Resources for CSC 254

Computers and Remote Access

The main computers for the course will be the machines of the Undergraduate CS Labs.  If you don’t have an account, CLICK HERE.  Machines in the Hylan Lab (room 301) are available to all students in the course.  Machines in the Majors Lab (CSB 633) are available only to CS majors.  Three of the lab machines (cycle1, cycle2, and cycle3.csug.rochester.edu) are dedicated to use as remote login servers for access across the campus network.  If you need access to a Sun machine, you can connect to harley or triumph.  For much of the work we will be doing an ssh terminal window will suffice.  If you need to use graphical tools you'll want to run an X server on your machine.  MacOS X includes an X implementation (note that the two meanings of ‘X’ have nothing to do with each other).  X implementations are also available for Windows; see for example Cygwin/X

Class tools will reside in the directory /u/cs254/bin; students should add this to their $path environment variable (this requires modifying your .profile [ksh/bash] or .cshrc [csh/tcsh] file; if you don’t know how, ask the TA).  You are welcome to work on other machines if you like, but we do not plan to assist in porting any courseware.  Moreover all assignments must run on the CSUG Linux machines, and will be graded only on those machines

Please be sure to change permissions on any directories in which you are doing class work, to make sure they aren’t readable by others.  Again, if you don’t know how, ask the TA

Mail and On-line Forum

All students should read the 254 discussion group in Blackboard, through which class announcements will be made.  Questions may be posted to the discussion group or sent directly to the instructor or the TA.  Any answer deemed useful to the class as a whole will be posted (with identifying information removed) back to the discussion group. 

Note that the discussion group is a formal, academic resource, maintained by the University for the benefit of the class as a whole.  Please post only messages that the whole class might want to see.  Note that all postings must conform to the department’s Undergraduate Laboratory Policy  and the ResNet Acceptable Use Policy

Note also that while posts to the discussion group can be edited as rich text within your browser, this feature does not work correctly in Safari.  If you use a Mac (like me) and you need something other than normal-size, normal-weight Times Roman, you'll have to run FireFox to enter it.  Sorry about that. 

If you don’t expect to log into your CSUG account every day, you should forward your mail to an account that you do read every day.  To forward an account under Linux, put the email address at which you want to receive your mail into a single-line file named .forward, and place this file in your home directory. 

Lecture Notes

The professor’s class notes are available on-line.  Please note that they are provided on an “as-is” basis. 

PLP cover art

Textbook

The text for this course is the second edition of Programming Language Pragmatics, by Michael L. Scott.  Note that the first edition will not suffice; too much has changed. Copies are available from the River Campus bookstore or online.  Copies have also been placed on reserve at Carlson library. 

The textbook includes a list of short-answer review questions approximately every 10 pages.  You are expected to answer these questions and turn them in before coming to the class in which the material will be covered (see the schedule).  If you have questions about any of them, ask the instructor or TA

Resources on the Web

A growing number of programming language resources are available on the Internet.  Two excellent starting points for searches are the Google and Yahoo indices. 

A few particularly nice resources include:

If you have suggestions to add to this list, please mail the instructor. 

Supplemental texts

Most of these texts are available from Carlson Library.  Most of them will be on reserve.  If you find one that isn’t on reserve, please don’t hog it forever.  Also, please note that this list is far from exhaustive. 

For references on any specific language, consult the bibliography in the textbook, or see the professor. 

Getting Help

CSC 254 is not a course you can coast through.  It’s also not a course with a whole lot of “hand-holding”.  You will need to take responsibility for your own success.  Do not wait until you’re drowning before you ask for help. 

Many of the programming assignments will require that you become an expert user of certain tools, notably the GNU assembler and debugger.  These tools will be not be covered thoroughly in class.  You are expected to read the manuals and then attend TA office hours for hands-on help. 

Past exams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Last Change:  03 September 2007 / Michael Scott's email address