I210:
Information Infrastructure I (Intro to Programming) — Fall Semester 2009
(Sections 11795 & 4426)
Instructor:
Larry Yaeger
Class
Time: Mondays and Wednesdays,
2:30pm-3:45pm (11795) OR 4:00pm-5:15pm
(4426), plus lab on Thursday or Friday
Class
Location: Wylie 005 (11795) OR
Ballantine 244 (4426) (lab locations vary)
Associate Instructors: Matt Whitehead, Augusto Alves, Huijun Wang, Casey Addy,
Dazhi Jiao, Vidya Palaniswamy, Al Abi-Haidar
Class email list:
i210_09f_11795@oncourse.iu.edu
or i210_09f_4426@oncourse.iu.edu
Note:
Credit given for only one of INFO I210 or INFO H210 (Hutton Honors version).
WARNING: This class is difficult and time
consuming. Plan your schedule
accordingly. The only way to learn
programming is to do it, so you will be writing multiple programs each week as
lab assignments. Lab assignments
will be a large proportion of your grade, so they are absolutely required.
"Programming
is like making fine furniture with an axe and a nail file." – Larry
Yaeger
Contents
o Labs, Readings, and Assignments
á Lab Times, Locations, and Instructors (including email addresses)
o Grading
Policy for Labs and Tests
Prerequisites:
INFO I101 Introduction to Informatics, INFO I201 Mathematical Foundations
of Informatics.
Required textbook: Guide to Programming with Python,
by Michael Dawson. Do NOT install
Python or Pygame from the included CD-ROM.
Owning your own laptop computer will be a significant
benefit in this class, as you will be able to do homework, labs, and tests in
your own, familiar environment, configured to your liking, with all your old
code as well as that from the book to draw on for reference. If you don't have a laptop, then you
should invest in a modest-sized flash drive, so you can keep your assignments
on it as you move from lab machine to lab machine.
Windows users should install the latest 2.x
"standard" (aka "production") release of Python from http://www.python.org/download/. (Do not install a 3.x release, as
important syntax changes have taken place in the language that make it
incompatible with the textbook examples.)
Mac users running Leopard (10.5.x) or later already have
Python 2.5.1 installed, but you will need to install IDLE.app by following the
instructions at http://wiki.python.org/moin/MacPython/Leopard. For older versions of Mac OS X, go to http://www.python.org/download/ and
download and install a recent 2.x version of Python.
Most modern Linux releases probably already have Python and
IDLE. For those that do not have at least Python 2.5.1 installed, go to http://www.python.org/download/ and
download and install a recent 2.x version of Python.
You will probably also want to copy the source code for the
problems in the book to your computer (or flash drive).
After the Midterm Exam, everyone will need to install a
recent release of Pygame appropriate to your operating system from http://www.pygame.org/download.shtml. Then install the "LiveWires"
packages from the CD-ROM included with the book. (Do not
install LiveWires from the web, as the textbookÕs version is different and
required for the textbook assignments.)
The course will be taught in three classes each week, two lectures
and one lab.
The lectures will introduce new material each week. Lecture notes are online, and closely
follow the textbook.
Lab attendance is required. Attendance will be taken at the start of lab and a weekly
quiz on the current chapter's material will be given at the end of lab. These quizzes (plus attendance)
contribute 20% of your grade and can only be taken during the lab, so lab
attendance is mandatory and extremely important.
During the lab, student assistant instructors (AIs) will help
you tackle assigned problems that use the topics and methods learned that
week. In some cases you may be
able to finish the lab assignment during the lab, and this is recommended to
the extent possible. Regardless,
all lab assignments will be due by the start of the first lecture class
following the lab (see late policy).
- Labs,
Readings, and Assignments
Assignments are due by the start
of the first lecture class in the week following the lecture & lab in which
they are discussed. Assignments
are always taken from the projects at the end of the chapters, but may not
always be the same assignments, so be sure to consult the table below for your
assignments:
|
Week
|
Topics |
Reading |
Assignment |
Extra
Credit |
|
1 |
Python types, variables,
simple I/O; Useless Trivia game |
|||
|
2 |
Branching, while
loops, planning; Guess My Number game |
|||
|
3 |
for loops, strings,
tuples; Word Jumble game |
|||
|
4 |
Lists, dictionaries;
Hangman game |
|||
|
5 |
Functions; Tic-Tac-Toe
game |
|||
|
6 |
Files, exceptions;
Trivia Challenge game |
|||
|
7 |
Review in lecture & Midterm Exam in lab |
Review |
|
|
|
8 |
Object Oriented Programming
(OOP); Critter Caretaker game |
|||
|
9 |
Messages, combining
objects, inheritance |
|
||
|
10 |
Creating modules;
Blackjack game |
|
||
|
11 |
GUI development; Mad
Lib game |
|||
|
12 |
Graphics; Pizza Panic game |
|||
|
13 |
Review, no lab, no assignment
[Thanksgiving] |
Read ahead! |
|
|
|
14 |
Sound, animation,
development; Astrocrash game |
|||
|
15 |
Review in lecture & Final Exam in Lab |
Review |
|
On Windows machines in the STC
labs around campus, you may run Òpython26Ó or ÒIDLEÓ from the Start menu >
All Programs > Departmentally Sponsored > Informatics.
On Mac OS X machines in the STC
labs around campus, you may launch Terminal.app in the Applications/Utilities
folder and type ÒpythonÓ or run IDLE.app from the Developer Tools folder in the
Dock.
