Intro to CIT 594

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Intro to CIT 594

• http//www.cis.upenn.edu/matuszek/cit594.html

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Prerequisites

• The formal prerequisite is CIT 591
• CIT 591 was primarily a course in Java
• You are expected to be a reasonably good Java
  programmer, including programming applications,
  applets, and the AWT
• You are expected to have good Java programming
  style, as well as knowledge of the language

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What the course is about

• There are three main, interrelated topics in
  CIT594
• Data structures
• Algorithms
• Analysis of algorithms
• In addition, we will continue to explore what it
  means to be a good programmer

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Main required textbook

• Java Collections An Introduction to Abstract
  Data Types, Data Structures and Algorithms, by
  David A. Watt, Deryck F. Brown, Dave Watt
• There is another textbook entitled Java
  Collections, by a different author (John
  Zukowski). Be sure to get the correct book!

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Secondary required textbook

• The Pragmatic Programmer From Journeyman to
  Master,by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas

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Recommended reading

• The next two books are not required for this
  course, so the campus bookstore probably wont
  have them
• If you want them, you will probably have to
  special order them
• The campus bookstore may have some copies of the
  style book left over from last semester

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Suggested reading I

• Essential Java 2 Fast, by John Cowell
• Not for beginners, but an extremely useful and
  concise reference
• This is my favorite Java book

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Suggested reading II

• The Elements of Java Style, by Alan Vermeulen
  (ed.)
• This book describes the style that will be
  expected of you
• The Java style book contains material you should
  know from CIT591 if you did not take CIT91, you
  need this book

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Java in this course

• This is a course in algorithms and data
  structures, not a second course in Java
• But...
• Java will be the primary programming language
• We will study Java Collections in detail, as they
  are extremely relevant to the course
• You will be expected to learn the Forté IDE

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Forté

• Forté is an IDE, similar to BlueJ but much more
  powerful (and more complex)
• If you already know a good IDE, such as Visual
  Age or JBuilder, you may use it after using Forté
  for the first couple of assignments
• It wont hurt you to learn another IDE
• I do not consider J to be a good IDE

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Lisp

• We begin by studying the Lisp programming
  language
• Why?
• Lisp is simply the best way to learn what linked
  lists (an important data structure) are all about
• Programming in Lisp is the best way to learn to
  write recursive programs (recursion is an
  important technique for working with data
  structures)

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Getting Lisp

• If you plan to run Lisp on your own computer, I
  recommend XLisp
• http//burks.brighton.ac.uk/burks/language/lisp/i
  ndex.htm
• Click on CLisp (its a version of XLisp)
• Download the file xlisp21h.zip
• Unzip into an empty directory to install

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Java Collections

• Java Collections implement many of the most
  important data structures for you
• A traditional data structures course would have
  you implement these yourself
• I dont believe in re-inventing the wheel
• However, you need to know how these data
  structures are implemented, for the times when
  you need something more than Java gives you
• The textbook is a good compromise between using
  what Java provides, and doing it yourself

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Algorithms

• There are thousands of algorithms
• We will cover
• a few algorithms that are related to the data
  structures we are studying
• a few more algorithms that your instructor
  especially likes
• Its generally better to find an existing
  algorithm than to re-invent it yourself

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Analysis of algorithms

• Analysis of algorithms is a relatively small part
  of this course, but its an important part
• Analysis can tell you how fast an algorithm will
  run, and how much space it will require
• A good algorithm, even if badly coded, can run
  circles around a poor algorithm that is carefully
  tuned and highly optimized

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Grading

• Like last semester, we will have
• Approximately one assignment per week
• A quiz every other week
• No final exam
• Grades will be curved
• We will use Blackboard, at least initially
• But the first assignment is to be turned in on
  paper
• Weighting will be 50 quizzes, 50 assignments

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Extra help

• Unfortunately, I cant spend as much time on
  individual help as I did last semester
• I will be less available outside scheduled office
  hours
• Please try to keep visits short during office
  hours
• You can make appointments for longer visits
• The TAs will also have office hours
• I will schedule a weekly help session in a
  classroom
• This will be strictly optional
• It will not cover new material

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The End