Lecture 1. AMES 5, Friday 25 Sept. 1998
Welcome to AMES 5, Quantitative Computer Skills! Please look over the Course Outline to see the course description and what we will be doing this quarter. The primary purpose of this class is to teach you to program a personal computer in the True Basic language. Since we have Macintosh computers in the AMES 5 computer laboratory in Engineering Building II, room 205, the type of personal computer emphasized will be macs, but you can probably survive the class even if you happen to own an IBM clone running on a Microsoft disk operating system, possibly with Windows. The textbook Let's Program It in True Basic, by Avery Catlin (which you should get in the bookstore) assumes that you have either type of computer. If you have no personal computer of your own your should probably get one, but you can still survive the course since you can get into the AMES 5 computer laboratory any time to use the machines. There are nearly 200 Macintosh computers on campus that you can use to work on your homework assignments in this course, listed in the Academic Computer Services webpage.
An important secondary purpose of the course is indicated by the course title; that is, to help you develop your computer skills. Since you are reading this lecture, apparently you already know a very useful computer skill , which is how to use the internet. You are able to access a huge amount of information this way, including these lectures about this course and the various links provided to other sources of information which I have provided in the course webpage. You might want to explore the possibility of constructing your own webpage, since this is allowed using your course computer account which gives you email capability. Simply type "help www" at the command line when you are in your course computer account and follow directions (read all the help articles that appear about the world-wide-web). It takes about ten minutes to create your own webpage once you know how to do it. Then you can learn how to put useful information about yourself in the webpage, such as a resume when you are ready to get a job. You can learn everything about constructing webpages using the internet using the Beginners Guide to HTML.
During the first meeting of the course you will be given a piece of paper with information about your course account, including the password you will need to use the account. The AMES 5 course accounts (UNIX) are on computer iacs5 and the AppleShare accounts are on GreenServer. You will also get a pink handout titled "Mac Labs Step 1, Guidelines for users of ACS Mac Labs". Read both of these documents carefully. You will find directions for mac-lab logon procedures to open your AppleShare course account, where you can save your work. You should also buy a few computer disks (3 or more) to use for your personal copies of True Basic (paid for by the UCSD Site License) and TB Ref (freeware by Prof. Richard Herz of AMES) which can be copied in the AMES 5 laboratory or downloaded from TB Ref freeware . You get a copy of all textbook program examples along with the textbook. Back up all of your homework on one of your floppy disks to be on the safe side. Please do not leave your homework in the Workspace portion of the computer hard disk, since it might be a temptation to others to make copies, which is forbidden.
The schedule of reading, exams, and homework for the course is given in the course outline. You must submit your homework by placing a folder containing your program files in the one-way drop folder AMES 5 Drop Box in the GreenServer laboratory computer (server). The folder and files must be labelled so your TA can easily find it, know it is yours and what you have done; for example, "A02-HW1, Doe, S." would be an appropriate name for the folder containing the program files for Sally Doe's homework assignment number 1, for week number 1, due in the AMES 5 Drop Box before her section begins in week 2 (no later). In the program files, programs must be clearly labelled with REM statements (or ! statements) giving the same information, plus the due date, name and purpose of the program. For example,
First file, labelled MEX2-1:
! A02-HW1-MEX2-1, Doe, S.
! Due: Oct. 5, 1998
! MEX2-1 means "modified example program 2-1" from p22 of the text.
! Modification: Change the greeting from Hello! to goodbye.
! Following is the program.
PRINT "goodbye."
END
Second file, labelled MEX2-2:
! A02-HW2-MEX-2, Doe, S.
REM MEX2-2
! Change the number to be printed.
PRINT 35.6 ! print a different number
END
etc.
Last file, labelled PP2.2 (ie, Practice Program 2.2)
! Display your name, local address, and telephone number on separate lines on the screen.
PRINT "Sally Doe"
Print "5566 La Jolla Farms Rd., La Jolla CA 92093"
Print "555-8312"
END
Be sure to check that your modified programs work as well as the textbook examples since this is the purpose of the homework assignment. Grading will be 4 points for the MEXs and 3 pts each for the two Practice Program problems, or 6 pts if there is only one PP problem. Give enough remark statements to convince your TA that you know what you are doing. Read the Summary of Important Points, Common Errors, Self-Test Questions, and unassigned Practice Programs at the end of each chapter very carefully, since these sections will be a source of questions for the exams.