Everyone please download these
files for use in the Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 projects:
http://informatics.indiana.edu/larryy/i210/ProjectFiles.zip
Mac users require these files to
function, but Windows and Linux users please download and use them also, so
anyone grading your assignments with a Mac can make your code work.
Office Hours & Study Group*
|
Day |
Time |
Instructor |
Room |
|
Friday |
12:30pm – 02:30pm |
Vidya Palaniswamy |
Info East 001 |
|
Friday |
02:30pm – 04:30pm |
Augusto Alves |
Info East 001 |
|
Monday |
10:00am – 12:00pm |
Matt Whitehead |
Info East 001 |
|
Monday |
10:50am – 12:50pm |
Huijun Wang |
Info East 001 |
|
Monday |
12:00pm – 02:00pm |
Casey Addy |
Info East 001 |
|
Monday |
01:00pm – 03:00pm |
Al Abi-Haidar |
Info East 001 |
|
Tuesday |
02:00pm – 04:00pm |
Larry Yaeger |
Info East 305 |
|
Wednesday* |
06:30pm – 08:30pm |
Matt Whitehead |
Info West 109 |
"Info West" is Informatics West (910 E. 10th
St.) at the corner of 10th St. and Woodlawn.
"Info East" is Informatics East (919 E. 10th
St.) adjacent to Info West on 10th St.
Lab
Times, Locations, and Instructors
|
Section |
Time |
Day |
Bldg |
Room |
AI(s) |
|
11796 & 4430 |
11:00am – 12:55pm |
R |
I |
109 |
Matt Whitehead, Casey Addy |
|
11798 & 4427 |
06:50pm – 08:45pm |
R |
WY |
125 |
Huijun Wang, (rotating) |
|
11797 & 4428 |
10:10am – 12:05pm |
F |
GR |
102A |
Vidya Palaniswamy, (rotating) |
|
11799 & 4429 |
12:20pm – 02:15pm |
F |
GR |
102A |
Augusto Alves, Al Abi-Haidar |
|
Matt
Whitehead (mewhiteh) |
Augusto Alves (aalves iusb) |
Huijun Wang (huiwang) |
Casey Addy (caddy) |
Vidya Palaniswamy (vidypala) |
Al Abi-Haidar (aabihaid) |
Larry Yaeger (larryy) |
Jae Hong Shin (shin37) [grading only] |
- Midterm Exam
- See
class schedule above
- Final Exam
- See
class schedule above
I strongly recommend reviewing Final Exam policies and
schedule information on the official Registrar page:
http://registrar.indiana.edu/time_sensitive/finalexamsche4082.shtml
In particular, it is the student's responsibility to notify
the Dean of your school of any final exam conflicts, and to alert all affected
instructors before the halfway point in the semester if you are scheduled for
more than three final exams on the same day.
- Mid-term Exam: 20%.
- Cumulative
- Final Game/Exam: 20%.
- Cumulative
- Lab Assignments: 40%
- Graded programs at the end of each chapter in the book and discussed in labs
- Weekly In-Lab Quizzes: 20%
- Based on each weekÕs material.
Always
do your own work. Students caught
cheating will lose all credit for the relevant assignment or test and be
reported for campus disciplinary action.
(Besides, you won't learn anything if you don't do the work.) WARNING: We will be using automated tools to identify copied
code. Changing comments, spacing,
and even variable names will not protect cheaters. You have been warned.
Grades will be assigned based on
the point values in the following table:
Grade MinScore
A+ 98
A 93
A- 90
B+ 85
B 80
B- 75
C+ 70
C 65
C- 60
D+ 55
D 50
D- 45
F
0
Computer programming is profoundly empowering. With the ability to program computers,
even at a very basic level, comes the ability to make the most ubiquitous tool
in modern society perform the tasks you want it to. This course introduces basic computer programming concepts
and skills, with an aim to empowering you. If you are pursuing any of the science-Informatics
(Bioinformatics, Chemical Informatics, Complex Systems, Cybersecurity, etc.),
you will most definitely need and use these skills. If you are in the Design area, the concepts learned in this
class will help you create better tools and work more effectively with
professional programmers. In the
area of Social Informatics, data analysis and models are frequently computer
based these days. And many modern
companies employ programmers and IT specialists for all aspects of their
business, so even if you successfully enter a management track in business, you
will need to understand and manage the programming work done by employees and
contractors.
To make sure everyone acquires the basic skills, I will
assume no knowledge of computer programming whatsoever. If you have experience programming
already and must take this class, please talk to me and we will see about
making things a bit more interesting for you. I don't want anyone getting lost or bored.
This semester you will be learning the Python programming
language. Python is a very
intuitive and easy to use, yet very powerful language, that is highly regarded
in industry, and is in use at NASA, Google, Microsoft, and Disney.
During the semester you will write lots of little
programs. None of them will be
terribly difficult, but by the end of the course you should feel entirely
comfortable designing and writing a program to accomplish whatever you need to
accomplish. Almost all of the
programs you will be writing are games or relating to computer gaming! Learning should be fun, and hopefully
you will enjoy this semester (even though you have to work hard to succeed).
I'm excited about sharing my passion for computer
programming with you, having applied it to wildly varying applications, from computational
fluid dynamics to computer graphics for the film and television industries, to
developing a user interface for Koko the gorilla, to calculating "ejection
fraction" measures of the healthiness of the human heart for heart
surgeons, to creating handwriting recognition systems for the Newton and Mac OS
X, to evolving machine intelligence in an "artificial life"
computational ecology (my current research area). What you do with the skills will depend on your interests,
your educational choices, and your professional career choices, but they will
stand you in good stead regardless of what those might be.
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For more information, contact: |
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