MIS 24080 F05 Thomas
M&IS 24080
Principles of System Development
> Fall, 2005<b>
> Fall, 2005<b>
Course Syllabus
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The Last Day to Withdraw
> From This Course is:<br> Sunday November 6, 2005. |
> <u>Table of Contents<u>
Course Objectives
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#text#text">Texts
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#survive#survive">Hints for surviving this course
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#disable#disable">Students with Disabilities
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#cheating#cheating">Academic Dishonesty (Cheating) Policy
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#attendance#attendance">Course Attendance
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#grade#grade">Course Grading
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#withdraw#withdraw">Withdrawal Deadline
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#registration#registration">Course Registration
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#reading#reading">A Note about What You Read
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#text#text">Texts
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#survive#survive">Hints for surviving this course
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#disable#disable">Students with Disabilities
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#cheating#cheating">Academic Dishonesty (Cheating) Policy
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#attendance#attendance">Course Attendance
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#grade#grade">Course Grading
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#withdraw#withdraw">Withdrawal Deadline
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#registration#registration">Course Registration
> <a href="http:/www.personal.kent.edu/~gthomas/24080f05/syllabus.html#reading#reading">A Note about What You Read
- This is a second course in computer programming. It will focus on a number of classical programming problems. In so doing, it is expected that you will improve your problem solving skills, while expanding your mastery of a number of fundamental programming tolls and strategies.
We will be using the Microsoft C# .NET 2003® programming language to implement and practice the concepts discussed in class. It is assumed that you have had previous experience with Visual Basic that is at least equivalent to that provided by M&IS 24070. In addition, a familiarity with a variety of Windows software such as Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer and NotePad is assumed.
There is no required text for this course.
That said, I have found two books to be quite helpful in preparing for this course. They are:
o Visual C# .NET: A Guide for VB6 Developers. Brad Maiani, James Still, Angelo Kastroulis and Cristian Darie. ISBN 1-86100-717-5, Wrox Press, Ltd. Written for the individual who is familiar with VB6, this provides a good guide to C# over its first 6 or so chapters. After that, it gets a little more difficult to use. Do not go to the web site listed in the book. It has been sold to Apress. You can visit
to find the errata and code samples for this book. Unfortunately, this book is no longer in print. However used copies of it may be available on-line. And you may stumble across a copy in your local bookstore.
o Windows Forms Programming with C#. Erik Brown. ISBN 1930110-28-6, Manning Publications Co. I'm not finished with it yet. But, what I've seen so far is impressive. The author is focused on Programming Windows Forms. As a result, the coverage of the C# language statements, syntax, etc. is somewhat lacking.
If you do not have access to a PC, those in the College MicroComputer Laboratory may be used to complete all assignments for this course.
- In addition to building on the programming fundamentals you learned in M&IS 24070, it is expected that this class will assist further you in developing your problem solving skills. After all, a program is nothing more than a problem solution. It can be a frustrating experience to design a programming solution to a seemingly trivial problem. For example, consider the game of Tic-Tac-Toe. The rules are fairly simple. You probably know how to play it. Yet, how do you program a computer to do so in a manner that guarantees the computer will nver lose? What changes if you play Tic-Toe-Toe on a 4 by 4 grid instead of the standard 3 by 3 grid? Can you generalize your thoughts to any arbitrarily sized grid? If you devote adequate time and effort to this course, you will be surprised how much you can learn to do and how quickly you learn to do it.
- There is no required text for this course. However, there are the two recommended books shown above. In addition, I found over 20 C# books at the local Borders last week. I strongly suggest you acquire a book that covers C#. It should be more thorough than the C# for Dummies type of work.
- You may wish to employ the internet where there are numerous resources available to help you master C#.
- If you will be working in the College PC lab, you will be saving your homework assignments on diskettes, a flash drive or other media. Wherever the PC is that you use, you should frequently back up what you have done. I cannot over stress the importance of making copies of all of your programs. I guarantee that you will experience a hard drive crash or lose a floppy at some point. If you don't have a backup, than you will have lost everything that you were working on. . This will be especially painful if you do not have a copy of a previous homework that becomes the basis for a later one.
- If you have a PC running either Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (or later) or Windows XP (not the Home Version) and you are registered for this course, you can obtain your own copies of the six CDs for Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional Edition. These can be installed on your PC. For more information about this option go to Visual Studio .NET 2003 CDs.
Survival is not guaranteed. And, it is your responsibility. The following are some suggestions that will help you.
1. Do not ever turn in a homework that contains a computer virus. Doing so will make me very unhappy and will also 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.
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> By then it will be too late. Read the homework assignments as soon as they are posted. Spend time thinking about them before you run off and write a great deal of code to later find it was all wrong. One hour of preparation can save multiple hours of frustration. <br>
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2. There is only one way to learn programming -- Practice, Practice and more Practice! Be prepared to spend significant time outside the classroom completing the homeworks.