You should get started as soon as possible in this course. Go to the lab (the lock combination will be given out in the first class), get familiar with the equipment and start programming. Send an email to your TA to let them know how glad you are that you're in their section. Type "pine" when you get ito your account and follow directions to use the PINE email program. Note that you must use the control key rather than the Apple key to send your message. Go through the first part of the TB Ref HyperCard stack as a tutorial. Learn to use the Do Trace command described in Chapter 6 so you can step through the operation of programs. Try out the example True Basic programs. Make changes to see how they work. Do your first few homework assignments early. Read ahead. Feel free to discuss the material with your fellow students (but don't copy or allow copying of homework, since this doesn't teach anything). Use your head first, but don't be shy about asking questions if you get hung up.
Lecture 2. AMES 5, Monday 28 Sept. 1998
The goals of today's session are:
Tomorrow the first Sections begin, but you can go to the AMES 5 laboratory in EBU205 anytime to get familiar with the equipment and software. The first week you want to make sure you know how to use the Macs to produce True Basic programs, copy the free software to your disks (True Basic and TB Ref), produce a backup copy of Catlin's disk that came with your textbook, and prepare a homework disk containing files you will download to the AMES 5 Drop Box before the homework sets are due.
Codeword file:
Please include a file with your first homework set indicating a four letter word we can use with your grades known only to you and us. For example:
Filename: CODEWORD Sally Doe
! Dear beloved TA:
!My Name is Sally Doe
!Please use FAWN as my codeword so I can find my grades in coded lists for AMES 5
!You are very kind.
!Best regards,
!Sally
TB Ref:
The hypercard stack TB Ref is a good place to start learning True Basic and the associated computer skills you will need to maximize your rate of progress in AMES 5. Open the stack (click on the program) and follow directions. Read from the top of the Topics list and try out each option. Open up True Basic so you can copy the programs given and try them out. Use of Do Trace, the debugging program for True Basic is nicely demonstrated by copying and using the program included in the topic "elements of programs" (the bullet shows there is a program available to copy). It's a good idea to know how to use this early so you can follow the sophisticated Demonstration Programs of the Catlin disk, and be thinking about your Final Project. The Final Project will be an original program constructed by you to show off your True Basic skills accumulated by the end of the quarter.
Homework 1:
We'll go through the first homework set, as time allows.
Email:
Try out the course account you are assigned for AMES 5 on the computer iacs5 using the information about your username and password included in the account slip you get from your TA during your first Section. Your username is in the format am5fab , where am5 refers to the course, f means Fall Quarter, and ab is you. Type "pine" once you get in your account and follow directions.
Lecture 3. AMES 5, Wednesday, 30 Sept. 1998
The goals of today's session are:
These are left over from Monday, and will probably keep us busy the full hour. If time remains, we can look at some of the demo programs supplied by Catlin on the disk included with the textbook, and try out the "do trace" program according to directions given in TB Ref.
Lecture 4. AMES 5, Friday, 2 Oct. 1998
By this time most of you will have been to your first section and done your first homework set. You have until the beginning of your next section to turn it in. Don't forget to include your codeword file, so your TA can enter your codeword in their grade spreadsheet. I will collect these and post coded grade sheets as I get them, so you can see how you are doing compared to the rest of the class. I will review my version of the first homework set in class, so you can see the format the TAs will be looking for in the AMES 5 Drop Box folder.
As mentioned previously, you should test all of your Modified Example Programs (eg.: MEX2-2) and Practice Programs (eg.: PP2.1) using the PowerMacs in the AMES 5 laboratory before you submit your folder (eg.: A07-HW1, Roe, R.) by dragging it to the AMES 5 Drop Box folder (or the alias of the folder you'll see when you open the PowerMac hard disc, and follow the directions). There is a conversion program called "Mac _-_ PC file conversion" which you can use if you do your homework using an IBM clone PC. This program can be copied, so you can put it on your disks for use on other machines. You can use it to convert the Catlin example programs to PC format for use on IBM clone machines.
