CS 255 Information Structures and Representations

Introduction

As the course title states, this class will discuss the representation and structure of information. A lot of the work in software development is to model the real world inside the computer. The environment inside the computer is very simple and limited. We start by showing how to store simple data like characters and numbers and work up to more complex structures like arrays, lists and trees. As part of this effort, we will also study a number of algorithms to manipulate these structures. These include sorting and searching algorithms. We will also write some small programs in a pseuedo machine language. It is important for programmers to understand how their tools work, at a fairly low level.

I expect to cover the topics listed below in the order listed. There might be changes along the way.
 
Teacher Kent Archie
Phone Work: (630) 979-7343 Home: (630) 393-1788
Email karchie@lucent.com
Email mtnr2@xnet.com
Web Site http://www.xnet.com/~mtnr2/depaul/cs255
Office Hours After class and by appointment
Text Computer Science: An Overview, J. Glenn Brookshear, Addison Wesley, 1997
Class Time Wednesday, 6:00-9:15 PM
Room Naperville Campus
Week/Date Topics Class Notes Assignments Notes Reading
Week 1 3/31/1999  Introduction, data storage  Lecture 1      Introduction, Chapter 1
Week 2 4/7/1999  Character and number representation, storage devices   Lecture 2  Pg. 24, #2
Pg. 29, #2
Pg. 43, #3
Pg. 51 #1		    Chapter 1
Week 3 4/14/1999  Machine architecture, real and hypothetical Lecture 3     Machine Simulator  Chapter 2
Week 4 4/21/1999 Continued discussion of machine architecture    Lecture 4   Project 1   Program 1 Solution  Chapter 2
Week 5 4/28/1999  Operating systems, Review   Lecture 5      Chapter 3
Week 6 5/5/1999  OS and Networks. MIDTERM  Lecture 6    Review Notes  Chapter 3
Week 7 5/12/1999  More algorithm discussion  Lecture 7    Chapter 4
Week 8 5/19/1999  Data structures, arrays   Lecture 8  Project 2    Chapter 7
Week 9 5/26/1999  Data structures, lists   Lecture 9  Assignment 2    Chapter 7
Week 10 6/2/1999 Data structures, stacks, trees. Review   Lecture 10  Assignment 3  Final Review Notes  Chapter 7
Week 11 6/9/1999 Final No Lecture      
Week 12 6/16/1999 Grades Due