Course staff & office hours

Jesse Tov^*	`jesse@eecs`	Mudd 3510	Gladly by appointment
Kevin Qiu^¶	`KevinQiu2020@u`	Tech M338	Su 3–5 PM
Jayden Soni^¶	`JaydenSoni2020@u`	Mudd 3538	M 12–2 PM
Michael Cuevas^¶	`MichaelCuevas2021@u`	Mudd 3538	M 6–8 PM
Elise Lee^¶	`EliseLee2021@u`	Mudd 3538	Tu 10 AM–12 PM
Kieran Bondy^¶	`KieranBondy2021@u`	Mudd 3538	Tu 12–2 PM
Jordan Zax^¶	`JordanZax2021@u`	Mudd 3538	Tu 12–2 PM
Paul Farcasanu^¶	`PaulFarcasanu2021@u`	Tech M338	Tu 6–8 PM
Sarah O’Brien^¶	`SarahOBrien2020@u`	Mudd 3538	W 12–2 PM
Alex Rhee^¶	`AlexanderRhee2021@u`	Mudd 3538	W 2–4 PM
Samuel Hill^†	`SamuelHill2022@u`	Mudd 3108	W 4–6 PM
Aaron Kaneti^¶	`AaronKaneti2020@u`	Mudd 3538	W 6–8 PM
Matt Cheung^¶	`MattCheung2019@u`	Tech M338	W 8–10 PM
Michael Ji^¶	`MichaelJi2021@u`	Mudd 3538	Th 12–2 PM
Finley Lau^¶	`FinleyLau2021@u`	Mudd 3538	Th 6–8 PM
Corinne Burger^¶	`CorinneBurger2020@u`	Tech M338	Th 8–10 PM
German Espinosa^†	`GermanEspinosa@u`	Mudd 3538	F 2–4 PM
Mario Lizano^¶	`MarioLizano2020@u`	Mudd 3538	F 4–6 PM

^* Instructor

^† Head TA

^¶ Peer TA

Note: Tech M338 is Wilkinson Lab.

General information

EECS 211 teaches foundational software design skills at a small-to-medium scale. We aim to provide a bridge from the student-oriented How to Design Programs curriculum to real, industry-standard languages and tools. We begin by learning the basics of imperative programming and manual memory management using the C programming language. Then we transition to C++, which provides abstraction mechanisms such as classes and templates that we use to express our design ideas. Topics include expressions, statements, types, functions, branches and iteration, user-defined types, data hiding, basic UNIX shell usage, and testing.

Prerequisites

EECS 111 or proficiency with the HtDP Design Recipe.

Assessment

We will have two 80-minute, in-class exams:

Tuesday, February 5
Tuesday, March 12

There will be no final exam.

Resources

Books

Optional textbooks:

Bjarne Stroustrup, Programming: Principles and Practice, Second Edition.
Paul Deitel & Harvey Deitel, C++ How to Program, 9th Edition.

Highly recommend optional book:

Scott Meyers, Effective Modern C++.

Software

In a few weeks, we will switch to a full-featured IDE (integrated development environment). For now, however, all you need is a terminal emulator and SSH client to login to Tlab.

Mac: Your computer comes with Terminal.app and OpenSSH, so you have everything you need. (Your instructor uses iTerm2 instead of Terminal.app.)
Windows: PuTTY is a free program that does both terminal emulation and SSH. The easiest way to install it is the MSI installer.
Linux, UNIX, etc.: You need an SSH client (e.g., from Ubuntu’s openssh-client package) and probably a terminal emulator (e.g., xterm or rxvt).

Online resources

EECS 211 Style Manual—follow this!
Piazza discussion board—ask questions here!
C reference
C++ reference
GE211 reference

Class schedule

This table specifies the course schedule; topics are tentative.

