Computer Science 210
Data Structures
Fall 2017, Siena College
Instructor and Course Information
Instructor: | Dr. James D. Teresco, Roger Bacon 321, (518) 782-6992 |
Electronic mail: | jteresco AT siena.edu (best contact method) |
Twitter: | @JTerescoSienaCS |
Class URL: |
[Link]
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Class hour: | Monday, Friday 10:20-11:20, Roger Bacon 302 |
Lab meetings: | Wednesday 8:10-10:10 or 10:30-12:30, Roger Bacon 306 |
Office hours: | Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 2-3:30, and by appointment |
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Texts
The primary text for the course is Programming in Java and Data Structures
(an online, interactive text from zyBooks) by Lysecky, Lizarraga, Vahid, and McGovern. The supplementary text for the course
is Java Structures: Data
Structures in Java for the Principled Programmer,
"Root 7" Edition (a free online textbook)
by Duane Bailey. This more traditional text has been made freely
available as a PDF by the author.
Other readings may also be assigned from freely available sources.
Course News
Submission Guidelines
Your submissions for lab and project assignments will include several types of
items. Different requirements apply to each, as described
below.
It is important that you adhere to file format and naming requirements
to facilitate grading. Submissions that do not meet these
requirements will not be accepted.
- Lab Questions
- The answers to all "lab questions" will normally be written on the lab handout you receive when you arrive in lab.
- Practice Programs
- Your submissions for practice programs are
graded primarily on correctness, but you will be required to include
your name at the top of the program, and you must use the file name
specified.
You will normally demonstrate practice programs and
submit them electronically, but no printout needs to be submitted.
You are of course encouraged to practice good documentation,
formatting, and style for these programs, but the grade will depend
only on correctness (and having your name in a properly-named file).
- Programming Assignments
- These are the most formal submissions
and will be graded on design, documentation, style, correctness, and
efficiency (where appropriate). A good design will use an
appropriate algorithm, data structures, and language constructs to
solve the problem. A well-documented program will include a comment
at the top of each file that includes your name, the assignment, and
a description of the contents of the file. There should also be
comments for each constructor or method definition (including a
brief description of the method's purpose, its parameters, and
return value), each variable or group of related variables, and any
section of code whose purpose and/or behavior is not obvious from
context or the code itself. Style requirements include appropriate
formatting (sufficient and consistent indentation, spacing, and
punctuation, wrapping long lines of code), good use of named
constants, and meaningful and appropriate names for variables,
methods, constants, and parameters. Correctness, of course,
requires the expected output be produced for a set of test inputs
(which will normally not be provided in advance). Efficiency will
be more important in some assignments than others, and requires that
the program does not do any unnecessary computation or use any more
memory than needed. And, of course, you must use the file name(s)
specified.
You will normally be required to demonstrate programming
assignments, submit your source code electronically, and submit a
printout of your program.
Related Information and Links