COSC 140: Data Structurese and Algorithms I published by Zyante.com.
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In order for active student participation to work, you will have to prepare yourself before lecture by reading the textbook and completing the participatory activites. I know in advance that some of you won't like doing this and many of you will struggle somewhat with some of the participatory activities. That is okay. I understand that until we have gone over some of the points made by the textbook in class, that you won't be able to do the participatory activities perfectly. The point of the activities is to make you think about the material before you come to class, so that when we cover the material in class, you will have a better chance of understanding it.
Finally I will spend class time going over the labs. The labs are challenging and if you try to do them at the last minute you will not complete them. The hints that both I provide in class and that the TAs provide in labs should prove helpful in completing the lab assignments.
A: 90-100 B: 80-90 C: 70-80 D: 60-70 F: < 60Pluses may be given for composite scores near the top of the range and minuses may be given for composite scores near the bottom of the range. I sometimes curve letter grades based on your final composite score.
Should you miss an exam without a valid excuse, you will receive an average for the remaining exams and a one letter grade reduction in your final grade. For example if you would have received a B+, you will now receive a C+.
This means that when you see a problem that needs to be coded, you have a good idea of how to go about it by writing a C+ program. This includes understanding 1) the logistics of compiling, linking, including, etc., 2) setting up the data structures, 3) organizing the I/O, 4) using standard tools and libraries where appropriate, and 5) debugging a program.
Some of the more important basic concepts that you will learn in this course includes understanding pointers, recursion and memory allocation.
In CS102 you learned the fundamentals of programming and especially how to use control structures, such as loops, branches, and functions, to control the flow of logic in your program. You also learned how to rudimentarily organize data using vectors and classes. In this course we will learn several basic data structures that are good for organizing dynamic data sets and that efficiently support three fundamental operations--insert, delete, and find. Frankly, there are only three to four basic data structures that can carry you through a lifetime of programming. All the rest are variations on a theme. By the end of this class, you should understand the basics and be prepared to tweak them when necessary.
Knowing how to set up your data structures is one thing. Understanding how fast your program should run is another. This class get you started with algorithm analysis.
In CS102 you were probably introduced to command line tools but you may not have become completely comfortable with them. In this course you will learn how to use command line tools that you invoke from a terminal window, such as g++ for compiling a program, gdb for debugging a program, and vi for editing a program. As you become an expert programmer, you will probably find that these tools allow you to create and debug a program more quickly than an IDE.