When: 9:15 - 10:30
Where: Library 319
Instructor: David X. Zhu
Office Location : BSA A402
Office Hour : Tuesday 10:45 - 11:45 Thursday 10:45 - 11:45 3:15 - 4:15

In this course, you will continue learning about computer programming (both practice and concepts, but not languages). Please bear in mind that the focus of this class is on programming. I will continually attempt to promote good programming practice and try to draw parallels to a number of programming languages.

You will use Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 to implement and pratice the concepts in class. If you prefer to use some other languages, such as c/C++, or JAVA, etc., come to my office and we can talk about it. Please remember that I am not going to teach you the basics of Visual Basic, which I assume that you have know much in your previous course(s), although I will briefly review the necessary concepts in the class when necessary.

You will be learning some important algorithms and you are required to implement them using a programming language.

The recommended text for this course is Programming in Visual Basic 6.0, by Julia Case Bradley and Anita C. Millspaugh. It should be available in both the KSU and DuBois bookstores. (same as the book for M&IS 24070.) It may also be available on-line from such outlets as Amazon.com.

The primary software we need for this couse is Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, which is freely available to all the KSU students. You need to go to the library and check out the Visual Studio Version 6.0 Professional Edition CD set, which contains Visual Basic 6.0, as well as Visual C++ 6.0 and Visual InterDev 6.0 that we are not going to use here. I assume you have no problem installing the software on to your computer once you have the CD set.

The major algorithms covered in this course include Sorting Algorithms such as insertion sort, bubble sort, quick sort, count sort, etc., Searching Algorithms, such as binary search. The data structures we use are Array and List. We will talk about the Sequential File Organization, Random Data files, error-handling, database management, etc.

The prerequisites for this course are both M&IS 24060 -- System Analysis I -- and M&IS 24070 -- Principles of System Development. (Or, M&IS 24070.) If you have not taken the prerequisites, you must drop this course. Come and talk to me if you think you have some other classe(s) that can substitute the prerequisite. Students who do not have the proper prerequisite risk being deregistered from the class.

Class attendance is not required. However, it is strongly encouraged. And, you are responsible for all material covered in class.

I interpret your coming to class as an expression of your interest in learning as much as you possibly can. Certainly, you should assume that this is your classmates' intention in being here. In fairness to your classmates (and me), I expect you to refrain from talking to others, reading newspapers, sleeping, playing radios or CDs, making telephone calls and other similar, possibly disruptive activities. Don't be surprised if I ask you or someone else to leave because of conduct detrimental to the class. If you simply must study for a test later that day, stay home, go to the Library, find a bench outdoors. Don't plan on doing it in class.

Your final grade in this course will be based on your performance on the homework assignbments. These are: There will be 8 or more homework assignments. Each of these will be available on the web site for this course. Each has a due date and a due time. Late assignments will not be accepted. The course home page will be updated whenever a homework assignment becomes available. You need to check the course home page to get your homework assignments. Please be aware that the homework assignments will not be of equal value. For example, the first is worth 5 points, while the second is worth 15 points. A letter grade of A will be earned if you have a total score of 90% or more. A B will be earned for a total score that is at least 80% and less than 90%. For a C, you must have at least 70% and less than 80%. A D will be assigned with at least 60% and less than 70% for your total score. An F will be assigned to all students receiving a total score that is less than 60%. Note, a total score of 79.8% is less than 80% and will result in a final grade of C.

I will not post your homework scores on the WEB, nor provide them to you via phone or email. I can only give them to you by person and I will do that each time the homework isgraded. You will also get the statistics for the grades in the class.

In accordance with University policy, if you have a disability and require accommodations to obtain equal access in this course, please contact me at the beginning of the semester or when given an assignment for which an accommodation is required. Students with disabilities must verify their eligibility through the Office of Student Disability Services (SDS) in the Michael Schwartz Student Services Center (672-3391).

Refer to the University Policies below. It is expected that all work you submit for a grade will be your own. If this is not the case, a failing grade will be assigned for this course and the instructor reserves the right to pursue additional sanctions as provided by University rules and regulations. If you are not familiar with these rules and regulations, you can find them in the current University Phone Directory.

In particular, each of you must submit your own assignments. Should two or more of you submit identical or substantially identical assignments, then I can only assume that one (or more) of you copied from the other(s). In such a circumstance, every student involved will receive a failing grade for the course. Additional sanctions may be pursued in accord with University rules and regulations.

You need to realize that the only way in which you can learn to program is to write programs of increasing complexity. If you submit someone else's work, you are cheating yourself and all other students. I will not tolerate this. It's better not to submit a homework than to submit someone else's.

Students attending the course who do not have the proper prerequisite risk being deregistered from the class.

Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes. You are advised to review your official class schedule during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section. Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until Friday, September 13, 2002 to correct it with your advising office. If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

Academic Honesty: Cheating means to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, papers, projects, assignments) so as to get undeserved credit. The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offense. It is the University's policy that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade for the work or course. Repeat offenses result in dismissal from the University.

For Fall 2002, the course withdrawal deadline is Saturday, November 2, 2002. Withdrawal before the deadline results in a "W" on the official transcript; after the deadline a grade must be calculated and reported.

