Syllabus

The intellectual content of this course can be neatly divided into three main subject areas: Algorithmics, Abstraction, and Analysis (the triple-As):

• Algorithmics: tokens, simple types, literals, names/variables, objects, expressions, exceptions, and control structures.
• Abstraction: functions, compound types (strings, lists, sets, maps, ... classes), methods, modules.
• Analysis: equivalence, pragmatics, aesthetics (style), correctness (testing/debugging), efficiency (big-O notation), and numerical accuracy.

The main programming methodology that we will learn and employ is iterative-enhancement, which decomposes a large project into a series of mini-projects (each is called a phase). Starting from a kernel, and writing a program for each of these phases in sequence, results in a solution to the original project. Each phase requires repeatedly specifying, designing, coding, documenting, testing, debugging, and evaluating a testable program (or new or enhanced function to use in the program) that is a small extension of the capabilities of the program (or function) produced in the previous phase.

Here is a quick overview of the the three programming class in UCI's three quarter Introduction to Programming sequence. All are taught in Python, and the combined time-on-task studying and programming with this language should make students proficient in using it.

1. ICS-31: Introduction to Programming. This course introduces the basics of the Python programming language and how to develop programs in an Integrated Development Environment using Python.
2. ICS-32: Programming With Software Libraries. This course increases students' abilities to write more complicated programs; it focuses on students learning how to read, understand, and employ modules from Python's library.
3. ICS-33: Intermediate Programming. This course examines Python more carefully, giving students a more unified look at the language and discussing some of its powerful features that make sophisticated programming easier. It also covers some programming related Computer Science topics.

Although we will mostly study programming-in-the-small, we will concentrate on the technical and lingual issues of building large, reliable programmed systems that are constructed from standard components. Expect to cover most relevant Python language features thoroughly, but also to spend much time discussing the less concrete -but ultimately more general and important- aspects of programming. Programming style is a particularly important topic: to understand programming, we really need to develop appropriate aesthetics that allow us to separate "elegant" programs from "hacks". As in any writing activity, we must also learn to be self-critical of our own creations, so that we can continually improve them; this skill is difficult to acquire, and its importance extends well beyond the domain of programming.

Finally, to become an expert in any discipline, we must master its terminology. Fluency with technical terms allows us to communicate -and even to think- more accurately and concisely. Therefore, the materials in this course will define, illustrate, and repeatedly use many important technical terms concerning programming. Take the time required to master them. An old Chinese proverb says, "The first step towards wisdom is calling things by their right names."

I have listed as optional the textbook, Horstmann and Necaise, Python for Everyone, Wiley, 2013.

Recently ICS-31 and ICS-32 classes taught by other instructors have used the following book: Perkovic, Introduction to Computing Using Python: An Application Development Focus, Wiley, 2011. Copies should be available at the bookstore or online at Amazon,

I have used the following books in the more advanced Python classes I have taught. They are difficult reading for a beginner, but the more you learn about Python the easier it is to read these books.

1. Lutz, Learning Python (Fourth Edition), O'Reilly, 2011. Copies should be available at the bookstore or online at Amazon,
2. Lutz, Programming Python, O'Reilly, 2009. Copies should be available at the bookstore or online at Amazon,

Finally, there are many Python resources on the internet. One goal of this class is to get you closer towards being able to find and use relevant online information based on questions you have about Python.

• PCs running the Windows (7 or similar) Operating System (OS).
• Macintosh PCs running the OS X operating system
• Either PC running Linux.

We expect that ICS-31 students will use their own computers to complete their programming assignments (sometimes working in groups of two: pair programming). All the software used in ICS-31 is available, for free, on the web.

The programming environment that we will use is Eclipse: it is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), including a project manager, editor, interpreter, and debugger. We will write all our programs in the Python programming language. To run Eclipse with Python, you must first install Java (to run Eclipse) and Python, and then Eclipse itself. This software, and others useful for the course, are available through the Course Software link (see the heading Main Software, near the top). You should try to follow these instructions, and download and install this software yourself; if you are having difficulty, please bring your computer to lab and ask our staff to help you with the installation.

