Course Work

The following document outlines the programming projects, quizzes, and final exam that make up the graded material in the course.


Programming Projects

There will be several substantial programming projects that will build upon one another to illustrate the value of good design and implementation techniques on the communication software lifecycle. Online descriptions of these assignments will be available via the WWW.

An important goal of the assignments is to teach you about communication software design alternatives by comparing and contrasting designs based on different paradigms. Algorithms, data structures, patterns, and mechanisms taught in CS 242 and CS 422 will be used to reinforce the implementation of these projects.

Projects will involve substantial programming in C++ and UNIX and will be done individually by each student. Students are assumed to be competent in C++ and familiar with basic UNIX operating system features such as electronic mail, WWW browsers, and USENET newsgroups. Students not familiar with these tools will have to learn them outside of class.

To encourage you to write well-designed software, I reserve the right to change the assignment specifications at any point before the due date. Expect this to happen several times during the semester. If you have written your program in a modular fashion the changes will be trivial to implement.

The programs will be graded using the following criteria:

There will be a mandatory 5 point deduction (out of a possible 100 points) for each day that your program is late after the deadline. Moreover, I will not accept programs that are turned in later than two calendar days after the due date.


Exams and Quizzes

There will be one in-class final exam. This will be worth 25% of your grade. Material tested on the final exam will be comprehensive.

There will be a short graded quiz at the end of class each Monday, starting on January 18th. The exam and the quizzes will be based on material presented in class. Therefore, it is essential that you attend class in order to prepare for the quizzes and final exam. There will be no ``makeup'' quizzes unless you ask permission from me before the quiz. The relative weighting of each portion of the course is presented below:

Note that I reserve the right to change the weights during the course of the semester.


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