Right now, you should read chapters 1 through 8 and the first section of chapter 10 in the Bradley and Millspaugh book. Virtually all of this should be review. And, it will be covered in class -- but quickly. For the remainder of the semester, it is up to you to decide which portions of the text to read and when. Your text and any supplementary Visual Basic books you may have bought are reference materials. You need to learn how to use them on your own. The index and table of contents are always good places to start.

One certain thing about using computers is change. Today's most widely used computers, programming languages, information systems, etc. did not exist five to ten years ago and will probably not exist (or at least be significantly modified) in five to ten years. Change can be (and often is) radical in the IS field. Those of you who intend to enter this field for your careers must be prepared to embrace change and to adopt new technologies as they become available. The basic principles that you learn in this and other IS courses will continue to be valid. However, the specific tools will soon be obsolete. Your challenge is to develop habits that will assist you in making numerous professional transitions to new technologies and environments. Each of you must be prepared to take the initiative in your continuing education both during and after school.

This course is designed to help you develop skills that will serve you in an ever changing professional environment. In particular, your text and any other supplementary materials you may acquire are resources to help you master important concepts. You should take the extra time to familiarize yourself with them. Skim them to get an overview of their contents. Learn to use the index to find material related to that presented in class. Take advantage of Visual Basic's Help system. Learn to use Function Key 1 to get help on an object or Visual Basic key word. Take advantage of the related topics links that VB Help presents you with. Ask yourself whether there might be an easier way to accomplish your objective than that presented in class. (There often is.)

Survival is not guaranteed. And, it is your responsibility. The following are some suggestions that will help you.

Do not ever turn in a homework that contains a computer virus. Doing so will result in a failing grade for this course. There will be no exceptions to this rule for any reason(s). All the computers in the College of Business Administration Laboratories are equipped with Virus detection and correction software. Use this often on your own diskettes.

When you submit a homework to the course web site, always double (and triple) check to be absolutely certain you have uploaded all the necessary files to the correct directory. If the homework is not uploaded to the correct directory it cannot be graded. If a needed file is not uploaded, the homework cannot be graded. If your homework cannot be graded, you will receive a grade of zero for that assignment.

The latter point is particularly important when submitting Visual Basic homework's. A Visual Basic project is always composed of a minimum of two files. It may be composed of a significantly larger number of files. If a needed file is not submitted, the project cannot be loaded and executed. Submitting only some of the files required for a project will result in a grade of zero on that homework.

A note of warning: Your homeworks are submitted to a PC that uses the Linux operating system. As a result, you must exercise some caution in choosing names for the files that you create. If you do not, you will be unable to upload your homework assignments or, you may inadvertently create a situation where one of your files is lost. You should observe the following conventions when naming homework files.

The 26 letters of the alphabet (A ... Z);
The ten decimal digits (0 ... 9);
The underscore character ( _ ); and/or
The period character (.)

You should consistently use only lowercase (or uppercase) letters for file names. Under Windows, if you have a file named Form1.frm and then save a new file using the name FORM1.frm to your disk, the new file will overwrite the older file Form1.frm. (i.e., Windows does not distinguish between file names based on capitalization.) Under the Linux operating system, these are two separate files. And, they can both be uploaded to our homework server. To be graded, they are downloaded to a Windows machine. On this machine, only the last of the two downloaded files will be saved. This means the wrong file may graded without knowing it.

I try to be very understanding when people have problems and I want to help you should you encounter difficulties with this course. However, if you come to me at the end of the semester with a tale of woe about everything that conspired against you during the semester, do not expect me to be sympathetic. I don't want to pry into your personal lives. But, if something such as illness, injury, family, etc. interferes with your ability to keep up with the material, I need to know when the crisis arises not after the fact. That way we can, together, figure ways to adjust to your changed circumstances. Telling me later only exacerbates the problem.

Submit all assignments on the due date. If something is late, you will receive no credit for it.

Regularly check the home page for this course. All announcements of homework availability and quiz dates will be made using this page. Once an item has been posted there for 48 hours, I consider it to be official and will hold you responsible for it.

Read and follow the Visual Basic Programming Rules written by Dr. Glenn Thomas (the only exception is the naming rules. You can chose any names you want for the identifiers, but make sure you are doing so with consistancy and good comments are given.) If you follow these, you will find yourself writing better and more understandable programs. If you do not follow these rules, you will be jeopardizing your grade.

Join the Class ListServe mis34032_2@listserv.kent.edu. This is be an unmoderated discussion group specifically for students in this class. Feel free to post questions, advice, references to relevant sources of information on the list at any time. I will throw in my 2 cents if I feel it would be helpful. Be aware that all E-Mail sent to this ListServe is automatically sent to every subscriber. If you want a private communication with someone, use her/his E-Mail address NOT the ListServ. More information on ListServe can be found at HTTP://ACT.KENT.EDU/LISTREQ or at HTTP://WWW.LSOFT.COM/MANUALS/INDEX.HTML

Participation in the ListServe is totally voluntary. If you chose not to be a member, that's fine. All announcements and important messages related to the course will be distributed through the announcement portion of the course home page that is accessible from the World Wide Web.

One note: It is inappropriate to post specific code solutions to homework problems on the ListServe. Anyone doing so will lose his/her ListServe privileges. And, if the posting is particularly egregious, the individual may risk severely and negatively impacting his/her grade. The ListServe is provided to help you learn to solve problems. It is not meant to provide solutions.