1. Intro to CIT 594

2. Prerequisites The formal prerequisite is CIT 591
CIT 591 was primarily a course in Java
If you did not take CIT
You must be a reasonably good Java programmer, including programming applications, applets, and Swing
You must be familiar with, or prepared to learn quickly:
JUnit testing
The Eclipse IDE
You are expected to have good Java programming style
Other programming languages can not be used as a substitute for Java

3. What the course is about
There are four main, interrelated topics in CIT594:
Recursion
Data structures
Algorithms
Analysis of algorithms
In addition, we will continue to explore good programming practices
Good programming style
Good habits, such as creating test cases
Use of tools, such as Eclipse and JUnit
It will also be necessary to cover more Java

4. Required textbook #1
Data Structures & Algorithms in Java, Second Edition, by Robert Lafore
This book has the clearest and most understandable explanations of algorithms that I have ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot of Data Structures textbooks!)
It does not, however, cover some of the essential math we will need

5. Recommended book #1
If you don’t have a book that describes the new features in Java 5 (especially generics), you should get one
Here’s my favorite:

6. Recommended book #2
The Elements of Java Style, by Alan Vermeulen (ed.)
This book describes the style that will be expected of you

7. Java in this course
This is a course in algorithms and data structures, not a second course in Java
But...
Java 5.0 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 use Eclipse 3.1M4 or newer (the current version is 3.1.1)
Eclipse 3.0 does not support Java 5.0

8. Java generics
C++ programmers: Java generics are similar to C++ templates
We will study generics in some detail, but for now, here’s all you need to know about generics:
Generics have little or no relevance to the data structure concepts we will be studying in this course
Generics completely change the way we code data structures

9. 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 don’t 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

10. Algorithms There are literally thousands of published 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
It’s usually better to find an existing algorithm than to re-invent it yourself
The Data Structures & Algorithms in Java textbook is an excellent textbook for beginning data structures and algorithms, but it completely ignores Java’s collections

11. Analysis of algorithms
Analysis of algorithms is a relatively small part of this course, but it’s 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

12. Assignments Except as otherwise noted, all assignments:
Are to be done solo (by yourself). As before,
You may discuss the assignments with other students
You may help (and get help with) debugging
You may not give your source code to anyone
Should be done in Eclipse
Should include complete JUnit tests, and
Should include complete javadoc documentation
Late assignments will lose 5 points per day, and may not be accepted if more than a week late

13. Grading We will have: Grades will be weighted as follows:
Approximately one assignment per week
One midterm
One final exam
Grades will be curved
We will use Blackboard to turn in assignments
Grades will be weighted as follows:
50% assignments
20% midterm
30% final exam
If you feel a grading error has been made, you have one week after grades have been posted to bring it to our attention

14. Office hours and (no) labs
I will be more available than last semester
I will post office hours; these are the times that I will try hard to be in my office and available
When my door is open, I’m probably available
Please try to keep visits short
The TA will also have office hours
We will not have extra help sessions or labs this semester
We will be doing all or almost all individual (solo) projects, but there may be some exceptions

15. The End