CSC 148H: INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE

Old Announcements -- Week 2

Thursday 19 September: Roster for TA office hours

The list of TA office hours, including which TA is covering which hours, is now available under "Course Information" below, or click here.

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17 September: FYI -- on TV tonight

The BBC biography of Alan Turing, "Breaking the Code", airs tonight (Tues Sept 17) at 10 pm on Showcase. Alan Turing played a very important role in the early history of computer science, and was also a key figure in code breaking efforts during the second world war.

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17 September: Have you just joined csc148?

If you have just joined csc148, this is how to catch up:

• Pick up the handouts that you missed (course information sheet, assignment 0, and two stapled pages of notes). Spare copies are available on the corkboard in the hallway outside Sandford Fleming room 2302c. If these run out, borrow the course folder from the Engineering library (Sandford Fleming room 2304) and make your own photocopies.
• Buy the textbook and csc148 Handbook (available at the bookstore). You may also want to buy the csc148 Lecture notes (also available at the bookstore).
• Read the front section (pages 1-22) of the Handbook. It will give you all of the information you need (such as where the computers are and how to use them) or will tell you where to get it.
• Catch up on the lectures and tutorials that you missed. Even if you buy the Lecture Notes package, you should make a friend and ask them to fill you in on what happened in class.
• Start assignment 0. It is due on September 26th.

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17 September: Switching to csc108

If you decide to switch to csc108, "you should go to a 108 lecture and speak to the instructor. Also, don't forget to visit your college Registrar's office to make the course change official!" [csc148 Handbook, page 2]

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17 September: Changing csc148 lecture sections

If you decide to change lecture sections within csc148, you must make an official change through your registrar's office. Be aware that, although Professors Borodin and Horton are using the same lecture notes and assignments (with the same due dates), they will not share midterm tests. You must write the midterms with your own tutorial group from your own lecture section.

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17 September: OOT Software

Question:Can I use my friend's OOT software to do my csc148 assignments?
Answer: It would be a violation of copyright to make your own copy of your friend's software. In addition, if your friend bought the software through the special sale for 1st year csc students at UofT, they bought it under the following agreement, which appears on the sale form: "This package will be for personal/individual use only (one per student). Resale is not permitted." The phrase "personal/individual use" means that no one else is permitted to use the software.
So your friend may give or lend you his or her copy as long as it was not bought through the sale, and duplicates are not made,
Question:Can I use the OOT software that comes free with the csc108 textbook by Grogono?
Answer: You may, but be warned that it is two releases old, doesn't have the tracing feature, and is known to contain some bugs. (For example, floating point calculations can give incorrect results.) Also, it does not come with the free upgrades and technical support that you get if you buy OOT through Holt Software Associates. (And you do get these if you buy OOT at the sale price.)

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17 September: OOT Reference Manual

Question: Can I use an old edition of the OOT Reference Manual?
Answer: You are not required to buy the Reference Manual, but if you plan to borrow or buy it, we strongly recommend that you use the latest edition (5th edition, grey cover). Older editions cover older versions of the language which are now very out of date.
Remember that the Reference Manual is available at the library.

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16 September: Assnt 0 -- input from a file

Question: The assignment handout mentions an example input file, yet the starter code has nothing in it to deal with files. What's up?
Answer: When a program contains only ordinary get statements that don't mention files, such as "get blah", we say that input to the program will come from "the standard input". If you just run the program normally (in OOT, that means just clicking on "Run"), input will come from the keyboard. However, you can "redirect input" so that the exact same program will take input from a file. In OOT, you do this by pulling down the "Run Options" menu, selecting "Set Input Redirection", and naming the file from which you want input to come. Now, every time you run the program, input will come from that file -- until you turn off the redirection.
So whether "the standard input" is going to be the keyboard or some file depends on how you run the program.
We'll redirect input to your program when we test it on our own test files.
Note that you can redirect output so that it goes to a file of your choice (rather than to the screen) in a similar manner.
Redirecting input (or output) is very handy, but it has one problem: By redirecting input (or output), you can only make all input come from one file. If, for example, you want some input to come from one file, some from the keyboard, and some from another file, input redirection is inadequate. For this, you must explicitly open files. See BHH, section 2.7, for details (But ignore the material on page 42 about "binary" files.)

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16 September: Assnt 0 -- format of output

Question: If an input number has leading zeros, should they appear in the output message?
Answer: If you look at the starter code, you'll see that you have no control over this. The starter code reads the number and prints the message before you've touched the number. Just leave the starter code alone, and your output will be in the right format.