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Lecture: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9 - 10 a.m., Sidney Smith SS2117
Tutorial: Fridays, 9 - 10 a.m.: BA3175 - A through Kha ; BA3185 - Kho through Pa; The room in between - Pe through Z
Instructor: Faye Baron
Email: faye AT cs DOT toronto DOT edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 10 - 11 a.m. in Bahen BA4261
  Course Information Sheet

Announcements

Please check this page regularly (meaning at least twice a week, more if possible)!

May 2 , 2008  Some A4 code and partial midterm solution

  • Here is some sample code giving a possible solution for A4 - note that it is not terribly well commented (sorry). As well, you can look at sample solution for part of the second midterm here.

    ... faye
March 30, 2008  Slight error in Assignment 4 starter code

  • Slight code problem The starter code that has been posted to the web for Assignment 4 had a bug in it. New code has subsequently been posted and can be accessed here
April 27, 2008  Office hours and TTC strike

  • Office hours this week: I will be available for office hours this week in my office (BA4261) during the following times:
      Day     Date         From           To      
    Wednesday   April 30     2:00 p.m.     5:00 p.m.  
    Friday   May 2     2:00 p.m.     5:00 p.m.  

  • TTC Strike: Though we will probably be unaffected by the strike, you may be interested in the Faculty of Arts and Science policy regarding exams in the event that there is a strike and you are scheduled to write an exam.

    ... faye
April 21, 2008  Remark Requests

  • Extra mark requests and remark requests: Many of you have been approaching TAs and me directly to ask for marks and special consideration. The current ad-hoc process has become unmanagable. There are guidelines on the assignment page regarding remark requests. Any other process (including email) will not be considered.
April 14, 2008  A3 marks posted and office hours this week

  • Have posted assignment marks I have posted the marks for A3 and any adjustments required for A2. If you are wondering about the mark, please don't hesitate to speak with me during office hours
  • Office hours for this week I will be available in my office tomorrow - Tuesday, the 15th from 2 - 4 p.m. If you wish to retrieve any of your assignments (1 -3 only) or your midterms; or if you wish to discuss your third assignment with me, I will be available at that time.

    I plan to hold office hours, for people who need extra help, closer to the exam - tentatively, I am considering the 30th of April and the 2nd of May. If you cannot make those times but need help with specific problems, please make alternate arrangements with me in advance.

    ... faye
March 30, 2008  Slight error in Assignment 4 starter code

  • Slight code problem The starter code that has been posted to the web for Assignment 4 had a bug in it. New code has subsequently been posted and can be accessed here
March 28, 2008  Assignment 2 marks are posted, note about Term Test today,
                         Bulletin Board Posting

  • Bulletin Board Posting: The bulletin board posting is not due until next Friday, April 4th
  • A2 Marks are posted : The marks for A2 have been posted. Some of you got zero out of five on your automarker - This was because either you did not name your functions correctly, you submitted a completely commented out set of code for your functions, you printed out values instead of returning them, or you did not submit your file correctly. I am willing to discuss this with you and perhaps you can do something to ameliorate the situation. Overall, everyone did very well - as the average mark suggests. The assignments were excellent!
  • Term Test 2: Some students have indicated that the test today was longer and more difficult than many of you expected. Up to now, most of you have done extremely well, and have achieved very high marks. If at the end of the term, the marks are unfairly low, I will adjust them. I'm pleased with how well you are doing - how far many of you have come - and do not intend to be unfair to you.

    Continue to do the good work you've been doing so far, and you will be rewarded for it.

    ... faye
March 20, 2008  Assignment 3 submission requirements and extension

This information was relayed (more or less) in class today. If you missed class, you need to read this announcement.
  • Electronic submission: Since tomorrow is a holiday, and I was planning to extend the deadline to tomorrow, I am extending the electronic submission deadline to Saturday night (March 22) at midnight. For those of you who observe the holiday, it will give you the extra Saturday to work on your assignments (if necessary)
  • Submitting a paper copy: You must provide a printout of your assignment. The printout should include a header page with your name, student number, and CDF userid; your html files; and your python programs. You must submit the paper copy of your assignment by noon on Tuesday in the drop box for this course (in Bahen BA2200)
  • Documenting your code: You are not required to provide a description of how you solved the problem or any flowchart or pseudocode. However, any code that you write must contain proper comments describing what the code is supposed to do. This practise is implicit in any assignment that you are given and will apply to the next assignment as well.

    ... faye
March 15, 2008  Assignment 3 Clarifications and rules

  • Accessing your URL in the browser:
    1. Be sure to give x (execution) access to your home directory and to public_html. To give x access to your home directory, you must enter: chmod og+x . (note that there is a dot - which indicates the directory that you are currently in) Many of you are missing this step. You must also give read access (r) to your html and picture files which reside in public_html.
    2. Do not copy the URL from the assignment page (the PDF file). The tilde (~) that is in the URL on the assignment page does not translate properly - and results in not finding your page. Type in a tilde from your keyboard. It is usually located on the far left side of your keyboard just below the escape (Esc) key.
  • Using Built-in functions: You may not use built-in functions to calculate the min of three numbers - or for anything else. There is a simple function which would allow you to enter min(val1, val2, val3) to get the minimum of these values. You may not use it (or any other shortcut). You must show that you can program this using the appropriate control statements (if, elif, else ... etc.)

