This is an abbreviated course syllabus.
Like everything else in this course, it is likely to change.
| |
Date |
Topic |
Reading |
Lab |
Assignments |
| Week 1: Getting Started |
| 01 | Thursday, 30 August 2007 | An Introduction to Algorithms
Introduction: What is CS?
Exercise: Drawing smileys.
| | Drawing Smiley Faces | |
| 02 | Friday, 31 August 2007 | An Introduction to CSC151
Lessons from day one.
Common parts of an algorithm.
About the course.
Some administrative details.
Getting started with Linux.
| Grinnell's Linux Environment | Getting Started with Linux | Assignment 1: Class Basics |
| 03 | Monday, 3 September 2007 | An Introduction to Scheme
Why use programming languages?
Scheme basics.
Scheme history.
| The DrFu Program-Development Environment & Beginning Scheme | The DrFu Program-Development Environment | |
| 04 | Tuesday, 4 September 2007 | Raster Graphics
Representing images, revisited.
Pixels and colors: The basics.
The graphics coordinate system.
| Raster Graphics: Images from Pixels and Colors | Raster Graphics | Assignment 2: Drawing Smileys, Revisited |
| 05 | Thursday, 6 September 2007 | RGB Colors
Problem: representing colors.
The RGB representation.
Complementary colors.
| RGB Colors | RGB Colors | |
| 06 | Friday, 7 September 2007 | Transforming Colors
Computing new colors from old.
Some basic transformations.
Transforming pixels and images.
Composing transformations.
| Transforming RGB Colors | Transforming RGB Colors | Assignment 3: Algorithmic Image Summaries |
| Week 2: Writing Functions |
| 07 | Monday, 10 September 2007 | A Design Perspective
Approaching colors.
Managing the huge palette.
Other design issues.
| None | None | |
| 08 | Tuesday, 11 September 2007 | Transforming Images
Review: Transforming colors.
Expanding transformations with map.
Sequencing transformations with compose.
| Transforming Images | Transforming Images | Assignment 4: Blending |
| 09 | Thursday, 13 September 2007 | Writing Your Own Color Transformations
What is a procedure?
Describing procedures.
Syntax: Writing procedures.
| Anonymous Procedures | Writing and Using Anonymous Color Transformations | |
| 10 | Friday, 14 September 2007 | Computing with Numbers
Types.
Kinds of Numbers.
Key Numeric Operations.
| Numeric Values | Writing More Complex Color Transformations | Assignment 5: Colors in Context |
| Week 3: Control |
| 11 | Monday, 17 September 2007 | Iterating Over Positions
Iteration, a key aspect of algorithm design.
Iterating over positions.
Blends and other positionally-computed images.
Simulating image.map!.
| Building Images by Iterating Over Positions | Building Images by Iterating Over Positions | |
| 12 | Tuesday, 18 September 2007 | Boolean Values and Predicate Procedures
Boolean values.
Predicates - Procedures that return Boolean values.
Combining booleans with and and or.
| Boolean Values and Predicate Procedures | Boolean Values and Predicate Procedures | Assignment 6: Creating Filters |
| 13 | Thursday, 20 September 2007 | Conditionals
Choosing between two options with if.
Making multiple choices with cond.
| Conditionals | Conditionals | |
| 14 | Friday, 21 September 2007 | Conditionals, Revisited
Drawing with conditionals.
Debriefing: if vs. cond.
| | Conditionals | Assignment 7: Overlapping Bordered Gradients |
| Week 4: Lists and Recursion |
| 15 | Monday, 24 September 2007 | Representing Images as Lists of Spots
Spot lists: Another perspective on images.
Lists in Scheme.
Basic list operations.
Processing spot lists.
| Representing Images as Lists of Spots | Representing Images as Lists of Spots | |
| 16 | Tuesday, 25 September 2007 | Iterating Over Lists
Building new lists from old with map.
Doing something with each value in a list with foreach!.
Drawing lists of pixels.
| Iterating Over Lists | | |
| 17 | Thursday, 27 September 2007 | List Iteration Lab
Iterating lists of spots.
| Iterating Over Lists | Iterating Over Lists | |
| 18 | Friday, 28 September 2007 | Recursion Basics
The idea of recursion.
