CS 2204: Syllabus

Description

This course introduces students to the very basics of usage and administration of the UNIX operating system and related software packages such as LaTex. The course will emphasize end-user tools and commands for basic file manipulation, editing, compilation, and debugging, as well as special features of the UNIX shell environment. Students will learn through a combination of traditional lectures, hands-on laboratory sessions, and individual assignments.

Web page

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Class email listserv and forum

Each student enrolled in the course will be placed on an email listserv. The class email listserv will be limited to announcements posted by the instructor or teaching assistants. Students may also monitor and use the online forum for CS 2204 (via Blackboard. Will be set-up if enough people request it ) If you have a question or comment related to the class that is of general interest, feel free to post it on the forum. The TAs and instructor will also monitor the forum and respond to questions there. Forum posts must remain on-topic and appropriate. The instructor reserves the right to remove from the forum any student not using it appropriately. If you have a question, send an email to your GTA or UTA -- they will be able to handle most questions on their own or forward them to your instructor. Questions (and answers) of relevance to the entire class will be posted to the class listserv by the instructor or TAs, unless you instruct us explicitly not to do so.

Grades

Your grade will include the following components: lab work (40 %), home work (40 %), and the final exam (20 %).

Attendance at lectures is not mandatory and will not affect your grade directly. However, attending most of the lectures will certainly help many of you digest the material. Attendance at lab sessions affects your grade directly as you will be asked to turn in your lab work at the end of each session for grading. No late lab or home work will be accepted unless under clearly extenuating circumstances (such as illness).

Pre-requisites

Pre-requisites will be strictly enforced. No exceptions. Each student MUST fill out a pre-req form and turn it in either during the first class or during the following lab session.

Access to UNIX machines

Lab sessions will be held in the UNIX laboratory Torgersen Hall. Each of you should bring a personal machine for the 1-hour lab session each week. It is important that you attend the lab session in which you are enrolled. If you must attend a different lab session during a particular week, clear it with both your lab instructor and the instructor of the lab you want to attend. You are strongly encouraged to install Linux (such as UBUNTU or Fedora , but any other flavour will do for this class) on your own machine as well. You don't need to erase your Windows partition for it, just create a ``dual boot" machine. A ``GRADE BONUS" WILL BE GIVEN TO THOSE WHO INSTALL UNIX ON THEIR PCs. Having Linux installed on your personal machine will help you to complete assignments accurately in this course, and will also be useful for future CS courses. If you decide not to install Linux, you will still be able to access machines in the undergraduate UNIX lab by remote login 24 hours a day/7 days a week using a free ssh client such as PUTTY (for WINDOWS). You can transfer files back and force between a unix machine and your WINDOWS PC via WinSCP (free). However, this is the least convenient option. Many nice and important UNIX features won't work. As a better solution, you may install CYGWIN on your PC. This will give you a much better UNIX emulation. You can also try to download Virtual PC 2004 from software.cs.vt.edu. That way, you can install Linux in a virtual machine, which can simplify your life significantly. While not guaranteed, it is likely that VT undergraduates have access to software.cs.vt.edu, and it probably uses the same username/password system that the lab machines do. If you don't know about virtual machines, etc., and don't feel comfortable installing a second OS on your computer, it's definitely worth looking into. Mac OS-X users should not worry: they already have a UNIX machine, though with some quirks.

Honour code

All work in this course is to be your own. You may not copy code or use the structure or organization of another student's program. You may not use code obtained from the Internet or from students who have taken the class in previous semesters. IMPORTANT: you can not use any WINDOWS programs (such as MS WORD) to complete your assignements for this class. (an SSH client such as PUTTY or similar is an exception, you can use it to remote login into your UNIX account).