    ... faye
March 4, 2008  Assignment 2 submission extension

  • Due to the challenging nature of this assignment - you will be given an extra day to complete it. The assignment is now due by midnight on Friday, March 7th.
  • If you are having problems with this assignment - I will be available to help you for an hour or so on Thursday morning after class (in my office BA4261).
    ... faye
March 3, 2008  Submission of Assignment 2

  • The command to submit assignment 2 files, as described in the assignment is incorrect. It should be
    submit -c csc104h -a a2 a2.py a2Test.py
Feb 27, 2008  MIDTERM info and more

  • Your midterm will be in the classroom - in Sydney Smith SS2117 on Friday. NOT in the labs. Be there a bit early if possible since we will start the test at 9:10 sharp.
  • There may have been an error with the marking of question 9 of the first assignment. Many of you were given zero out of 1.5 and deserved full marks. I will look at everyone's answer again and adjust your marks if warranted.

Good luck everyone! Study well and do lots of practice ... faye

Feb 15, 2008  Extra help will be available

Yiqiao, Arnold and Faye will be available for questions, and extra help with understanding concepts the week of February 25th as follows:

Who
Date
From
To
Room
Faye
Tuesday, Feb. 26th
2:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m.
Bahen BA2240
Yiqiao
Wednesday, Feb. 27th
2:00 p.m.
3:00 p.m.
Bahen BA2240
Arnold
Thursday, Feb. 28th
3:00 p.m.
4:00 p.m.
Bahen BA2240

Try to prepare any questions or problems that you are having prior to the session - and we will try to help you find solutions.

Feb 11, 2008  Information about test coverage now posted

A new webpage dedicated to testing has been added. You may access it from the menu on the left-hand-side of this page, or by clicking here.

Feb 8, 2008  Lab today, Next week, Extra hours and the Midterm material

  1. Today's lab was extremely challenging. Do not worry if you did not finish it, and please don't get discouraged! We will work on the lab again next week. You will have the week to work on it on your own, and I recommend that you try to do so. You will learn a lot that way.
  2. Next week, I will be away. Tong will be teaching you about the history of computing. This material, (like all other class material,) will be a candidate for testing in the first midterm. Though I am away, I will check my email daily. If you have questions or problems, please don't hesitate to contact me. (faye)
  3. The week after reading week, we will schedule extra hours with the TAs. As well - I will probably hold a special review session Tuesday afternoon of that week in my office. If you are having problems with any of the material, do not hesitate to bring them to us in these sessions.
  4. For the midterm, you are responsible for everything we have covered in class and in the lab to date as well as the readings specified on the course website. I will prepare a list of these topics and post it over the next few days.
Feb 5, 2008  Extra lab hours this Thursday!

Two of your TAs — Yiqiao and Arnold — will be available to help you in the CDF lab this Thursday. If you missed the lab last week, are having trouble with what we are doing in class and think extra practise will help, or if you've looked at the assignment and think your might need some coaching, you should take advantage of this opportunity

Times: 1 - 2 p.m. and 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Lab room: BA3185
Feb 1, 2008  You missed tutorial today? How to catch up.
The weather today made it impossible for many of you to get to the lab today. Congratulations to those of you who made it. I understand that it was fairly challenging for many of you. I recommend that if you did not attend the lab, then you should take time to write the python programs in this exercise. Try them yourself. I will be available on Tuesday (in my office - which has access to the CDF facilities) during office hours to help you. I will also see what day the TAs can be available in the lab if you need extra help.

Here is the lab that we covered today: LabWk4.pdf Download it, go to the lab, and work on it. It can be difficult - but it is also fun and rewarding!

... faye

Jan 31, 2008  Which Linux distribution is on CDF?
Many of you have asked how to determine the answer to question 10 c in the first assignment. To be honest, when confronted with this question - I didn't immediately know the answer. My solution was to do a Google search on the topic. I used the search terms command linux distribution and found the answer. First I read the posts on the site - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum40/1468.htm and discovered there is a file in the /etc directory called issue. Take a look at that file.

While everything we find on the web may not be true - we can sometimes find useful answers to questions that would otherwise take days of digging through material to find. Sometimes a quick search (on Google) is all we need.

