Objectives
CSC 211 is intended primarily for Computer Science and Computer Engineering majors. During this semester, you will learn about programming, data representation, algorithm development, and object-oriented design. At the end of this course, you will be able to
- Analyze a simple programming problem and break it down into several subproblems or modules of programmable size;
- Develop an object-oriented design and algorithms for each module;
- Implement these modules in Java, test them, and debug them..
Brief Outline of the Course
Introduction to computers and programming languages. Data representation. Control flow. Introduction to classes and objects: inheritance, overriding. Basic classes of Java 5. Elements of software design.
Course Prerequisites
MTH 111 (precalculus) or equivalent; prior experience with computers and programming.
Note that the word "Introductory" in the title of this course should not be understood as indicating that we will be starting "from scratch." You are definitely expected to have done someprogramming in the not-so-distant past.
Computer Science was created as a subfield of applied mathematics and still requires a solid mathematical background. If your mathematical skills are weak you will run into problems sooner or later. This semester I will try to use some of the maths prerequisites in your laboratory assignments.
Programming Environment
We will use the Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) and the programming language Java. Eclipse was developed by IBM and is available as a free download for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Linux, and Mac OS. The latest version of Eclipse is Version 3.3, which was released in August 2007.