A sample recursive procedure: sum.
Another exmaple: Filtering.
| Recursion Basics | Recursion Basics | Exam 1: Scheme Basics |
| Week 5: Recursion, Revisited |
| 19 | Monday, 1 October 2007 | Tail Recursion
The key idea of recursion.
A new technique: Passing along intermediate results.
Special case: Tail recursion.
| Tail Recursion | Tail Recursion | |
| 20 | Tuesday, 2 October 2007 | Recursion, Revisited
Q&A.
Optional topics: Scheme's Evaluation Strategy; Another Example.
| Recursion, Revisited | Recursion, Revisited | Assignment 8: Building Lists of Spots |
| 21 | Thursday, 4 October 2007 | Recursion, Revisited, Revisited
More practice with recursion.
| Recursion, Revisited | Recursion, Revisited | |
| 22 | Friday, 5 October 2007 | Pause for Breath (1): An Overview of Scheme
| | | Assignment 9: Recursion |
| Week 6: Miscellaneous |
| 23 | Monday, 8 October 2007 | Pause for Breath (2): A Review of Procedures
What is a procedure?
Describing procedures in Scheme.
Naming procedures in Scheme.
How Scheme evaluates procedures.
| | | |
| 24 | Tuesday, 9 October 2007 | Pause for Breath (3): A Review of Recursion
Basic concepts of recursion.
Patterns of recursion.
Selected examples.
| | | |
| 25 | Thursday, 11 October 2007 | Documenting Programs and Procedures
The need for documentation.
The Six P's - a strategy for documenting procedures.
Practice.
| Documenting Your Procedures | | |
| 26 | Friday, 12 October 2007 | Preconditions and Postconditions
Verifying preconditions.
Husk and Kernel programming.
| Verifying Preconditions | Verifying Preconditions | Assignment 10: Documentation |
| Week 7: Miscellaneous |
| 27 | Monday, 15 October 2007 | Testing Your Procedures
Why test?
Strategies for testing.
The primary testing operations.
| Testing Your Procedures | Testing Your Procedures | |
| 28 | Tuesday, 16 October 2007 | Analyzing Procedures
Comparing algorithms.
Two related metrics: Time and Number of steps.
Counting procedure calls by printing.
Tools for analysis.
| Analyzing Procedures | Analyzing Procedures | |
| 29 | Thursday, 18 October 2007 | Numeric Recursion
Recursion, Generalized.
Thinking About Natural Numbers.
Numeric Recursion.
| Numeric Recursion | Numeric Recursion | |
| 30 | Friday, 19 October 2007 | Tools for Programming the Gimp
Another model of images.
Drawing through selection.
Other useful techniques.
| GIMP Tools | Lab: GIMP Tools | Assignment 11: Testing |
| Fall Break! |
| Week 8: Miscellaneous |
| 31 | Monday, 29 October 2007 | Randomized (Unpredictable) Drawings
Why use randomness.
The random procedure.
Random art.
| Randomized Drawing | Randomized Drawing | |
| 32 | Tuesday, 30 October 2007 | Geometric Art Through Numeric Recursion
Parallel lines, Concentric Circles, and Beyond.
| Geometric Art | Geometric Art | |
| 33 | Thursday, 1 November 2007 | Naming Local Values
Why name things.
Naming things with let.
Naming things with let*.
Naming procedures.
Lab.
| Local Bindings | Local Bindings | |
| 34 | Friday, 2 November 2007 | Husk and Kernel, Revisited
Husk and Kernel Programming, Revisited.
An example.
Preventing clients from calling the kernel.
| | | Assignment 12: Spirograph-Like Drawings |
| Week 9: Files |
| 35 | Monday, 5 November 2007 | Naming Local Procedures
Why have local procedures.
Creating local procedures.
| Local Procedure Bindings | Local Procedure Bindings | |
| 36 | Tuesday, 6 November 2007 | Characters and Strings
Representing text.
Characters: The basic building blocks.
Combining characters into strings.
| Characters and Strings | Characters and Strings | |
| 37 | Thursday, 8 November 2007 | File Basics
Data persistence.