Typically it takes only a few days before everyone has correctly downloaded and installed the necessary software, and has started to learn how to use it properly. Using this software is integral to every programming assignment during the quarter, so it is best to be aggressive and download, install, and start mastering this software quickly.

While most students will do their coursework in labs on their own machines, the ICS Labs also provide machines with the correct software loaded. You should follow these Activation Instructions for your ICS Lab Account early in the quarter. Whether or not you plan on doing your homework in a lab, you must activate your ICS account and know how to use it for in-lab programming exams.

During in-lab programming exams, you must write your programs on the PCs in our labs, so you should learn to use these machines, even if you use your own machine for all other coursework. Once you start Eclipse, what computer you are on makes little difference: PCs, Macs, and Linux systems operate similarly.

Although the machines in the ICS labs also provide some external storage space (the H drive on a Unix system), it is an excellent idea to backup your work either electronically or using USB memory, whether you are using your own computer or the computers in our lab.

Finally, the ICS 364 lab is a general purpose lab in which no courses are scheduled. It is open to students on weekdays and weekends: MTuWThT 8:00am - 10:00pm, F 8:00am - 8:00pm, and SaSu 12:00noon - 6:00pm. Here is the most up to date Lab Schedule for all these labs.

I will be glad to talk with you about any of the ICS-31/-32/-33 courses, Computer Science, UCI, or whatever else you want to discuss. Although UCI is a large school, ICS is a smaller school within it, and ICS promotes opportunities for close faculty-student interaction, especially with instructors who are lecturers. Unfortunately, in my opinion, not enough students take advantage of this opportunity at UCI.

I especially encourage students who are having problems in the course to visit me immediately; I know that this is asking a lot, but the payoff for recognizing the situation and acting on it immediately is tremendous. The primary reason that students fail to thrive in programming courses is that they fall behind in their work -often because of what is initially a small misunderstanding; but, because of the cumulative nature of this course, even a small misunderstanding can quickly grow into a big one. Often, I can quickly diagnose and rectify such a problem one-on-one. Getting help fast can critically affect your overall performance in this course: many times I've seen students start performing one grade level higher after coming in to get help during my office hours.

Unfortunately, I teach ~400 students during a typical quarter, so my time is a bit limited. But please come visit if you need help so we can try to work things out. Of course, you can also talk to your TA and Lab Tutors during your labs, where resources and time are not so tight.

If you are not already a member of AIM (or a similar service that can message AIM users) Sign Up for this service (it is free). Using this system, you will be able to Instant Message me, as well as use an audio (voice) connection if you have a headset with a microphone. You can IM me with questions; you can also cut/paste code snippets into your message. Please be aware that I may be having multiple conversations, and therefore react more slowly than you might expect.

Another effective [debugging] technique is to explain your code to someone else. This will often cause you to explain the bug to yourself. Sometimes it takes no more than a few sentences, followed by an embarrassed "Never mind, I see what's wrong. Sorry to bother you." This works remarkably well; you can even use non-programmers as listeners. One university computer center kept a teddy bear near the help desk. Students with mysterious bugs were required to explain them to the bear before they could speak to a human counselor. - B. Kernighan & D. Pike (in "The Practice of Programming" pp. 123)

Talking about programming is important. One of the reasons that we program in pairs is to always have someone who you can to talk to about your code; unlike the teddy bear, someone who has an interest in getting your code to work, and who might supply relevant feedback.

I try to answer email every few hours during the day. I normally will not answer email sent after about 10:00pm until early the next morning (but I'll typically answer it by the next morning). If you have problems late at night that you cannot resolve, please send me email (or post on the relevant forum) summarizing your problems, and then go to work on something else (or if it is really late, go to sleep). By planning to finish assignments early, you can protect yourself against a big problem that arises at night and cannot be fixed until the next day: you really don't want to have to fix such a problem the night that an assignment is due.

