CS 115 Introduction to Computer Science - Spring 2009

Instructor:
Dave Naumann with office hour: 10-11 Wednesday and by appointment; pipeline ID dnaumann

Teaching Assistant:
Snehalkumar Kamleshkumar Patel (spatel60 at stevens.edu), hours Wed 2:30-4:30 in Bur 127, and by appointment

Prerequisite:
Substantial high school exposure to C, C++, Java, or some other major imperative programming language. (But there is no specific course prerequisite.) Students with no prior programming experience are strongly recommended to take CS 105 first. Although 115 does cover programming and Java from the beginning, without assuming any specific background, it covers the basics at a very accelerated pace.

Students with a great deal of programming experience and expertise may be allowed to take CS 181 instead of 115; contact the instructor of 181.

Meetings:
Mon+Wed 9-9:50 in BC 110, Fri 11-11:50 in BC 110, Labs: Thurs 9-10:50 in BC 110.

Required textbook:
Multimedia Introduction to Programming Using Java, by Gries and Gries, publisher Springer-Verlag, ISBN: 0-387-22681-8

If you would like a reference book, the best one is The Java Programming Language, Fourth edition, by Arnold, Gosling, and Holmes. It is a very good reference with clear and accurate explanations. But it is not required for this course; I will point out online resources as needed during the semester.

Software:
During the first lab session you will download the DrJava interactive development environment.

The TextPad editor, Java compiler, and Java runtime system should be pre-installed on your Stevens laptops, but we will use DrJava instead of TextPad. You'll install DrJava during the first lab.

Mailing list:
cs115

You must follow this link and sign up: I will not be using the WebCT mailing list (but WebCT will be used for homework assignment and submission). If you want to use a non-Stevens email address, please let me know as otherwise I assume such requests are spam.

Goals, policies, and detailed syllabus:
go to Goals and assessment, Policies, or Outline.

Catalog description:
Credits 3-2-4. This is an introductory programming course using the Java language. The topics include: basic facts about object-oriented programming and Java through inheritance and exceptions; recursion; UML diagrams and how to read class diagrams; ethics in computer science; and some basic understanding about computer systems: the compile/link/interpret/execute cycle, and data representation. Prerequisites: substantial high school exposure to C, C++, Java, or some other major imperative programming language.





David Naumann 2010-04-29