The Java API documentation

Documentation for the JavaStructures package. This package is discussed in the online textbook but will not be used in lectures nor in labs.

Format

• There are two weekly classes meeting which will be mostly lecture. Attendance is required and attendance records will be kept.
• There is a weekly meeting with your lab instructor. Attendance is mandatory and attendance records will be kept. Lab assignments can be found online and there will be links to them from this page.
• Homework Labs consist of work assigned in the online lab document and verbally during lecture. Homework assigned in a lab document will be due at the same time as the lab is due. Lab reports are due at 11.59pm each Tuesday evening unless otherwise directed. Please email your zipped solutions to the laboratory instructor.

Short summaries of lectures are available online. Links will appear on this page.

Lab manuals are available online. Links will appear on this page. Each lab contains material and exercises based on the previous and current week's lectures. Th laboratory instructor will be present during the lab session, to introduce each week's lab and to answer any questions that arise during the session. You are urged to try to make significant progress on the lab during the session, in order to take advantage of the available help. Some aspects of the lab will be discussed and tackled during lecture time. The rest you will complete in your own time and during the scheduled lab meeting time. Attendance at your lab session is mandatory and attendance records will be kept.

Lab reports are due by 11.59pm on Tuesday. The first lab is due on Tuesday 16 September at 11.59pm.

Lab reports (solutions to exercises) are to be submitted electronically to the lab instructor. Late lab submissions will not be graded without prior arrangements except in cases of emergency.

Quizzes

There will be several quizzes. Most Tuesday sessions will begin with a short quiz on the previous week's work.

Exams

There will be 2 exams:

• Exam 1 Thursday October 30 An old exam
• Exam 2 Thursday December 18 in Mon 353 at 3pm Here is an old Exam 2 and my key.

Evaluation

Your final grade will be based on your grades on quizzes, lab reports and the two exams, according to the following weights:

Quizzes		20%
Lab Reports		50%
Exam 1		15%
Exam 2		15%

Text

The online textbook for this course is an unpublished new edition of Duane Bailey's Java Structures, and Professor Bailey has graciously allowed you to access a pdf version of the book here. If you wish, you may print out part or all of the book. Do not distribute the book to anybody outside of this class without written permission from the author. If you would like a bound, printed copy of an earlier version, I found copies at amazon for under 5 dollars (plus another 4 for shipping). You should look for the second edition (2002). You may also find the 1999 edition. The 2002 edition is somewhat preferable to the 1999. Be aware that the new version for which the author has made the pdf available to you is a 2007 edition that differs in some major respects from earlier editions. In particular, the earlier editions do not cover major innovations of Java 1.5 including generics. Nevertheless, if you are like me you will probably enjoy the feel of a real book in your hands. When did you last hear of a recommended CS textbook costing under five dollars?

The other textbook is more than five dollars, but not half as much as many CS textbooks. It is more advanced than necessary for this course, but has teh advantage of terseness, and will serve as a useful reference book for many years. I recommend you buy it only if you expect to study more CS after this course. It is by Kurt Melborn and Peter Sanders and is called Algorithms and Data Structures -- the Basic Toolbox. It is published by Springer and has ISBN 978-3-540-77977-3.

Policies

• Email policy: You can send email to my GWU email address. I will answer most class email during specific times set aside during the week for this purpose - so do not expect an instantaneous response. Please refrain from attempting "debugging by email". That is, do not send me code snippets and ask me to identify the problem. If you want me to look at your code, you have to stop by in person during office hours and bring along a laptop or hardcopy. Email is typically used for clarification regarding coursework. You ought to try to email the TA assignment-related questions before emailing me.

• Academic Integrity policy:
  • In this course, you are encouraged to discuss ideas and techniques for lab assignments with the lab instructor and with your classmates. You may also discuss the mechanical details of how to interact with the Emacs, BlueJ or Eclipse etc. Such discussion is preparation for your own unaided work on the assignment. The files you submit for grading must be the product of your own unaided efforts. If, for some reason, you include any material not of your own making you must provide full citation explaining where it came from and whose work it is. This applies even to code provided by the course instructors or obtained from the textbook. If you're using somebody else's code you must acknowledge the source. If you have any questions whatsoever regarding these policies, see me during office hours.
  • Do not exchange course-related code with anyone (including anyone not registered in the course), or download code for use in your assignments or exercises without permission. Likewise, you may not look at anyone else's code or show your code to anyone else. Protect your work: for example, be careful not to leave your printouts around.
  • If using a tutor, you may not show your CS133 homework-related code to your tutor nor use code shown or written by your tutor. All tutors for CS133 need to first register with me, by meeting me during office hours.
  • If you use material in your assignments that are from outside the course material, then you should be prepared to explain that material. The instructor and TA's reserve the right to question you on your use of extraneous material. Failure to answer such questions might be viewed as grounds for an integrity violation.
  • The Academic Integrity Code will apply to this course. Please read through the code carefully.
  • Penalties for violating the code or the policies described here include failing this course, and are elaborated in the Academic Integrity Code.
• Accommodations: If you have a disability that may affect your participation in this course and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
• Bulletin Board: Occasionally I will post class notices that you can get by clicking Bulletin Board in the left frame.

Getting started

• First, make sure you have an account on the computers in Room 410 and the SEAS Unix system.
• Java runs on the following platforms: Solaris, Win-NT/XP/Vista, Linux, Mac OSX. The Java Development Kit (JDK) is free - you can download it directly from the Sun website. Download JDK 1.5 or later.
• BlueJ is freely available for most platforms
• Eclipse is freely available for most platforms
• Emacs if freely available for most platforms
• The structures package if freely available from here.
• It's a good idea to bookmark the javadoc pages.

Getting help:

• The best place to get help is in the labs, from the TA.
• To get help from me, it's best to stop by during my office hours with your laptop or a printout of your program (if applicable). Sending me your code by email and expecting me to debug it is NOT acceptable. (See email policy above).