CSC209H -- Software Tools and Systems Programming -- Winter 2012

Contact Information

Day Section

Instructor:Karen Reid
Email: reid [at] cs.toronto.edu. Please include "209" in the subject line.
Office: BA 4240
Office Hours: M 2-3, R 2-3, F 1:00-2:00p
LecturesRoomLabs Rooms
WF 12-1MP 203M 12-1 BA 3175, 3185, 3195

Evening Section

Instructor:Michelle Craig
Email: mcraig [at] cs.toronto.edu. Please include "209" in the subject line.
Office: BA 4260
Office Hours: Tues 1:30-3:30, Wed 5-6
LecturesRoomLabs Rooms
W 6-8pmBA 1200W8-9 BA 3175, 3185, and 3195

Course Materials

Course text books:

Web page: http://www.cs.utoronto.ca/~csc209h

Handouts, assignments, marks, and important course information will be posted periodically on the web page. You should login regularly to check. It would be a good idea to follow the discussions on the bulletin board. You are responsible for announcements made in class, on the web page and on the sticky instructor posts on the bulletin board.

Grading Scheme and Assignment Schedule

Type of Work Probable Topics Weight Due date
Labs 8% 10 am on the Thursday that follows your Monday or Wednesday lab. (See the lab schedule)
A1 Shell Use and Programming 8% Friday Jan 27, 10:00 pm
A2 C and System calls 9% Tuesday Feb 14, 10:00 pm
Midterm Shell and C 15% Wednesday Feb 29, 12pm and 6 pm. Rooms TBA
A3 Fork and pipes 10% Friday March 9, 10:00 pm
A4 Processes and Communication 10% Friday March 30, 10:00 pm
Final Exam Everything 40% See exam schedule

To pass the course you must receive at least 40% on the final exam.

Any section of an assignment in which the C program does not compile on CDF will receive a grade of 0. If you can explain clearly in a remarking request how to fix the problem, your program will be remarked with a 10% penalty.

Late Policy

The late policy is strict. All assignments and labs will be submitted electronically. Assignments are due at 10:00 p.m. on the due date. Labs are due by 10:00 a.m. on the Thursday following the lab. It is expected that students will complete and submit the labs during the 50 minute lab period. The later due time is meant only to accommodate unusual situations. No grace days may be used for labs.

Late assignments will be handled based on a system of "grace days", as follows: Each student begins the term with 3 grace days. One grace day is 24 hours. If an assignment is due at 10:00 p.m. on a Friday then an assignment handed in by 10:00 p.m. on Thursday uses one grace day; if handed in by 10:00 p.m. Sunday, it uses up 2 grace days; if handed in by 10:00 p.m. Monday, it uses up 3 grace days. The grace days are intended for use in emergencies (e.g., printer failure or car failure). Do not use them to buy an extension because of a busy week or you will be out of luck in a true emergency. Assignments submitted after the due date when all grace days have been used will receive a grade of 0.

If you are at risk of missing a deadline due to a busy week, rather than use your grace days you should hand in a working (and tested) version of a simpler program. This will be easy to do if you have written and debugged a series of programs that accomplish more and more of the assigned problem.

In the event of an illness or other catastrophe, get proper documentation (e.g., medical certificate), and contact your instructor (by phone, email or in person) as soon as possible. Do not wait until the due date has passed. It is always easier to make alternate arrangements before the due date or test day.

Since your assignments are submitted electronically and will often be tested using an automated testing program, you must follow the submission instructions exactly. If you do not, you will most likely lose substantial marks on the assignment. Check your submission carefully. It is possible using both MarkUs and svn to verify that you have submitted exactly the files you intended to submit. If you find you have submitted the wrong file or omitted a file, please notify your instructor as soon as possible.

Remarking requests that result from incorrect submissions will receive a 10% penalty.

Remarking

Requests for remarking must be done using the form in MarkUs explaining in detail what your concern is. Requests for remarking should be submitted no later than one week after the assignment or test has been returned to the class.

Academic Offenses

All of the work you submit must be done by you and your work must not be submitted by someone else. Plagiarism is academic fraud and is taken very seriously. The department uses software that compares programs for evidence of similar code. Please read the Rules and Regulations from the U of T Calendar (especially the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters).

Accessibility Needs:

The University of Toronto is committed to accessibility. If you require accommodations for a disability, or have any accessibility concerns about the course, the classroom or course materials, please contact Accessibility Services as soon as possible: disability.services@utoronto.ca or http://studentlife.utoronto.ca/accessibility