Apr-08: Instead of the lab, tomorrow we will have a regular lecture at 1:00 pm in SMudd 206.

Apr-05: To make it official, I have posted an ex post facto update to the due date of Project 5b, making it Thursday, April 08, 11:59 pm.

Apr-02: Now that it has been returned to you, here are the solutions for mid-term #1.

Mar-31: I am out sick, so class is cancelled for today. See you in the lab on Friday.

Mar-30: Some students have approached me with scheduling conflicts for mid-term #2 on Wednesday, April 7, during our usual class time from 1:00 to 1:50 pm. If you have such a conflict, then you may take the exam at an alternte time, from 9:00 to 9:50 am on the same day, Wednesday, April 7, in Seeley Mudd 202. If you plan to take advantage of this alternate time, please contact me.

Mar-30: Once again, there was an error in the Tools.class file used for Project 5a. Specifically, with the original version of Tools.class, the value that you search for, based on your findings from the Stone stone, appears in multiple locations in the array. That was an error on my part, and if you implemented your binary search in a slightly different manner, you would obtain a different result from mine by finding one of the other copies of that value in the array. Consequently, you would be unable to form the link needed for Project 5b.

I have fixed this bug with a new copy of Tools.class, ensuring that the value for which you search appears exactly once in the array. To obtain this new copy, login to remus/romulus, change into your project-5 directory, and use the following command:

$ cp ~sfkaplan/public/cs11/project-5a/Tools.class .

(Note that, if you found the link to Project 5b in spite of my error, that link will continue to work. You do not need to redo your calculation for part a.)

Mar-27: Project 5b has been posted. When you solve Project 5a, it will lead you to the PDF for part b.

Mar-23: For Project 4c, I committed an error in creating the file CountFrequency.java. Specifically, the code provided is missing a few critical import statements at its beginning. For those who have not yet gotten to part c, I have fixed the file that you will obtain, and you should not face this problem. However, for those who have already obtained the file and written code in it, you need to fix the problem yourself. Specifically, open that file with Emacs and add the following lines at its beginning, so that the file will now begin with the lines:

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.PrintStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;

public class CountFrequency {

Mar-18: At long last, Project 4c is ready for those who have made it through 4b. Dig in!

Mar-11: The deadline for Project 4a has been pushed back by one day to Friday, March 12, 11:59 pm If you have questions about this project, you may raise them during tomorrow's labs. Also note that we will address critical material for Project 4c during labs.

Mar-09: I have posted materials for Project 4. Specifically, you can now find a formal description of Project 4a. Moreover, the materials needed for Project 4b are in place; those needed for Project 4c are coming soon, although I expect it will take some time for y'all to solve part b.

Feb-25: Tomorrow there will be a lecture instead of a lab. We need to discuss new material before we begin a new project. Therefore, everyone should come to class in SMudd 206 at our usual lecture time, 1:00 pm.

Feb-19: A reminder that Monday's class is a review and Wednesday's class is mid-term exam #1. Be sure to bring questions for the review. Without your questions, there won't be much of a review to be had.

Feb-17: Here are the sample mid-term exam #1 and the solutions to it.

Feb-12: Project 3a contained an error today during labs. Specifically, it did not contain instructions for submitting your work for this first half of Project 3. That has now been added, so if you saved or printed a copy of the original PDF, be sure to get an updated copy from the course web pages.

Feb-11: Many people have computed the correct results for Project 2, but are failing to find the map when plugging the "mystery value" into the web address provided in the project. If you believe that you may have the correct mystery value, but the web address is still not working (that is, yielding a 404 page not found error), then you may be suffering from a faulty copy-and-paste problem that is particularly prevalent for those using Macintosh computers.

Specifically, if you performed a copy-and-paste of the web address shown on the Project 2 PDF document, and then replaced XYZ with your mystery value, then you may not be shown the map, even though your mystery value is correct. The problem is that the tilde character (~) in that web address, which preceeds my username (sfkaplan), is not copied correctly. I recommend that you copy the web address from the Project 2 PDF into your web browser by hand to avoid this problem.

Feb-03: I want to reiterate what I announced at the beginning of today's lecture: With the end of add/drop upon, high enrollment, and uneven demand for the three lab sections, you must do two things:

1. Be sure that you are registered for your preferred section: If you are already register in the section that you desire, then you need not do anything. If you seek only to change sections of this class, note that the Registrar does not require your advisor's signature.

   Please observe, however, that some sections are going to be more popular than others. In particular, both the noon and 1:00 pm sections seem to be in high demand, but the 2:00 pm is unlikely to fill. If you are able to register for the 2:00 pm section, then please do so.

2. Email me with your non-academic constraints: If any one of the sections becomes overly full -- that is, if it contains more than 23 students -- then I will ask the Registrar to balance the sections. The Registrar already knows your academic schedule, so you do not need to provide that inforamation. However, the Registrar does not know your schedule for athletic practices and competitions, musical rehersals and performances, on-campus jobs, etc. Therefore, I ask that you send to me the sections that you prefer to avoid because of these non-academic commitments. Provide me with the section you prefer to avoid, and the reason

   I hope that we can avoid switching you into a section that conflicts with any of your non-academic activities. However, I cannot guarantee that no such conflict will occur. There are may be too many constraints to satisfy everyone's schedules perfectly. Be prepared for the possibility that, for example, you may simply have to attend your athletic practice or your play rehersal a bit late on Fridays because you had to be switched into the 2:00 pm lab section.

Jan-28: I have added a new Readings page. It provides a link to the PDF of the textbook that we will use to reinforce the material covered in class. It also will list, as we progress, the correspondence between the topics that we cover and the sections of the book that address those topics. I have posted on that page the sections that address the material that we've discussed during this first week of the semester.

Jan-28: Our class is rather full, and in particular, Section 01 (the 1:00 pm Friday lab) is oversubscribed, with additional people unable (or not easily able) to use Section 02 (the 2:00 pm Friday lab). So, I have just added a Section 03 with a 12:00 pm to 12:50 pm lab time on Fridays. Therefore:

• Tomorrow, to aleviate the possibility of an overly full lab at 1:00 pm, please come to the 12:00 pm lab if you are able.

• To switch lab sections permanently, the Registrar will allow you to do so without a signature from your advisor (provided that changing sections is the only change you seek).

• My hope is that enough of you will voluntarily switch into this new Section 03 that the sections will be reasonably balanced, and that no section will be overly full. However, if, by this coming Tuesday, February 2, the sections are critically imbalanced or oversubscribed, the Registrar will rebalance them by moving those for whom there is no academic conflict into a less subscribed section.

Jan-27: If you are a Five College student and if you have not completed registration for this course, then you do not have access to the computer systems that we will use on Friday during labs. It is critical that you obtain this access before labs begin on Friday, because these accounts take time to create. Therefore, if you will not be formally registered for the course by Friday, but you will attend the lab time, then you should petition for temporary access as soon as possible. If you are unsure of whether you should do so, please contact me immediately.

Jan-20: Welcome to Introduction to Computer Science I! If you are enrolled in this class, or even if you are considering this class, please begin, before our first class on Monday, Jan-25, by reading the course information. This document makes clear what material we will cover, what is expected of you as a student, how I will evaluate your work, etc. It may also help you to determine whether this course is one that interests you.