Basic file operations.
| Files | Files | |
| 38 | Friday, 9 November 2007 | Storing Images as Simple Pixel Maps
Storing images.
Storing colors.
Storing images, revisited.
| Pixel Maps: A Technique for Storing Images | Pixel Maps | Exam 2: Recursion and Beyond |
| Week 10: Other Data Structures |
| 39 | Monday, 12 November 2007 | Pixel Maps, Revisited
Storing data.
Tradeoffs.
| Pixmaps, Revisited: Encoding Data More Efficiently | Pixmaps, Revisited | |
| 40 | Tuesday, 13 November 2007 | Color Palettes
Saving space with palettes.
Choosing palette colors.
Using different palettes.
| Color Palettes | Color Palettes | Assignment 13: Saving Shape-Based Drawings in Files |
| 41 | Thursday, 15 November 2007 | Representing Color Palettes with Vectors
Problems with lists.
A solution: Vectors.
Important vector procedures.
| Vectors | Vectors | |
| 42 | Friday, 16 November 2007 | Pairs and Pair Structures
Memory and naming.
Pairs and cons cells.
Why care?
| Pairs and Pair Structures | Pairs and Pair Structures | Assignment 14: A Procedure Is Worth A Thousand Pictures |
| Week 11: Algorithms |
| 43 | Monday, 19 November 2007 | Deep Recursion, Revisited
Lists, revisited.
Fractals, reviewed.
Trees, introduced.
Deep recursion, considered.
| Deep Recursion | Deep Recursion | |
| 44 | Tuesday, 20 November 2007 | Association Lists and Searching
Storing information in tables.
Representing table entries as lists.
Representing tables as lists.
Association list: Scheme's standard table representation.
Implementing key alist procedures.
| Association Lists | Association Lists | Assignment 15: Fractals, More or Less |
| Thanksgiving Break! |
| Week 12: Algorithms and Data Structues |
| 45 | Monday, 26 November 2007 | Higher Order Procedures
Procedures as parameters.
Procedures as return values.
Writing map.
Writing all?.
| Higher-Order Procedures | Higher-Order Procedures | |
| 46 | Tuesday, 27 November 2007 | Binary Search
Analyzing algorithmic efficiency.
Making searching more efficient.
Balanced trees.
| Searching | Binary Search | |
| 47 | Thursday, 29 November 2007 | Introduction to Sorting
The problem of sorting.
Writing sorting algorithms.
Examples: Insertion, selection, etc.
Formalizing the problem.
| | | |
| 48 | Friday, 30 November 2007 | Insertion Sort
Expressing sorting algorithms in code.
Key technique: Insertion.
Analyzing insertion sort.
| Sorting | Insertion Sort | Project |
| Week 13: Project |
| 49 | Monday, 3 December 2007 | Merge Sort
More efficient sorting techniques.
Divide and conquer, revisited.
Merge sort.
Analyzing merge sort.
| Merge Sort | Merge Sort | |
| 50 | Tuesday, 4 December 2007 | Project Assessment (1)
External assessment of images.
| | | |
| 51 | Thursday, 6 December 2007 | Project Assessment (2)
Students discuss programming techniques.
| | | |
| 52 | Friday, 7 December 2007 | Project Assessment (3)
Other explorations of the project.
Thoughts on the project?
| | | Exam 3: Types and Algorithms |
| Week 14: Wrapup |
| 53 | Monday, 10 December 2007 | Restricted-Access Collections: Stacks, Queues, and Priority Queues
Keeping track of computing tasks.
Restricted-access collections: A general structure.
Stacks: FIFO collections.
Queues: LIFO collections.
Priority queues: Prioritized collections.
| Keeping Track of Tasks with Restricted Access Collections | Stacks, Queues, and Priority Queues | |
| 54 | Tuesday, 11 December 2007 | What is Computer Science
What is CS?
Subfields of CS.
Related Disciplines.
| | | |
| 55 | Thursday, 13 December 2007 | Wrapup
The subject matter of the course.
Course evaluation.
Final thoughts.
| | | |
| 56 | Friday, 14 December 2007 | Review for the Final
Policies for the final.
Likely kinds of problems.
| | | Assignment 16: Class Assessment |
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