CSC 111: Computer Science I

Course Content: An introduction to computer science and computer programming. The programming language Python will be taught and used to introduce programming techniques, and students will gain proficiency with the UNIX operating system. This is the first course in the Computer Science major. No previous experience is assumed.

Required Textbook: Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science, by John Zelle, Franklin, Beedle, and Associates, 2004.

Reserve Textbook: Introduction to Computing and Programming in Python, A Multimedia Approach, by Mark Guzdial, Prentice Hall, 2004.

Both texts are on reserve in the Young Science Library, Bass Hall

Course Work: Weekly labs and programming projects and bi-weekly quizzes. You will work in pairs on the programming assignments, and take the quizzes and exams on your own..
Two exams: 1) an open-book midterm during lab on Thursday Oct 26 2) an open-book exam given during final exam period.
On-line Quiz dates: Sept 19, Oct 3, Oct 17, Nov 7, Nov 21, Dec 12
Quizzes will be available on-line on Monday a.m. and must be taken by midnight on the Tuesday that they are scheduled.

Course Grade: The programming projects are 60% of your course grade, quizzes are 15%, the midterm exam is 12.5%, and the second exam is 12.5%. Attendance in both class and lab, as well as class participation is also a factor and may supercede these percentages by plus or minus 5%.
There is a whole grade penalty for each day that a project is late. Programs that are not interpretable by Python will not receive any credit.

You will be able to do some work on your own computer. However, some of the projects that are run in the Linux operating system use graphics and audio and so need to run on a Linux station.

To use SSH on your own computer,

• For Windows Users:
  go to www.science.smith.edu and click on Facilities/Resources, then Student Software. You can then use your regular Novell/Groupwise username/password to get the software. Also in Facilties/Resources is a link to download SSH to use in a web browser, if you want to try it.
• For Mac users:
  Your Mac comes with ssh installed already.
  Click on your Applications Folder. Then click on the Utilities Folder. You should see a Utility called Terminal. Open the Terminal application and a window (a shell) should open up for you. If it doesn't, go under the File menu and select New Shell, right at the top.
  In the terminal window, type the follow command: ssh -l 111a-XX beowulf.csc.smith.edu (that's a dash "ell" after the ssh, and replace XX with your own two letters).
  When asked, type your password, hit enter, and you should get the beowulf prompt.