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    COURSE SYLLABUS

    COP 3344-01 Introduction to Unix
    Fall 2007

Prerequisites:

None.

Class Schedule:

Activity Day Time Location
Lecture M 2:30 pm - 3:20 pm MCH 201

Contact Information:

Instructor: Ashok Srinivasan
Office hours: Tue 2 pm - 3 pm, Fri 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm. I am also usually available in my office, and you can feel free to meet me in the afternoons, except before class. Alternatively, you may schedule an appointment, either by email or by phone.
Office: 169, Love Building
Phone: 644-0559
Email: asriniva AT cs.fsu.edu

Teaching
Assistant:

 Andre Rodriguez
Office hours: M 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm
Office: CS Majors' Lab
Phone: TBA
Email: ar07g AT fsu.edu or anrodrig AT cs.fsu.edu

Course Material:

Recommended Text (there is no required text)
Computer Accounts

Course Rationale:

You will need to use Unix/Linux systems in future courses, including programming courses. This courses teaches you to use Unix machines, which will help you in those courses. It will also prove useful to you when you work, if you use Unix systems there.

Course Description:

This course will introduce the Unix operating system, discuss Unix commands, the file system, text editors, the Unix shell, and shell scripts.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this course, you should be able to accomplish the objectives given below.

Your Responsibilities:

Deadlines and Instructions

Following the same professional guidelines that you will encounter at work, there are strict deadlines, and instructions that must be followed. Please read instructions carefully, and schedule your activities so that you submit assignments well in time. You should check your garnet email account and the class web page regularly, and note other announcements, on-line and in class.

Reading Assignments

After each lecture, you will be given a reading assignment pertaining to that lecture. You should read these, and also practice writing code. New material builds on the old ones. So, if you have trouble with some material, please get help through the discussion board on Blackboard, or from a teaching assistant or me, before the next class. You should also peruse the material for the next lecture, and be prepared to answer questions on it, which I will provide in advance. You will be given an online quiz on these, which you should complete by 2 pm Friday each week. You may use books and a computer in order to answer the quiz questions.

I expect that you will need to spend between one and two hours for each lecture, learning the material taught. The assignments and exams will consume additional time.

Homework Assignments

You will have five homework assignments in this course, and you will have around one week to work on each one. The assignments will be announced on the Blackboard course web site under the "Assignments" tab. They can also be accessed from links from the course calendar. Assignment submission instructions are available at www.cs.fsu.edu/~asriniva/courses/IntUnix07/HWinstructions.html. The assignments may consume more time than you initially anticipate. So, please start working on them as soon as they are announced. Note that our systems do crash occasionally. So, it is particularly important for you to complete them at least a day in advance. We will normally not extend the deadline, unless the systems is down for more than a day.

Course Calendar:

Week Lecture Topic Assignments
1 27 Aug Basic concepts, logging in, file transfer.
2 3 Sep Labor Day -- no class.
3 10 Sep File system Assignment 1 announced 10 Sep.
4 17 Sep Text editors: vi, pico, emacs Assignment 1 due 17 Sep.
5 24 Sep Some useful commands, I/O redirection
6 1 Oct Introduction to shell programming Assignment 2 announced 1 Oct.
7 8 Oct Midterm review Assignment 2 due 8 Oct.
But you may submit until Oct 10 without a late penalty.
8 15 Oct Midterm Midterm this week!
9 22 Oct Shell programming -- control constructs, loops
10 29 Oct Make Assignment 3 announced 29 Oct.
11 5 Nov Regular expressions and grep
12 12 Nov Veterans' Day -- No class Assignment 3 due 11 Nov.
Assignment 4 announced 12 Nov.
13 19 Nov Perl Assignment 4 due 19 Nov.
14 26 Nov More Perl Assignment 5 announced 26 Nov.
15 3 Dec Startup files Assignment 5 due 3 Dec.
16 14 Dec Final exam: Friday 10:00 am - 12 noon.

Grading Criteria:

The overall grade will be based on your performance in (i) exams, (ii) online quizzes, and (iii) assignments, with weights as given in Table 1. Your weighted average in the midterm and final exam should be at least 70% for you to get a course grade of C or better. If you meet this constraint, then your final grade will be determined using Table 2.

    Table 1: Course Points
    Item Weight
    Online quizzes 10
    Assignments 30
    Midterm 30
    Final Exam (comprehensive) 30
    Table 2: Letter Grades
    Points Grade
    92 - 100 A
    90 - 91 A-
    88 - 89 B+
    82 - 87 B
    80 - 81 B-
    78 - 79 C+
    72 - 77 C
    70 - 71 C-
    68 - 69 D+
    62 - 67 D
    60 - 61 D-
    0 - 59 F

NOTE: You must earn a weighted average of 70% in the exams to be awarded a course grade of C or better. For example, if you obtain a total of 78%, but an exam average of only 65%, then you will not get a C+. Instead, you will get a C-, because that is the highest grade for which you will be eligible without meeting the exam cutoff.

Assignment Assessment

You must understand your work. If you are asked to explain your work, and you are unable to do so, you may be assigned a grade of zero.

Course Policies:

Attendance Policy

The university requires attendance in all classes, and it is also important to your learning. The attendance record may be provided to deans who request it. If your grade is just a little below the cutoff for a higher grade, then your attendance will be one of the factors that we consider in deciding whether to "bump" you up to the higher grade. Missing two or fewer lectures will be considered good attendance. In rare cases, such as medical needs or jury duty, absences may be excused with appropriate documentation. You should let me know in advance, when possible, and submit the documentation I seek. You should make up for any materials missed due to absences.

Missed Exam Policy

A missed exam will be recorded as a grade of zero. We will follow the university rules regarding missed final exams (see http://registrar.fsu.edu/dir_class/fall/exam_schedule.htm), for all the exams, including the final exam.

Late Assignment Policy

In order to enable us to provide timely solutions to assignments, we have the following policy regarding submission of late assignments. Note that if you submit an assignment multiple times, the last submission alone will be considered for grading. Therefore, if the last submission is late, then a late submission penalty will apply, even if your earlier submissions had been on time.

Grade of 'I' Policy

The grade of 'I' will be assigned only under the following exceptional circumstances:

Professional Ethics

You will gain confidence in your ability to make effective use of Unix systems only when you answer the assignments yourself. On the other hand, one does learn a lot through discussions with ones peers. In order to balance these two goals, I give below a list of things that you may, and may not, do.

Things you may not do: You should not copy code or solutions from others. This includes directly copying the files, or making modifications to others' solutions and submitting them as your own. Furthermore, you should take steps to ensure that others cannot copy code from you -- in particular, you should have all permissions on assignment files and directories unset for others.

Things you may do: You may discuss with others specific problems related to use of the computer and useful utilities. For example, you may ask others about how to submit your homework, or how to use the text editor. Honor Code: Students are expected to uphold the academic honor code published in "The Florida State University Bulletin" and the "Student Handbook". Please read the provisions of the Academic Honor Code: http://dof.fsu.edu/honorpolicy.htm.

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is "representing another's work or any part thereof, be it published or unpublished, as ones own. For example, plagiarism includes failure to use quotation marks or other conventional markings around material quoted from any source" (Florida State University General Bulletin 1998-1999, p. 69). Failure to document material properly, that is, to indicate that the material came from another source, is also considered a form of plagiarism. Copying someone else's program, and turning it in as if it were your own work, is also considered plagiarism.

SYLLABUS CHANGE POLICY:

This syllabus is a guide for the course and is subject to change with advanced notice.

Last modified: 22 Oct 2007