Discussion 3C: F 10:00-12:00 in BH 4283 CS 31 – Fall 2008 – UCLA
Office Hours: W 10:30-12:30 in BH 4428 chuong [at] cs [dot] ucla [dot] edu

News | Projects & HW | Discussions | Related Materials

NEWS

Wednesday 12/03/08

Monday 12/01/08

Wednesday 11/19/08

  • Project 6 is already up on the main class website.

Monday 11/17/08

  • You’re not gonna like my help on project 5.

Friday 11/14/08

  • Long time no quiz. Here you go: Quiz 4 is posted.
  • I’ve been so busy lately. I will post more notes on Project 5 soon.

Saturday 11/08/08

Thursday 10/30/08

  • Midterm:
    • The questions will be something like: why doesn’t this piece of code compile successfully (syntax error)? what’s wrong with this piece of code, fix it (logic error)? what is the output of this? write a few lines of code that do this? rewrite the following code using different structures? write a function that does this? etc.
    • Main topics: C++ basics (chapter 1), Flow of Control (chapter 2), Functions (chapter 3), Parameters (chapter 4), Arrays (chapter 5).
    • If you don’t have time to read all the chapters, at least read all the “Pitfalls”.
    • Review my discussion notes. Review the quizzes.
    • Project 4 is meant to be review materials for you guys. So if you understand and implement Project 4 completely, you definitely will do well on the Midterm.
    • For problems that require you to trace through code. Please write down the variable names and values. Update them as you go through the code. Visual aid always helps.
    • The empty space right below a question should be enough for you to write your answer. So, if you need more space (or even flip on the other side of a page), you are doing something wrong.
    • This is a brief English sentence.
  • Project 4 notes are posted.

Wednesday 10/29/08

Thursday 10/23/08

Tuesday 10/21/08

  • While grading Project 2, I see that you guys either under-comment or over-comment. Remember, a comment should explain the “main idea” of the following line of codes. Try to shoot for 1 comment every 5-15 lines of code.
  • Those comments can easily form pseudocode for your project. Or, if you do it the right way, first start with the approach of how you’re going to solve a particular task, then write it down as pseudocode, and the pseudocode will naturally become your comments.
  • Appropriate comments and meaningful variable names:
    • The reason to have appropriate amount of comments is for a viewer to quickly go through your program without having to read every single line of code. Just by skimming through the comments, the viewer should be able to understand what this program is doing.
    • The reason to have meaningful variable names is for a viewer, when he/she does want to look at the detail of the code line by line, to easily relate a variable to the value it contains.
    • The point is: READABILITY and MAINTAINABILITY.

Monday 10/20/08

  • OK guys, pay attention. There are 4 official documents regarding Project 3:
    • Project 3 specs. This spec is loooooooooooooooooooong, if you ask me. I don’t remember Project 3 specs used to be this long when I took or TA’ed the class. SKIM THROUGH IT to get the general idea of WHAT you’re supposed to do.
    • Project 3 warmup. Now, follow our advice of “starting early”, work on this one right away. This pretty much will set up a basic structure for your project files.
    • Project 3 FAQ, the official FAO. Check it first before firing questions to the Professors or TAs.
    • 2nd note on strings. This is a different tutorial regarding strings (more advance) than the old 1st note on strings.
  • Keep checking Discussion notes on Project 3 for additional help.

Saturday 10/18/08

  • Please check out the Project 3 warmup. Project 3 is due the following Tuesday. So you have 2 weekends to work on it. Or 1 if you are being lazy and party too much this weekend.
  • Discussion 3 notes are posted.

Tuesday 10/14/08

Wednesday 10/08/08

  • My OHs change to Wednesday 10:30-12:30 in BH 4428
  • Quiz 2 is posted.
  • For Friday, please be prepared for discussion:
  • Both Project 2 and Homework are due next Thursday, more than a week from today.

Friday 10/03/08

  • Interesting, this is the first time I’ve seen we include such a support (or at least a tutorial) for development on the MAC OS. Check out how to create a C++ project using Xcode.
  • Please remember still, before you submit your project, make sure to compile it under Visual C++ 2008, because it is the compiler we use to compile and test your program. In general, if your program compiles successfully using other compilers (gcc/g++ under Linux or the modified version of it under MAC), 99% of the time, your program will be fine with Visual C++ 2008. However, you should not take your chances with the other 1%. Programs with compile-errors will get 0 for correctness.
  • Quiz 1 is posted.
  • Check out important notes for project 1.

Thursday 10/02/08

  • We will have in-class paper-quiz every discussion (unless I’m way too lazy that week, which I will try not to be), as a way for you guys to practice and get familiar with the midterm/final exams format. The quiz will be posted under the Discussions. In order to get the solution (and understand it), you need to come to discussion because we will go over the solution right after quiz time.

Saturday 09/27/08

Friday 09/26/08

  • When emailing me, please include “CS31″ at the beginning of your Subject, and give the Subject line a clear/short/concise topic.
  • E.g. “CS31: Project 2 – how many test cases do we need?”

Thursday 09/25/08

  • Welcome to Discussion 3C of the CS 31 class in Fall 08.
  • This site is maintained by Chuong Nguyen, the TA of Discussion 3C. The materials presented here are discussion and TA-related.
  • Visit the main CS31 class website for lecture-related materials.