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 INSS 520 - Software Structures 

Distance Education Term III-(2001 - 2002)

Dates:  21 January - 12 May, 2002

Instructor:  Dr. Edmund I. Deaton

Course Description: This course provides an in-depth look at software from a design and implementation perspective. Language semantics and syntax issues are explored. Specification and implementation of data structures are examined. Characteristics of non-procedural, heuristic and object oriented languages are discussed. Current developments in software engineering methodologies are reviewed as well as research into the improvement of those practices. Software project management concepts and software quality issues are also addressed.  Students will be required to complete programming projects.  CREDIT. Three (3) semester hours.

Prerequisites: All undergraduate prerequisite courses or permission of the instructor. Recommended prerequisite: INSS 510.

Course Objectives:

This course enables students to understand:

• The fundamental nature of programming languages and how they work
• Tradeoffs in programming language design and usage
• Virtual computer concepts
• Structured programming concepts
• Data and file structures
• Information hiding and software reusability
• Major attributes of several programming languages
• Principles of software engineering

 

 

Course Materials:
 
Text:  Concepts of Programming Languages, Robert W. Sebesta, Addison-Wesley, 1999, 4th Edition

Additional material will be provided by the instructor or available on line.

Grading Information:   The grades for this course will be based on
 

 

Letter grades for the course will be as follows:

Students are expected to respond to the question(s) submitted in the weekly conferences. Students should be prepared to spend a substantial amount of time preparing assignments and turning them in on the indicated dates. Grades on assignments or the project submitted after the due date may be lowered 10%. 

 

ASSIGNMENTS: Programming assignments will involve writing and debugging programs.    You are allowed to implement the programs in the programming language of your  choice, i.e., the instructor will not mandate that a particular programming language be  used by all course participants, although he will make recommendations regarding what  his choice of language would be.  Assignments that are submitted past the due date may incur significant late penalties.  In addition, course participants will be expected to complete a paper on a particular language.  That requirement will be explained further to the class during the first week of the course. 

 

ATTENDANCE POLICY:   This is a distance education course, but it is still, perhaps even more important for the students to participate actively in class discussions.  This will be done using Web Tycho.  The students will be assigned to "Study Groups", hopefully by physical location.  Effective  class discussions necessitate full class participation.  In addition, it is necessary for  course participants to be available on line frequently for the class discussions to benefit fully.

 

COURSE CONDUCT:   There will be three (3) major programming assignments.  The results of the assignments  must be accompanied by papers discussing the results.  The discussion should not  concentrate on methods of solving the problem only, but should expand on the concepts  being demonstrated by the assignment.

     There will be a paper required during the last half of the course on a programming  language, a paper that is to be prepared using group interaction.  The purpose of the  paper is to lead class discussion on "another" programming language.  Thus, course  participants will need to become familiar with a programming language that they currently are unfamiliar with, familiar enough to present the language to their  colleagues and lead a discussion on that language.  A list of potential languages will be supplied by the instructor at the beginning of the course.

     There will be some home work assignments from the text.

     The tentative schedule is attached.

  INSTRUCTOR: Edmund I. Deaton

     Dr. Deaton received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Texas.  He has been teaching and doing research in Computer Science since 1980.  After many years  at San Diego State University he retired in 1992.  He was a visiting professor at Hope College, Holland, Michigan during 1993-1995.   He spent two years at Oklahoma State University from 1980 to 1982 as a visiting professor and visited there again in 1992.  He worked as a management consultant with a Southern California consulting firm for several years in the 1980's.  He specialized in database design for governmental entities.  He has been with the University of Maryland, European Division since 1995.  He teaches in the graduate MIS program and also teaches undergraduate computer  science courses.  His academic specialty is data base design.  His primary hobbies are  hiking and Alpine climbing.  Although based in Heidelberg, he calls Rota, Spain home and hopes to be assigned there for some time each year.  During the time of this distance education course he will be in Aviano, Italy.  E-mail: edeaton@faculty.ed.umuc.edu; Address and phone to be provided.   

 

 

 

Course Schedule:

Week	Session Dates	Chapters	Due Dates
1	21 January-27 January	Welcome - Chapters 1 & 2
2	28 January-3 February	Chapter 3 - Syntax and Semantics
3	4 February-10 February	Chapter 4 - Name, Bindings, Type Checking, and Scope
4	11 February-17 February	Chapter 5 - Data Types
5	18 February-24 February	Chapter 6 - Expressions
6	25 February-3 March	Chapter 7 - Control Structures
7	4 March-9 March	Chapter 8 - Subprograms	Assignment # 1
8	9 March - 22 March	Term Break
9	25 March-31 March	Chapter 9 - Implementing Subprograms
10	1 April-7 April	Chapter 10 - Abstract Data Types
11	8 April-14 April	Chapter 11 - Object-Oriented Programming	Assignment # 2
12	15 April-21 April	Chapters 12 - Concurrency
13	22 April- 28 April	Chapter 13 - Exception Handling
14	29 April-May 4	Presentation of Term Projects	Term Projects,  Assignment # 3
15	5 May-12 May	Final Exam - On-line