CSc 232
Selected Language Programming: Perl

Spring, 2007

2 Credits

Instructor:		Tom Bennet
Office:		302 MCC
Phone:		925-3815
Email:		bennet@mc.edu
Text:		See: Web Resources
Web Page:		http://sandbox.mc.edu/~bennet/ruby

A study of the syntax and features of the Ruby language.

The Ruby language is several years old, but it has seen a recent increase in popularity, primarily for generating dynamic web content. It is highly object-oriented, and has been described as cross between perl and Smalltalk. We will study the basic Ruby syntax and semantics, then delve into one or more of the many available application libraries, as time permits. Instruction will be through lecture, demonstration, and programming projects.

Grading

Points in this course will be assigned as follows. Grades are based on the percentage of points earned, as shown.

Activity Points Programming Projects 300 Midterm exam 75 Comprehensive Final Exam 100 TOTAL 475

Points Percent Grade 427 - 475 90% - 100% A 380 - 426 80% - 89% B 332 - 379 70% - 79% C 285 - 331 60% - 69% D 0 - 284 0% - 59% F

There will be several programming assignments of varying difficulty, a midterm exam, and a comprehensive final exam. The final will be on the last regular class day, Monday, April 30, 2007. The last day to drop this course is Friday, March, 23.

The semester point total may vary due to unforeseen circumstances. Any variance will be small. Final grades will be based on these same percentages of the actual total.

Projects

There is no formal lab section for this course; students are expected to complete programming projects outside of class. The Linux machine sandbox.mc.edu is available for your use, as are the public PC labs. Any student who does not have an account on Sandbox should apply for one. Free executables of Ruby are available from the ruby-lang.org for your own PC, on most any OS.

Projects should be handed in on time, and late projects are charged 10 points for each day late. However, each student has five free late days which may be spent on any programming project in any combination. Free late days are not transferable, and expire at start of the final exam.

Topics

The following topics will be covered.

• Basic Data Structures and Variables.
• Control Structures.
• Lists and Maps.
• Iterators.
• Classes and objects.
• Regular Expressions and Text Handling.
• As time allows, a selection of available Ruby modules.

Attendance

Mississippi College class attendance policies as described on pp. 46 and 47 of the college catalog will be enforced. Absences may be excused for illness or other appropriate cause. Exams missed due to circumstances beyond the student's control may be made up at a mutually agreeable time and place. Adequate documentation of the cause of an absence may be required.

Academic Honesty

Mississippi College regulations regarding the integrity of academic work, policy 2.19 will be enforced. The computer science group has established the following addendum:

In a computer science class individual effort is expected. Student misconduct not only includes cheating on tests, but also extends to copying or collaborating on programming assignments, projects, lab work or research unless otherwise specified by the instructor. Using other people's accounts to do your work or having others do your work is prohibited. Close proximity in lab does not mean collaboration is permitted. NOTE: Discussing logical solutions to problems is acceptable, exchange of code, pseudocode, designs, or procuring solutions from the Web, other texts, the Internet or other resources on or off campus is not acceptable.

First offense: grade of 0 for all parties involved unless the guilty party can be determined. Second offense: grade of F in the course.