January
Tu	W	Th
8 Administrivia [slides]; the edit-compile-run cycle [slides]	9 Lab 1: Unix shell [pdf]	10 Types, values & variables [slides]; separate compilation [slides]
15 Arrays and iteration [slides]; pointers [slides]	16 Lab 2	17 More pointers [slides] Homework 1 [pdf]
22 Dynamic memory allocation [slides]	23 Lab 3: String functions [pdf]	24 Linked data structures [slides] Homework 2 [pdf]
29 C Wrap Up [slides]	30 – Cold —	31 The C++ Object Lifecycle [slides] Homework 3 [pdf]
February
Tu	W	Th
5 First exam	6 – No labs —	7 Intro to GE211: model vs. UI [C++ source: zip or pdf]
12 C++ for the C programmer [slides, source: zip or pdf]	13 Lab 4 [pdf, zip] Homework 4 [pdf]	14 Access control [slides, source: zip or pdf]
19 RAII [slides, zip]; figuring stuff out [slides, zip]	20 Lab 5 [pdf, zip] Homework 5 [pdf, zip]	21 More RAII [slides, zip]
26 Generics [zip]	27 Lab 6 [pdf, zip]	28 Polymorphism [pdf, zip] *Due Friday* at 11:59 PM Final Project Proposal [pdf, code]; Due Saturday at 11:59 PM** Homework 6 [pdf, code]
March
Tu	W	Th
5 More polymorphism [pdf, zip]	6 Lab 7 [pdf, zip]	7 Exam review
12 Second exam	13 No lab!	14 Exam return / STL [pdf, zip] Final Project [pdf, code]

Lab sections

W	9 AM	Tech M166	Elise	`EliseLee2021@u`
	10 AM	Tech LG68	Finley & Michael J.	`FinleyLau2021@u` & `MichaelJi2021@u`
	12 PM	Tech M166	Jayden	`JaydenSoni2020@u`
	1 PM	Tech L168	Corinne & Matt	`CorinneBurger2020@u` & `MattCheung2019@u`
	3 PM	Annenberg G31	Jordan	`JordanZax2021@u`
	4 PM	Tech F280	Kieran & Sarah	`KieranBondy2021@u` & `SarahOBrien2020@u`
	4 PM	Tech LG68	Alex	`AlexanderRhee2021@u`
	5 PM	Tech LG62	Aaron & Mario	`AaronKaneti2020@u` & `MarioLizano2020@u`
Th	9 AM	Tech LG62	Paul	`PaulFarcasanu2021@u`
Th	10 AM	Tech M349	Kevin & Michael C.	`KevinQiu2020@u` & `MichaelCuevas2021@u`

Course policies

Collaboration and academic integrity

You may not collaborate with anyone on any of the exams. You may not use any electronic tools, including phones, tablets, netbooks, laptops, desktop computers, etc. If in doubt, ask a member of the course staff.

Some homework assignments will be completed with an assigned partner or team. You must collaborate with your assigned partner or team, as specified, on homework assignments. You may request help from any staff member on homework. (When you are working with a partner, we strongly recommend that you request help with your partner.) You may use the Piazza bulletin board to ask questions regarding assignments, so long as your questions (and answers) do not reveal information regarding solutions. You may not get any help from anyone else on a homework assignment; all material submitted must be your own. If in doubt, ask a member of the course staff.

Providing illicit help to another student is also cheating, and will be punished the same as receiving illicit help. It is your responsibility to safeguard your own work.

Students who cheat will be reported to the appropriate dean.

If you are unclear on any of these policies, please ask a member of the course staff.

Homework

For each homework, we provide a TGZ or ZIP file containing starter files. You must download this TGZ or ZIP file to start your homework, as it has a Makefile or CMakeLists.txt with the correct compiler settings and “starter” source files with the correct names that the grading tests will expect.

Code submission

Submit your code via GSC. (Please note that your GSC username must be your 6- or 7-character Northwestern NetID.) Submit only files you have added or changed. This means any .c, .cpp, or .h files you edit or create, necessary game resource files, and Makefile or CMakeLists.txt if you happen to change that.

Do not ever submit executable files or other build products (meaning those in your build or cmake-build-debug directory).

Self evaluation

Every homework assignment will be followed by a 48-hour self evaluation period on GSC. The self evalution will account for a potentially significant portion of your grade–possibly upwards of 50% some weeks. In other words, to get full credit for the code that you submit, you must do self evaluation as well.

Late work

Late code will not be accepted.

Late self evaluations may be accepted at the instructor’s discretion; please email and ask.

Grades

Your grade will be based on your performance on seven weekly programming assignments, one two-week final project, and two midterm exams. There will be no final exam.

Each exam counts for 15% of your grade. The final project counts for 20%. The balance (50%) is divided equally between your best six of the seven weekly homeworks.

The mapping of raw point totals to letter grades is at the discretion of the instructor.