For most problems -ones that are of general interest to the class- I would prefer that you ask the question using a MessageBoard forum (see below). In this way, everyone in the class can see the question and its answer (which I might provide, or a a TA/Lab Tutor, or another student). One of the few advantages of a big class is having lots of student activity on such forums, leading to peer-instruction.

Finally, the Electronic Educational Environment (EEE) at UCI creates and maintains course-wide mailing lists. I have created a "merged" mailing list for all my ICS-31 students (which also includes those students signed up for CSE 41, both in the Sammueli School of Engineering and the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science). All members of our course (staff and students) can use this mailing list, whose email address is ics31-S14@classes.uci.edu All messages sent via this discussion list are archived: click here or see the Email Archive link on the course website. Mostly student-initiated questions/discussions should use the forums mentioned below, but sometimes students can use this email list to inform the instructor, staff, and other students about some timely issue: e.g., the Checkmate Homework Dropoff system not responding to program submissions.

If you have a question of general interest (of interest to many students in the course, not just you), then you should post the question on one of the Forums on the EEE MessageBoard. These forums allow students to ask questions (or start discussions) easily, as well as supply answers (or participate in the discsussion further). For example, if a lecture note, programming assignment, etc. contains unclear (or even contradictory) information, post a note about it to the appropriate forum, asking for a clarification. I, or someone from my staff will read and reply to whatever questions are asked. In fact, if you read a question on a forum, and know the answer -or generally have something to contribute to the topic- I encourage you to to post a reply to help resolve the problem even sooner. Thus, you can use the forums to discuss any course materials out-of-class.

Again, forums are appropriate for questions relevant to most students in the course; directly email me (see above) for questions of a more individualistic nature. Obviously students should not use these forums to solicit nor post answers to take-home quizzes, programming assignments, or anything else that would be interpreted as academic misconduct (which is discussed in greater detail below). But general informational questions and answers are fine. I often find that students send me individual email when they should be posting on a forum; think before you decide which to do.

It is an excellent idea to check these forums frequently, to keep up to date on any coursewide discussions.

While in lab, the TAs and Tutors will help you diagnose any computer/programming problems that you have and guide you toward a solution. They will help you learn how to program by answering your questions; but, do not expect them to write your programs for you. You should approach them with a well thought-out question, and expect to answer questions from them about your state of understanding the issues surrounding the question. Sometimes when you come to the staff with a specific question, they will show you how to solve a more general problem. Be patient; the staff are just trying to teach you how to recognize and solve these problems by yourself.

Because these problems are not graded, feel free to discuss them, but don't give away the answers for those still working on them: working on exercises like these builds your programming muscles. Students will be required to solve similar problems on (almost) weekly take-home quizzes, on which collaboration is NOT allowed. Don't cheat yourself in this aspect of the course.

The quizzes are open-book: you will be able to use any class materials, or any other materials from the web, to answer its questions. But, you may not communicate with anyone about these quizzes nor their solutions; nor should you search for/look at solutions to these specific problems on the web. The quizzes are also open-computer: by that I mean that you may use a computer to check your work.

Academic Integrity

The following information is my own restatement of this policy, as it applies in my courses. You will also be asked to read and sign a handout to acknowledge that you understand the Academic Integrity Contract that applies for this course.

• Plagiarism will be suspected if an assignment that calls for independent development and implementation of a program results in two or more solutions so similar that one solution can be converted to the other(s) by a series of simple transformations.
• Plagiarism will be suspected if a student who completed an assignment cannot explain both the intricacies of the solution and the techniques used to generate that solution.

Here are some examples that are clearly cheating and clearly not cheating.