Do not wait until the last minute
> to start a homework!<u>
> to start a homework!<u>
> By then it will be too late. Read the homework assignments as soon as they are posted. Spend time thinking about them before you run off and write a great deal of code to later find it was all wrong. One hour of preparation can save multiple hours of frustration. <br>
3. Those of you who are familiar with VB .NET know that the structure of a Visual Studio solution is reasonably complex. The simplest C# project I have created resulted in Visual Studio creating seven folders containing a total of fourteen files. While there are reasons for this complexity, there are also disadvantages -- particularly when you turn in your homeworks.
To facilitate turning in homeworks and reduce the risk that you will neglect to turn in one or more necessary components, I suggest you create a zip file containing your complete homework solution -- all folders and files. You can use either PKZip or WinZip to do this. PKZip is available at http://www.pkzip.com/. WinZip is available at http://www.winzip.com/. Once you have one of these programs installed on your PC, you can zip the folder containing a homework solution and then upload this one zip file to the web when turning in your homework.
Once the zip file has been uploaded to WebCT, you can select the zip file and unzip it to the appropriate homework folder. For example, homework 2 should be unzipped to the folder hw02 on WebCT. I recommend that you take a few minutes to compare the folder structure and files on WebCT to those on your PC. They should be identical. If they are not, you probably did not include one or more components when you zipped your solution. This should not be difficult to do using Windows Explorer.
A note of warning: You will turn your homeworks in a our WebCT server. WebCT runs 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 and unzip 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.
1. File names may contain only the following characters:
§ The 26 letters of the alphabet (A ... Z);
§ The ten decimal digits (0 ... 9); and/or
§ The underscore character ( _ )
2. You should consistently use only lowercase (or uppercase) letters for file names. Under Windows, if you have a file named Form1.frm and then create a new file using the name FORM1.frm in the same folder, the new file will overwrite the older file Form1.frm. (i.e., Windows does not distinguish between file names based on capitalization.) With the Linux operating system, these are two different files. And, they can both be uploaded to our homework server. To be graded, they must be downloaded to a Windows machine. On this machine, only the second of the two files that is downloaded will be available as it will overwrite the first one downloaded. This means the wrong file may graded without any of us knowing it.
4. I try to be very understanding when people have problems and I want to help you should you encounter difficulties with this course (or others, for that matter). 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. 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.
Please note, A work crisis/conflict is something you must plan for. If your job interferes with this course, you must decide which will be allowed to slide. I cannot (and will not) help you with this particular problem.
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5. Submit all assignments on the due date. If something is late, you will receive no credit for it.
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6. Regularly check the home page for this course. All announcements of homework availability grades and various links will be posted to that page. Once an item has been posted there for 48 hours, I consider it to be official and will hold you responsible for it.
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7. Read and follow the C# Programming Rules. 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.
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8. Join the Class ListServe mis24080@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 risks 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.
University policy 3342-3-18 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access equal access course content. If you have documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments. Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through the Student Disability Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit http://www.registrars.kent.edu/disability/default.htm for more information on registration procedures).
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 Catalog.
In particular, each of you must submit your own work. 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.
Be forewarned, I have assigned failing grades in the past because identical or nearly identical programs were submitted by two or more students.
One other warning: I have retained copies of all programming assignments from past classes. Your homework assignments will be electronically checked against, not only other students in this class, but also against all past students who have submitted this assignment. If you submit a program solution originally submitted by a different person for some previous class, you will fail this class and I may decide to pursue further sanctions as allowed by University policy.
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Class attendance is not required. However, it is expected. And, you are responsible for all material covered in class in addition to that assigned outside of class.
A note on class decorum:
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, 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 do it in class.
Your final grade in this course will be based on your performance on the homeworks. It is possible, but not certain, that one or more homeworks will be group projects.
Once a grade is posted to the web, you have four days to let me know by e-mail, that you feel a mistake has been made in your grade. If you fail to contact me about your grade within this four day period, then the grade for the homework or quiz, even if incorrect, will be final.
A letter grade of A will be earned if you have a total score of 90% or more. A grade of 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 reserve the right to lower the cutoff points outlined in the above paragraph. (i.e., I may decide to assign a grade of A to everyone earning 88% or more of the possible points.)
As the semester progresses, I will be posting homework and quiz scores on the web. You will be able to see them by clicking on the Grades link on the course home page. The last four digits of your social security number will be used to identify you.
The last day to withdraw from this course is Sunday November 6, 2005. Please keep this date in mind.
Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes. You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Web for Students) 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, it is your responsibility to correct it ASAP. If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in a class for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade for that class.
There is no text for this course. I expect you to use one of the recommended books above and/or other resources you discover as needed to keep up with course material. A significant course objective is for you to develop the skill to find resources as needed.
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 will 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 deliberately is designed to help you develop skills that will serve you in an ever changing professional environment. In particular, your books 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 Studio's Help system. Learn to use Function Key 1 to get help on an object or C# key word. Take advantage of the related topics links that C# 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.)
