CSC 173 Course Description

CSC 173 is the third course in the pre-major sequence for Computer Science, following CSC 171 (Computer Programming) and CSC 172 (Data Structures).

In terms of the "classical" system of education, or trivium , it's mostly concerned with grammar and logic , with a whiff of rhetoric. The link above relates the trivium to childhood development and early education, but it's a general concept. For 173, maybe we can say:

I see all my computer science courses as part of a liberal education . But don't take my word for it, here's the Op-Ed page of the Wall Street Journal on the long-term economic and quality-of-life benefits of a liberal education.

Our goal is to get acquainted with several formal systems that have been influential in computer science, and to investigate some of their applications (e.g. inspiring and providing the foundation for a computer programming style, or providing the basis for solving important practical problems like communications protocols, compiling, system analysis, graphics ...)

In more detail, we shall study:

More Detail

Textbook

There is no single text: we shall use reserve materials from the former text for CSC173 as well as current texts for other CS courses and other materials, plus lots on on-line resources. The subject matter of this course is well-understood and there are many resources...finding them and using them wisely will mostly be the student's responsibility. Check out the How To page and the 'Distributed Textbook' page for the course.

Prerequisites

There are four conceptual prerequisites for CSC 173:

  • knowledge of at least one imperative programming language, preferably Java, C, or C++
  • understanding of fundamental data structures (lists, stacks, queues, trees, hash tables)
  • basic algorithm analysis techniques (Big-O analysis)
  • programming maturity

    All of these prerequisites should have been met by taking, for example, CSC 172: Data Structures or an equivalent course. If you are unsure of your background, contact the professor.


    Back to the course home page

    Last Change: 08/08/08