Examples of CHEATING:

• Turning in someone else's work, in whole or in part, as your own (with or without his/her knowledge), without it including a statement of collaboration in the solution.
• Allowing another student to turn in your work, in whole or in part, as his/her own, without it including a statement of collaboration in the solution.
• Turning in a completely duplicated assignment. Even if all the comments are changed, all the variables names are changed, all the whitespace is changed, and the code appears in a different order: it is still the same program.
• Several students/pairs writing one assignment and turning in multiple copies, all represented (implicitly or explicitly) as an individual student's/pair's work, without it including a statement of collaboration in the solution.
• After receiving graded written work, returning written work, for regrading, which has been altered.
• Finding a solution to the same problem on the web and submitting it without explicit attribution in the solution.
• Stealing an examination or solution from the instructor.

If you ever feel that after talking to someone about a program, which is legal, your solution will be very similar to theirs, cite the consultation in the header comment in your program. Doing so protects you from University disciplinary action (although the instructor is free to grade the material as he/she sees fit).

Examples of NOT CHEATING:

• Turning in work done alone or with the help of the course's staff.
• Submitting one assignment for a group of students if group work is explicitly permitted (or required, as in pair-programming).
• Getting or giving help about using the computers.
• Getting or giving help about solving syntax errors.
• High level discussions of course material to better understand them.
• Discussing assignments to better understand them.

Many courses in ICS use this software to spot potential cheating cases. Once it identifies suspicious behavior, instructors carefully examine the flagged code to make a final determination as to whether students will be prosecuted for cheating. Often instructors can find additional evidence of cheating, once this software points them to the simlar code.

Instructors must contact the student shortly after investigating evidence of academic dishonesty and evaluating the relevant work. Notice of any action taken by an instructor will also be forwarded to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs (ADSA) in ICS, the ADSA of the student's home school (if different). These offices act as a repository for such information, in case the student commits multiple infractions. While the first infraction often results in just a grading penalty, a second infraction often results in suspension for one or more quarters.

Although it is embarrassing to fail an assignment, getting caught cheating is much worse (and some students get caught cheating for very few points). I know, though, that students rarely think about getting caught. But think about it: I often see students break down and cry when they get caught cheating and only then start to realize the consequences of their actions. Their stress level goes through the roof and it immediately affects both the academic and social aspects of their lives. The process is distressing for me too, although I must confess that I have been hardened by the number of times that I have had to go through it (typically multiple times each quarter). Pursuing these cases at the University level takes a lot of my time, and reduces the time that I can spend on more important matters relating to my course and my students. It is definitely a lose-lose situation.

The #1 excuse that I hear for cheating is, "I was pressed for time, so I cheated." By carefully managing your time, you can avoid this problem. If you start working early enough, and run into problems (and you should expect to run into problems), you will have time for the course staff to help you learn to solve them. Also, I understand that some students take this course only because it is a requirement for their major, and that they have little intrinsic interest in the subject area; this is not a valid excuse for cheating either.

I have seen too many instances recently where student A asks a friend, student B, for help; specifically, A asks to see B's quiz or code (on paper or in a computer file). Often, A copies B's code (with or without B's knowledge). I understand that B feels pressure to give A help. But, B is doing A no favor if A's cheating is discovered; B has made a bad situation (A would receive no credit) worse (A receives negative credit and is reported to the Dean of Student Affairs). And, according to UCI's rules, B is violating the Academic Integrity policy by these actions too. I have seen friendships shattered because A copies B's code without telling B what was done, and then both get prosecuted under UCI's rules.

A similar situation arises with cheating on quiz questions. I have seen too many students cheat on one question on a quiz and receive a negative score for the whole quiz (and letter to the Dean of Student Student Affairs), when leaving the question blank would result in a small point deduction and no university action.

In my final statement here, I ask you to pause and reflect on the consequences of choosing to cheat at UCI: this includes the impacts that it will have on you, your parents, your siblings, your friends, and your fellow classmates at UCI. Cheating is invariably the wrong decision.

If you need such an exception, bring a copy of the required documentation to me as soon as possible: beforehand if you know about the problem in advance, on the next day that you are able to attend class at the last minute (or during my office hours) if you do not have advance warning. I will need to keep the copy for my records. Again, if you have advance notice of a problem, please notify me by email beforehand to discuss any ramifications.