[cs631apue] Welcome to CS631, Fall 2016

[Jan Schaumann]

Hello,

Welcome to the Fall 2016 Semester edition of CS631 "Advanced Programming
in the UNIX Environment", or APUE.

This email contains a lot of information about this class - please read
it carefully.

Critical information about this class
-------------------------------------

This class does not have a "Canvas" or "Moodle" online component;
instead, it has a lovingly hand-crafted, artisanal, locally produced,
old-fashioned course website:
https://www.cs.stevens.edu/~jschauma/631/

This page has all the information about the class you should need.
Please do read it carefully -- you are expected to visit it regularly,
as lecture slides and homework assignments posted there are updated
throughout the semester.


Our primary method of communication outside of class will be email,
specifically: this mailing list.  You are expected to read -- actually
read! -- every email on this list.

If you have questions, please send them to this mailing list.  If you
see a question on the mailing list to which you think you know the
answer, please respond on the mailing list.  Being able to efficiently
communicating via email is a crucial skill -- you should practice it!
Often times just describing your problem to somebody else helps you find
the solution[1].

When composing an email or any other text, please make sure to use a spell
checker and to use proper English grammar.[2][3]

There is also a class Twitter account: https://twitter.com/cs631apue
I will occasionally post (hopefully) interesting or amusing links
relevant to the class.  You are not required to follow this account or
read anything posted there ("no, this will not be on the test"), but you
may still find it of interest.  Scroll through the older posts and
links, too.

Requirements for this class
---------------------------

As noted on the class website, this class is *not* an introduction to
using Unix.  All students are expected to be familiar with and comfortable
working exclusively in a Unix environment.  All course work and all
assignments are expected to be completed entirely and exclusively on
linux-lab.cs.stevens.edu.

You MUST have an account on linux-lab.cs.stevens.edu *before* the first
class.


First class
-----------

Our first class will be on 2016-08-29, even though I myself will not be
in class that day.  Our TA, Patrick Murray, will lead the introduction.

Please bring your laptop to every class.  There will regularly be
interactive work done on linux-lab.cs.stevens.edu during class.


Plagiarism, Cheating and other ways to get an F
-----------------------------------------------

Any and all work for the homework submissions must be done by you.  You
are always welcome to ask questions or to discuss solutions or different
approaches, to work together on common problems, but you may not submit
work not done by yourself.  You must not copy and paste solutions from
other students, from previous semesters, from the internet, from your
grandma, or from anywhere else and pretend that you did the work
yourself.[4]

If I notice any such behavior, you will receive an F for the assignment.
If I notice repeated instances, you will flunk the class immediately.

In addition, any incidents are reported to the Dean of Graduate Academics,
as per the Graduate Student Code of Academic Conduct. 

Do not cheat.  Do not submit code that you did not write yourself.


Doing well in this class
------------------------

Grading of programming assignments will be done not solely on
functionality, but, to a large degree, based on style, cleanliness,
quality of the code you write.  Functionality is necessary, but not
sufficient for a good grade.  Your code needs to show that you understood
the problem well, that you implemented robust error checking and accounted
for unexpected use cases.

You will get the most out of this class if you follow the examples from
each lecture well beyond the homework assignments, which primarily exist
because I have to give you a grade at the end of the semester.  What you
take away from this class and what you ultimately learn is entirely up to
you.


If you have managed to read (actually read!) this far: congratulations,
you're off to a good start.

-Jan

[1] http://blog.codinghorror.com/rubber-duck-problem-solving/
[2] https://www.netmeister.org/blog/the-art-of-plain-text.html
[3] http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1795
[4] https://www.netmeister.org/blog/plagiarism.html