work better than e-mail. Generally assignments will be handed in and a
new assignment will be started on the next day - before the previous
assignment is graded – so you need more than one. If e-mailing – the entire
project (many files) must be zipped together and sent. You will also want
to keep a backup copy of anything turned in – the network drive or a USB drive
work well for this. You will need access to Visual Basic and Microsoft’s Visual
Studio development environment outside of class. This is installed on PCs in
labs in Olney 200/200A/201. The software can be downloaded for free via the
ELMS program. (The book may include a CD with VB and VB 2005 .NET. If so, that is an
alternative as well. Last year students had more success with the book CD than
with the ELMS approach).
Open Lab Location:
Olney 200A is available
(small number of computers) irregular hours (most of the day, but not late)
Olney
200 and 201 are occasionally available when not being used for classes.
E-mail: You will need to check e-mail regularly. Announcements are
frequently sent via e-mail. Assignments and information may also be posted on
my WWW page.
Course Objectives
1. Teach
systematic program development and debugging techniques.
2.
Demonstrate basic programming statements including IF-THEN-ELSE, Loops, Subroutines.
3.
Demonstrate use of built-in data types.
4.
Demonstrate use of classes, an implementation of the concept of abstract data
types.
5.
Demonstrate use of file processing.
6.
Demonstrate use of Arrays.
7.
Demonstrate the creation of graphical user interfaces and the handling of
“events” such as mouse-clicks
8. Emphasize
the importance of DOCUMENTED code.
9. Provide
experience writing, testing and debugging programs.
Tentative Course Plan:
The course is extremely unlikely to
follow this exactly. Attending class is the best way to know adjustments
(especially with regard to exams)
Estimated Date |
Book Pages |
Topic |
Days |
8/28 |
|
Intro to
Class |
1 |
8/30 |
2-32 |
Development
Environment and Creating Interface |
1 |
8/31 LAB |
78-91 |
Creating
Interface |
1 |
9/1 |
72-77 |
Planning an
Application |
1 |
9/6, 9/8 |
128-144 |
Variables |
2 |
9/11, 9/13 |
144-165 |
Simple
Coding |
2 |
9/15, 9/18,
9/20 |
166-169, 195-205, 206-226 |
Selection -
IF |
3 |
9/22, 9/25 |
226-238 |
Nested IF/
ELSEIF / CASE |
2 |
9/27, 10/2 |
269-273 |
Repetition
– For Next Loops |
2 |
9/29 |
|
TEST –
Chapters 1-4 |
1 |
10/4, 10/6,
10/9, 10/11 |
294-299 300-325 |
DO LOOP |
4 |
10/13,
10/16, 10/18 |
431-451 |
Sub
Procedures |
3 |
10/20 |
451-455 |
Function
Procedures |
1 |
10/23 |
|
FALL BREAK
– NO CLASS |
|
10/25,
10/27, 10/30 |
562-567 567-571 |
Files |
3 |
11/1 |
495-502 |
Arrays |
1 |
11/3 |
|
TEST 2 –
Chapters 5,7,9 |
1 |
11/6, 11/8,
11/10 |
502-516 |
Arrays |
3 |
11/13,
11/15 |
516-525 |
Parallel
Arrays and 2-Dimensional Arrays |
2 |
11/17,
11/20, 11/27 |
551-562 |
Structures |
3 |
11/22,
11/24 |
|
THANKSGIVING
– NO CLASS |
|
11/29,
12/1, 12/4, 12/6, 12/8 |
597-617 |
Classes and
Objects |
5 |
Wed Dec 13
12:30- 2:20 |
|
Final Exam
(Tentative!!) |
|