Grading, etc.

Apparently many people missed the first lecture and have waited until now to ask about the grading policy, how to use a compiler, etc. I should have posted such information on the web page sooner, but students also should have asked sooner than the day before the first deadline!

Grading Policy

This is only a one-credit pass-fail course, so I assume everyone is in the course to learn C, not to help their GPA. There will be four or five programming assignments and a number of short quizzes to make sure nobody falls behind. You may discuss the assignments with others, but each student is expected to write their own solution to the assignment. If you make a reasonable effort on every assignment and appear to have a reasonable grasp of the material (as judged by me from the quizzes and assignments), you will pass.

Quizzes

Periodic quizzes will make sure nobody falls behind in learning the material. You should know and understand the material of each lecture before the next one, and ask questions if you don't. C may seem strange at first, but it does make sense from a certain point of view. If you don't understand why something about C works in a particular way, ask me; understanding why C was designed this way can help you remember it.

As announced, this Monday's quiz will resemble the slide at the beginning of last Friday's lecture; it will probably involve finding errors in a sample program. The ideas tested by the quiz will come from the reading assignment given on Wednesday (K&R 1.1-1.4, 1.7-1.9) and Wednesday's and Friday's lectures.

C Compilers

You may use any ANSI C compiler to which you have access, but CodeWarrior is universally available in nearly all ATS computer labs on campus, including the Upson B7 lab. Unfortunately, CodeWarrior is a little tricky to use at first. To get started, assuming you're on a PC:

  1. Launch CodeWarrior
  2. Select "New Project..." from the "File" menu
  3. On the "Select project stationary" dialog, expand the "Win32-x86" item (by clicking in the boxed "+" to the left of the item). Then expand "C, C++", select the "C Console App" option, and press the button to create the project.
  4. In the project window that appears, expand the "Source" item, and double-click on "main.c", which is the file that will contain your program.
  5. Write your program in the "main.c" window (you may remove the sample program that initially appears). To compile and run your program, select "Run" from the "Project" window.