COM 2545: Algorithms

Fall 2008

Lab Instructor: Joshua Nankin
Office Hours: by appointment only.
Email: nankin@yu.edu
Lab: R 6:30-8pm

Lab Required Reading

• Java reference sheet - see resources below.
• Sun Swing Tutorials

Professor Breban's Homework Requirements

1. Programs and homework are due by e-mail by 11:59PM of the due date.
2. My email address is Breban@yu.edu. This is the only e-mail address that you may use to send your work or contact me by e-mail
3. If your class has a lab instructor send all your homework to him and to me (in the same email, not 2 emails)
4. All programs and homework should be mailed as e-mail attachments, and not in the body of the e-mail
5. For programming assignments, I expect only the source code. If you send me workspaces, *.exe files, etc. your email will de discarded.
6. For non-programming homework, I expect text files, pdf or *.doc documents only.
7. Late programs and homework will get the grade of 0.
8. Programs20that do not compile will be penalized (negative grade)
9. Your "official" YU e-mail address is the only address I will use to communicate with you. Please make sure it is working, and, if not, contact MIS (13th floor, BH) immediately.

Midterm and Finals schedule

• Midterm 1: 10/28/2008
• Midterm 2: 12/3/2008
• Final exam: 01/02/2009 9:30-11:45

Homework Assignments

Resources

Programming Languages

• Programmer's Arsenal - This is a collection of documents that I through together to keep with me when I code. It has little tidbits of knowledge (ASCII table/scientific notation/terms etc.) that often come in really handy. Especially checkout the "Algorithms and their particulars" document - I created it when I took 2545 in YU a few years back.
• C Reference Sheet
• Java Reference Sheet (Required: the first two columns on the first page, and knowledge of java.util.*, java.io.*) .

Software Development

• Utilities and tools for software development - If you dont want to sound like an idiot when you interview for a job, it'd be best to check out this page and understand the types of tools real software developers use everyday.
• Google code - EXCELLENT TOOL FOR GROUP PROJECTS

Swing/GUI and other Java stuff

• Getting Started with Swing
• Layout managers
• Java Concurrency/Threads - important for knowing how to process data when dealing with a GUI.

GUI builders

• Drawing trees with swing
• Eclipse GUI builder
• Using Eclipse efficiently

Recommended Utilities

I highly suggest using a compiler that gets you acquainted with the command line whenever possible. Its important for you to understand how GUI compilers work, and using the command line is a good way of getting your hands a bit dirty. In many financial and tech companies (at least in the city) a lot of the work is done on linux machines and all you have is bash or csh. It's often difficult to get Eclipse or other graphical IDE running in such an environment. (When I worked at BlackRock, xemacs was considered a "graphical" IDE!)

In order of preference:

• Eclipse
• Cygwin/gcc
• Textpad - with gcc tool
• DevCpp
• VisualStudio - on the YUAD network.

For Java, try to use the command line and Textpad when you can. (Click here for how to get up and running with java quickly.)