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MA 792K Spring 08 Syllabus

Course Outline*

Lecture Topic(s) Programs Book(s), Notes
C Language
1. Jan 10 Introductory meeting
2. Jan 15 First program helloworld. c
first_ pgm. c
first_ pgm_ cgi. c
first_ pgm. html
first_ pgm_ cgi_ get. c
first_ pgm_ get. html
 DDC §2.1-3
3. Jan 17 Operators; flow of control
DDC §2.5-6; DDC §4; Semicolon before else
4. Jan 22 Functions; the C runtime library math.c, rand.c DDC §5.1-8
5. Jan 24 Scope of variables, storage classes; separate compilation StorageClasses/ DDC §5.12
6. Jan 29 Arrays and pointers, args to main arrays.c, mainarg.c DDC §6.1-6.5, §6.10, §6.20-22
7. Jan 31 Recursion, debugging Recursion/ DDC §5.13-18
8. Feb 5 strings; scanf, printf, I/O; the preprocessor, macros scanf.c, types.c DDC §8, DDC §13
9. Feb 7 Typedef, structures, unions, header files; storage allocation, lists Lists/ DDC §10.1-5, §10.18, §12.1-4
10. Feb 12 Pointers to functions; OO programming in C ptrs2fncs. c, OO_pgm_in_C/ DDC §7.26
Wednesday, Feb 13, at midnight First C project due, counts 33.33%
Java Language
11. Feb 14 First Java program; Basic object design: members, constructors, cloning, destructors account.java, test_acc.java, Inherit/ DDJ §8
12. Feb 19 Derivation, inheritance, public, private Inherit/ continued DDJ §9
13. Feb 21 Abstract methods; collections, packages Stacks/, Lists12/ DDJ §9
14. Feb 26 Catch-up; exceptions; inner classes exception.java DDJ §14
15. Feb 28 Abstract Window Toolkit, the Java 1.0 and 1.1 event models, applets; Panel and Button Nutshell/ ch6/ First Applet.*, Nutshell/ ch7/ DDJ §3
Mar 3-7 Spring break, no class
Monday, Mar 10, at midnight Second C project due, counts 33.33%
16. Mar 11 AWT continued: Frame, Canvas, Checkbox, CheckboxGroup, Label CheckboxTest. java
17. Mar 13 AWT continued: TextField, ScrollBar, Color; Java archive files Caviness/, Scroll Test _1 _1. java, Graphdraw/
18. Mar 18 Multiple threads; animation Threads/, BouncingCircle. java, BouncingCircle. html, SmoothCircle. java, SmoothCircle. html DDJ §15, Sun tutorial
19. Mar 20 Multiple threads continued

C++ Language
20. Mar 25 First C++ program; basic object design: members, constructors, copy, destructors account. cpp, inherit. cpp DDC §16; My comparision of C++ and Java
21. Mar 27 Derivation, inheritance, public, private; polymorphism: overloading of functions and operators; stream I/O inherit. cpp continued DDC §18, DDC §19, §21
22. Apr 1 Pointers and references, const, static
DDC §15.8, §17.2, §17.7
Wednesday, Apr 2, at midnight Java project due, counts 33.33%
23. Apr 3 Templates and the STL Lists/ DDC §17.10, SGI's online manual
24. Apr 8 STL containers map.cpp, index.cpp
25. Apr 10 STL iterators

26. Apr 15 STL algorithms indir_ sort. cpp
27. Apr 17 Advanced topics: virtual member functions; code bloat and how to avoid it Stacks/ DDC §20
28. Apr 22 Namespaces and inner classes; exceptions; multiple inheritance exception.cpp; MultInher/ DDC §19.15
29. Apr 24 Wrappers/adaptors to existing libraries; traits prof3.h
N. Myers report on traits
Tue, May 6, at 17h00 C++ project (now standard-compliant) due, counts 33.33%
* This is a projected list and subject to amendment.

Instruction Personnel

For instructor, office hours, telephone numbers, email and physical address see the homepages of Erich Kaltofen.

Textbook and Online Notes

For students who do not already know C, I have ordered The syllabus above refers to chapters in this book, which also contains C++ material. The classical reference to the C programming language is and to the C++ programming language The Standard Template Library of C++ (not covered in Deitel/Deitel) has an online tutorial by SGI.

I am using

as the introduction/reference to Java. All examples have been downloaded. This book uses the new Swing GUI components, and has little information on the classical AWT classes. However, there is also an online tutorial by Sun Microsystems.

On-line information: All information on courses that I teach (except individual grades) is now accessible via html browsers, which includes this syllabus. My courses' directory is at

You can also find information on courses that I have taught in the past, and examinations that I have given.

Grading and General Information

There will be four programming assignments of approximately equal weight, constituting the final grade. Please submit your solutions in archived, compressed, and ASCII-encoded form according to these procedures.

If you need assistance in any way, please let me know (see also the University's policy).

Academic Standards

Collaboration on programs: I expect every student to be his/her own programmer. Therefore the only thing you can discuss with anyone is how you might go about solving a particular problem. You may use freely information that you retrieve from public (electronic) libraries or texts, but you must properly reference your source.

Late submissions: All programs must be submitted on time. The following penalties are given for (unexcused) late submissions:

Alleged cheating incidents: I will not decide any penalty myself, but refer all such cases to the proper judiciary procedures.

©2008 Erich Kaltofen.