... faye

Jan 30, 2008  Assignment 1 Clarifications and submission extension
There were a couple of of errors in the Assignment 1 handout which are clarified here. Due to the late notice for these clarifications, the deadline for the submission of this assignment is extended to Monday February 4th (i.e., by Monday evening at midnight):

  • Question 8:
    The submission instructions in question 8 are not quite right:
    submit -c csc104h -a a1 /u/csc104h/fall/pub/beep/bop/c7abcdef/q8solution
    It should have read:
    submit -c csc104h -a a1 /u/csc104h/winter/pub/beep/bop/c7abcdef/q8solution
  • Question 9:
    The URL http://www.cs.toronto.edu/ faye/104/cgi-bin/marks/getmarks.cgi is wrong.
    For some reason the ~ before faye is missing. The correct URL is:
    http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~faye/104/cgi-bin/marks/getmarks.cgi


    • ... faye

    Jan 20, 2008  Assignment Clarifications
    A few students have asked about the bulletin-board assignment and assignment 1. I thought it might be useful to share my answer with all of you:

    • How will I mark the bulletin-board assignment? I have already looked at many of the submissions, and some of them look well-thought-out and good. Unfortunately, since the assignment is in text format, subjective criteria must be applied. Here is what I will look at:
      1. Does it address the topic?
      2. Did the student just cut and paste from the web without adding any of their own thoughts? (bad bad ... very bad) Keep in mind, that anything that you can Google, I can Google - in fact, I can just use phrases from postings as search terms and find original sources.
      3. If the student posts anything that they have copied from the web without citing its source, and if I find that source on the web, they will probably get zero. (Even if it is a single line.) All sources must be cited.
      4. Did the student augment any web material that they do use with their own musings and contemplations? Did they apply their own thought?
      5. Some articles will be better than others - showing that some students have given the posting more effort and consideration. They will be scaled according to this subjective evaluation.
      6. Finally: How big does it have to be? It does not have to be extremely lengthy. I do not want to read reams of material you pasted from elsewhere on the web. You can simply point to the source, and give a paragraph or two of your own interpretation of what the material means to you (how you can use what you learned, insight provided, etc.) A Haiku is probably too short, and any and all poems you wish to write on the topic will be accepted :-)
      If you feel that the posting you have done does not meet these standards - feel free to go and fix it. I will not be extracting postings to mark until the 25th at midnight.
    • Assignment 1 - Saving your email in PINE:
      When you are in Pine and want to save a message to a text file consider your options. When you are viewing the message, look at the options available to you using the ? (question mark). Then, you want to Export the message and need to specify the file. So select the export option using the appropriate character, and when it asks, tell it what file name you want to use..


    I hope this helps clarify things a bit - do not hesitate to come to me during office hours (Tuesday after class) if you are stuck. This is new material for many of you, and I am glad to help you get started with it
     

    ... faye

    Jan 18, 2008  Important Info if you signed up after classes started

    When I set up this course, both for the first assignment and for the bulletin board, I had to create special files based on your CDF accounts. Since some of you started after I extracted the list of students (at the start of the term), I did not get your information in the original batch. I have tried to remedy this. If you are affected, and the effects might be as follows:

    1. You may not see the topics when you try to log into the bulletin board. When you log into the bulletin board, you must use your CDF account and the last 4 digits of your student number. Once you have done this, you will see several topics. You must post your bulletin-board posting assignment to the boards that are labeled "for credit".
    2. A special directory and file was created for you for Assignment 1 and can be found under /u/csc104h/winter/pub/ You should find a sub-directory with your CDF account number - and a file within that which is yours to submit.
    3. When you go to the web page and enter your student number - you should get a "fake" mark that is specific to you.
    4. I had to send everyone an email that they could access using PINE - this has been done.

    If any of these are not in order for you or your need further help. Please let me (faye@cs.toronto.edu) know. I simcerely apologize for any confusion that this may have caused you and appreciate your patience. ... faye

    Jan 15, 2008  Tutorial starts this Friday (Friday Jan 18)
    This friday, we begin our tutorials in the CDF labs. The labs are located on the third floor of the Bahen building: in rooms 3175 through 3185. These are actually three adjoining rooms with entry from the outer two and one room in the middle.

    Please go to the following rooms:

    • BA3175 - if your last name starts with A through Kha
    • BA3185 - if your last name starts with Kho through Pa
    • The room in between - if your last name starts with Pe through Z

    Try to be there a bit early - so that you can get settled and started your first time in the lab. This exercise should help you get started with your first assignment.
    Jan 10, 2008  No tutorial tomorrow (Friday Jan 11)

    Fridays will normally be spent in a CDF lab. There is no lab the first week. Therefore - there is no class. We will begin labs next week - and I will be posting more information about where to go as soon as the rooms are arranged. Stay tuned ...

    Jan 8, 2008  You have been added to the bulletin board

    You have all been added to the 104 Bulletin Board. To log on, you must use your CDF username (something like c8lastnamefirstinitials) which you can find if you read yesterday's announcement and follow the link. Your password has been set to the last four digits of your student number.

    I recommend that you sign in and go to the test topic and test posting to the board. Since your name was extracted from your registration file, you may have several more first names than you want displayed as your User Name. You can change this by going to the Profiles menu and modifying your name as it appears in your profile. Note that I must know who you are if I am to assign you a posting mark - so please do not change it to something unidentifiable.

    If you cannot log in, it may be because you may have registered after the class list was extracted. If this is the case, please email me (Faye) and I will try to get you set up.

    Jan 7, 2008  Your CDF Account

    When you register for this course you are given an account on the CDF computer network. You will use this account to create and electronically submit your assignments.

    Look up your CDF username: http://www.cdf.toronto.edu/cgi-bin/webfinger