Developing Programming Language Skills

Programming language instruction takes place in various introductory courses. Listed below are the introductory programming courses taught by the Department of Computer Science at Cornell.  After each course number, you will find the most recent common language used in each course.

| List of Programming Courses |

For a complete list of all CS courses taught by the department, link to List of All CS Courses. For a list of CS courses with web pages, link to Course Home Pages. For information about choosing your first CS course, visit Choosing Your First CS Course.

Worth reading:

"Why Are We Using Java Again?" An article by Paul Tyma, posted by permission of the ACM.

"On Concurrent Programming." An article by Professor Fred Schneider, Department of Computer Science, posted by permission of the ACM.

List of Programming Courses

CS 99 (Matlab)

This course is designed for students with virtually no programming experience. Basic programming concepts and problem analysis are studied. An appropriate high-level programming language is used. Students with previous programming experience should not take this course.

CS 100 (Java, Matlab)

The most common first programming course for Cornell students.  No previous programming experience is assumed.  Basic control structures, assignments, classes, objects, methods, arrays, inheritance, and an introduction to recursion. In Matlab, the emphasis is on array-level operations and plotting.

CS 113 (C)

A short-course introduction to C.  Meant for students with previous programming experience. Prerequisite: COM S 100 or equivalent programming experience.

A brief introduction to the C programming language and standard libraries. Unix accounts will be made available for students wishing to use that system for projects, but familiarity with Unix is not required. (Projects may be done using any modern implementation of C). COM S 213 (C++ Programming) includes much of the material covered in 113. Students planning to take COM S 213 normally do not need to take 113.

CS 114 (Unix)

An introduction to Unix, emphasizing instruction in tools for file management, communication, process control, and program development. Knowledge of at least one programming language is expected.g Projects assume no previous knowledge of Unix or expertise in any particular language.

CS 130 (HTML)

Interactive on-line media such as the World Wide Web are revolutionizing the way we communicate. This course introduces students having little or no computer background to tools and techniques for creating interactive documents.>  We will emphasize both questions of design and technical issues.>  This will involve thinking seriously about digital graphic impact and learning how to do some relatively simple programming with a scripting language (such as JavaScript).   Topics covered will include HTML; JavaScript; interaction techniques (elementary DHTML); ways of coping with slow connections; the incorporation of sound, video, and images in web documents; ethics; and e-commerce.

CS 211 (Java)

CS 211 requires a previous college programming course on par with CS 100, taught in Java or C++, and including object-oriented programming. 

Intermediate programming in a high-level language and introduction to computer science. Topics include program structure and organization, modules (classes), program development, proofs of program correctness, recursion, data structures and types (lists, stacks, queues, trees), object-oriented and functional programming, analysis of algorithms, and an introduction to elementary graph theory and graph algorithms. Java is the principal programming language.

CS 214 (Unix)

A focus on Unix as a programming environment for people with a basic knowledge of Unix and experience programming in at least one language. Projects cover advanced shell scripts (sh, ksh, csh), Makefiles, programming and debugging tools for C and other languages, and more modern scripting languages such as Perl and Python. Students with little or no experience with Unix should take COM S 114 first.

CS 215 (C#)

Introduces students to building applications in the .NET environment using the C# programming language.  Prerequisite: COM S/EngrD 211.

CS 322 (Matlab)

An introduction to elementary numerical analysis and scientific computation. Topics include interpolation, quadrature, linear and nonlinear equation solving, least-squares fitting, and ordinary differential equations. The MATLAB computing environment is used. Vectorization, efficiency, reliability, and stability are stressed. Special lectures on parallel computation.