This course introduces:
After completing this course, you should be able to:
In session 2 only, COMP1721 (Higher Computing 1B) is offered. It contains the same core material. It covers some topics in more depth and provides assignments and lab exercises designed to suit more able students.
COMP1021 and COMP1721 will be assessed to the same standard. They will share some final exam questions. It will be equally difficult to get a given mark in either course.
| Name | Room | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecturer | Andrew Taylor | K17 401G | 9385-5525 |
| Lecturer | Maurice Pagnucco | K17 401G | 9385-5525 |
| Subject Admin | Elena Mankovskaia | K17 205-02 | 9385-6665 |
COMP1721 shares 3 lectures/week with COMP1021. The lecturer for most of these will be Maurice Pagnucco. A 4th lecture/week will be for COMP1721 students only. It will be (mostly) given by Andrew Taylor. Slides from all lectures will be placed on the web. If you do not attend a lecture, it is your responsibility to discover any announcements or other information given. We will attempt to also make important announcements on the web and/or in e-mail to your CSE account.
The purpose of lectures is to introduce you to the concepts covered by this course, show where they fit in the overall scheme of things, provide motivating examples to help you understand them, and demonstrate the skills and processes that you should be acquiring during this course. Note that lectures, due to time constraints, can only cover the material at a relatively superficial level. You cannot hope to completely understand the material simply by listening in lectures; you should also:
| Day | Time | Room | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 11:00-12:00 | EE LG03 | with COMP1021 |
| Thursday | 13:00-14:00 | Mathews A | with COMP1021 |
| Friday | 12:00-13:00 | EE LG03 | with COMP1021 |
| Friday | 13:00-14:00 | EE LG03 | separate |
Tutorials give you a chance to clarify ideas mentioned in lectures and to practice your problem-solving skills in a small (and hopefully more personal) class with the assistance of a tutor. You should make sure that you use them effectively by examining in advance the material to be covered in each week's tute, by asking questions, by offering suggestions and by generally participating. The tutorial questions will be posted on the Web in the week before each tute.
Generally, each there will be extra questions supplied which are not covered during the tutorial. You may use these for practice or revision.
Lab classes start in week 2 and are held in the Undercroft Labs, immediately following your tutorial.
Each week there will be a standard and sometimes an optional lab exercise. 10% of your final mark will be based on the number of lab exercises you complete. You must complete at least 10 lab exercises to obtain full marks for the lab component.
To obtain a mark for a lab exercise you must both demonstrate the completed lab exercise to your tutor during a lab class and submit it using give.
If you don't complete a lab exercise during the scheduled class, you can still obtain the mark if you both submit the completed exercises before midnight Sunday and you demonstrate it to you tutor in the follow week's lab.
Don't fall behind in your Lab work.
To make sure that you can complete the work in the Class, you should make an effort to prepare the work beforehand. You can make use of the Undercroft outside Lab times simply by booking a time-slot. You have sufficient bookable Lab time available each week to allow you to prepare lab exercises; make use of it.
If you have a quick question outside consultation times, you can contact
the lecturer by e-mail (andrewt@cse.unsw.edu.au).
From time to time, various problems may arise in your study of this course.
Below is a list of typical problems, with suggestions for where you might seek
help with them:
Assignments give you the chance to practice programming on relatively
large problems (compared to the small exercises in Lab Classes).
The aim is for you to practice all stages of the programming process:
start by understanding the specification,
design a method to solve the problem,
refine this design,
implement the design as a complete program,
and test that the program meets the specification.
Assignments are a very important part of this course;
make sure that you attempt them yourself.
There will be two programming assignments:
Assignments are to be completed in your own time.
You must submit your assignments for marking via the give command
in the Undercroft.
To maximise the learning benefits from doing assignments,
it is essential that you start work on assignments early.
Do not leave your assignments until the last minute.
If you to submit an assignment late,
the maximum available mark is reduced by 10% per day.
All work submitted for assessment must be your own work.
Lab exercises and assignments must be completed individually.
We regard copying of
assignments or lab exercises, in whole or part, as a very serious offence.
We use plagiarism detection software to search for
multiply-submitted work.
The assessable components of the course are:
In cases where students have a low exam marks and high assignment or lab marks the
contribution of the assignment and lab marks may be reduced.
Students with a mark less than 15/40 for the practical component
(assignments and lab exercises) will not be allowed to attempt the final exams.
The lecturer may scale the marks from individual assessment components
or the overall mark to produce a desired mark distribution.
The scaling may increase or decrease marks.
The final written examination in this course will be held during the
November examination period;
it will examine all material covered in the course.
It will be 2 hours long.
The final practical exam will be conducted on-line in CSE computing labs.
It will also be held in the November examination period.
It will be 2 hours long. A sample exam will be made available late in session.
Supplementary examinations will be held in December.
If you think that you may be eligible for a Supp, make sure you
are available around that time.
It is your responsibility to check at the School Office
for details of Supplementary examinations.
Its purchase is not essential. Higher Computing 1B lectures will not follow this book closely.
It is a book that will remain useful after you graduate.
If you intend purchasing other books on C be careful. There are (literally) hundreds of
bad books on C available.
Getting Help
Problem Where to get help
Help with problems unrelated to this course CSE Help Page
Can't understand lecture material Stuck with assignments, lab work Want to change lab-tute class Andrew Taylor
Problems with lab workstations Help Desk (EE343C)
Problems with your account Help Desk (EE343C)
Problem with Dial-Up access from home DIS-Connect Helpdesk (9385 1777)
Assignments
Both assignments will involve programming in C.
Assignment specifications will always be made available
at least four weeks before the assignment is due,
and may require several submissions before the final
deadline.
Plagiarism
Assessment Summary
Note that there is a hurdle requirement on the final exams:
you cannot pass this course, unless you get a pass mark on the written exam and
a pass mark on the practical exam.
Exams
Textbook
The recommended reference for Higher Computing 1B is
The C Programming Language, Second Edition
by Brian W. Kernighan
and Dennis M. Ritchie.
Prentice Hall, Inc., 1988.
ISBN 0-13-110362-8