General Programming and/or Data Structures texts:

• Horstmann, "Big Java", 3rd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2007, ISBN: 0470105542.
       Strong coverage of core language, decent coverage of data structures.  1248 pages.
   
• Carrano and Savitch, "Data Structures and Abstractions With Java", 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2006, ISBN: 013237045X
       Less focus on core language, more advanced coverage of data structures.  700 pages.

Topic-specific Guides:

• Bloch, "Effective Java", 2nd Edition, Addison-Wesley, 2008, ISBN: 0321356683.
       A treasure trove of great advice to improve your Java programming.  384 pages.
• McLaughlin and Flanagan, "Java 1.5 Tiger: A Developer's Notebook", O'Reilly, 2004, ISBN: 0596007388.
       For those who know Java 1.4, a fine, concise guide to 1.5's new features.  177 pages.
• Vermeulen, et al, "The Elements of Java Style", Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000, ISBN: 0521777682.
      A great little guide to Java style.  128 pages.

Attending and participating in lectures and recitations.

Reading the printed and online notes and other assigned readings.

Meeting with the course staff as needed or as directed.

Carrying out homework assignments.

Taking the quizzes, midterms, and final.

In particular, attendance is required.  We will not strongly enforce attendance, but it will be factored into grade decisions in marginal cases.  In any case, you will be responsible for all materials presented in lectures and recitations. You should not expect that all lecture or recitation materials will be given to you in written form, nor should you expect that lectures or recitations will be drawn from the (optional) textbook.  Note that missed quizzes and tests may not be made up in general (though certain exceptions are permitted -- see the relevant sections below).

Assessment:  Any material covered in lecture, in recitation, in assigned readings, or in homework assignments may be included in any future homework assignment, quiz, or test.

Each homework, quiz, midterm, and final will be graded on a standard scale:
   A: 90 - 100
   B: 80 - 89
   C: 70 - 79
   D: 60 - 69
   R:  0 - 59

Semester grades will be determined first by computing the individual averages for homeworks, quizzes, and midterms, then combining these with the final exam according to the weighting table above.  At that point, half-point rounding will be used, so 89.5 will round up to an A, but 89.499 will remain a B.  Finally, we will look closely at every marginal case (within one point of the next higher grade), taking participation and extra credit into account so that grades may be adjusted nominally upwards in some exceptional cases.  To help set expectations for marginal cases, it would be expected that about 10 hours of extra credit would roughly warrant consideration for a one-point increase.

1)  On an assigned homework, quiz, or test:  these points are added directly to your score on that homework, quiz, or test.

2)  As a standalone bonus project or bonus lecture:  these bonus points will be awarded at roughly 1 point per hour of time (and so they are also referred to as "bonus hours").  For example, attending a 2-hour bonus lecture will be rewarded with 2 bonus points.  The correlation to hours, though, is inexact, and some activities may receive more or less bonus points than the total number of hours students invest in those activities.

As noted above, at the end of the semester, bonus points (of the second kind) are added to the semester grade, where each bonus point is worth one-tenth of a percent, and so 10 bonus points increases a grade by one percentage point.  There is a limit of 3 percentage points increase (representing 30 bonus hours) in any case.

Midterm Tests:
There will be 1 or 2 midterm tests that typically consist of a programming part and a written part.  No late / make-up quizzes or tests will be administered, except in the case of medical or family emergencies.

Quizzes will be given approximately once per week in lecture or recitation.   No late / make-up quizzes or tests will be administered, except in the case of medical or family emergencies.

The programming assignments are a critical part of the course. Experience has shown that the concepts covered in this course are best learned by direct engagement -- in our case by applying them to example problems or by implementing them in computer programs.

Programming assignments will be graded based on style (modularity, effective use of data abstraction, readability, commenting, etc.) and functionality (correctness and efficiency of the program on the test inputs).  A working program is not sufficient for full credit. Make sure you do a thorough data validation. Your code should be properly annotated with comments that are well-placed, concise, and informative. Your assignments will be graded by your CA.

Unless otherwise noted, for homework assignments, students are encouraged to talk to each other, to the course staff, or to anyone else about the assignments. This assistance, though, is limited to the discussion of the problems in general.  Each student must develop his or her own solutions to the homework. Consulting another student's solution is prohibited, and submitted solutions may not be copied in whole or in part from any source.

Specifically:  do not look at other students' code or written answers, and do not show them your code or written answers, until after an assignment has been submitted and graded.

In particular, for example, this prohibits students from helping other students debug their code, as that requires looking at their code, which is banned.  Instead, students should seek help from the course staff, who provide extensive support to all students via email, office hours, review sessions, and 1-on-1 tutoring by appointment.

Also, if you find a reference (say, in an optional textbook or some online source) that contains code or a written solution that is identical or overtly similar to an assigned problem, then you are required to not look at that code or written solution  You may still refer to supporting figures and explanatory text, but you may not look at or copy the code.

The issue of cheating will be taken seriously by the instructor and CA's, and homework assignments will be routinely checked for violations, which will be handled in accordance with the University regulations.