Final Project DQs due Tomorrow at 5! (posted: Wed. 12/05 5:44PM)

A friendly reminder that design questions are due tomorrow at 5pm to the handin bin. We'll be getting them back to you within a few days!

Last Lecture Tomorrow! (posted: Mon. 12/03 5:46PM)

This is a reminder that the very last lecture will be given tomorrow by the HTAs on Exceptions, IO, and Threads. Same time, same place!

Final Project hours have started (posted: Sat. 12/01 3:04PM)

As we mentioned in class, you must now look at the individual hours on the FinalProject sites to find out when a TA is on hours.

PizzaDexLab due Saturday night (posted: Fri. 11/30 4:30PM)

Just a friendly reminder to everyone that PizzaDexLab is due Saturday night by 10pm. There are a few TA hours today and tomorrow, but not as many other days, so plan ahead!

Order a CS15 T-Shirt!(posted: Fri. 11/30 11:00AM)

Want this shirt to help you remember your CS15 experience forever?

(Click to see larger image)
Just email the HTAs! Tell us what size you want in the email (the size chart is here) The price will be around 10-12$ depending on how many orders we receive. Please get your order to us by midnight on Monday, December 3rd.

Help Sessions tomorrow (posted: Wed. 11/28 10:30PM)

Tomorrow will be the in-class help sessions geared toward the project you have chosen. These will be more comprehensive than the ones in the past to give you a good jump start on the design questions. To give us an idea of how many people are doing each project, please type 'finalChoice' into a shell and let us know!

Final Project Skits this Tuesday--dont miss it! (posted: Mon. 11/26 12:11PM)

In class on Tuesday, we will be showing the skits for each of the final projects to help you decide which project seems the most fun, awesome, and kickass. Make sure not to miss this class, as it is one of the most fun of the year! Also, don't miss the in-class helpsession for each of the final projects on Thursday. Note that this helpsession is BEFORE the design questions are due. The DQs are due December 6th at 5pm and are worth 10% of your final project grade. They are posted on the assignments page.

Movie Night! (posted: Sun. 11/25 5:26PM)

By popular demand, we'll be showing one or two of Andy's favorite films at 7pm on Thursday in B&H 168. We'll watch either Stanley Kubrick's "2001" or Fritz Lange's "Metropolis", or maybe both, depending on what people want to see. Hope to see everyone there!

Indy Reminder (posted: Sun. 11/25 1:47PM)

If you're interested in doing an Indy, remember that your initial design is due on Tuesday, Nov. 27th at 11:59pm. This is a relatively short overview of your program from the user's perspective, as well as a high level description of your design. For details, consult the Indy Handout. Drop your designs in the handin bin or email them to gpascale@cs.brown.edu.

TA Hours (posted: Sat. 11/24 8:55PM)

TA Hours will be officially starting up again on Monday, Nov. 26th at 4pm. If any TAs happen to want to hold any Sunday hours on the 25th, they will email the listserv. Extra TA Hours have been distributed from Monday through Thursday this upcoming week to help out on Tetris and PizzaDex, and these will be posted on the web by Sunday evening. Good luck finishing these projects!

Final Projects are out! (posted: Sat. 11/17 1:53PM)

If you weren't in class on Thursday, Final Projects are out. The individual websites for each of the projects are on the Final Projects section of the website, so make sure to browse through them, and you can find the handouts for each project on these sites as well. We don't expect you to be working on them right now, but we do want you to read the handouts, and get an idea of which project you want to do. If you're interested in doing an Indy, there will be a help session on Monday at 8, and we'll meet in the CIT lobby. Good luck and have a great Thanksgiving Break!

On-time and late Tetris date extended! (posted: Thu. 11/15 4:28PM)

We have extended the deadline for on-time and late Tetris handins by one day. We have also extended the PizzaDexLab due date by one day. Please use this extra day wisely, but please don't start later because of it! You should definitely be started by now. Start early, start yesterday!

Andy's Final Lecture! Don't miss it! (posted: Wed. 11/14 10:27AM)

This Thursday, Andy will be giving his final lecture of the semester on graphics. It is a really fun lecture, and we highly recommend you all come! If you are interested in continuing in CS, this lecture will give you a peek at what you can learn about and create in cs123, but even if cs15 is the end of the CS road for you, it will still be a great and informative lecture. Keep in mind that although this is Andy's final lecture of the semester, there are still classes related to the final projects after Thanksgiving break that are very important to attend and you shouldn't miss!

PizzaDex Suggestions (posted: Wed. 11/14 2:55AM)

We hope that all of you will make use of this last lab session to receive help from TAs on PizzaDex. Keep in mind that although it is due a while from now on November 30th, because it coincides with Tetris, you may find yourself cramped with finishing PizzaDex if you put it off completely until after break. Some of you may decide to do PizzaDex over Thanksgiving break, which is completely fine, but make sure you have remote login set up correctly before you leave if this is your plan of action. Good luck!

Preregister for CS16 (posted: Tue. 11/13 1:44PM)

Today is the last day for preregistration! If you're considering taking CS16, please preregister so the department can get a better idea of the numbers in the class. This has a direct impact on how many TAs are hired for the class. Thanks!

A Word To The Wise: (posted: Mon. 11/12 4:50PM)

MoSS has been seeing some suspicious similarity between pairs of programs, and the longer the programs, the more obvious undue similarity becomes. Please stay well within the limits prescribed by the collaboration contract! Also, please do not overuse TAs. From this point on, we will be enforcing the policy that a student can only come up to TAs once per hour, so please try to sit down with your code and take some time to figure things out on your own. We want to help, but we also want you to be self-sufficient.

CS15 T-shirt contest! (posted: Sun. 11/11 3:15PM)

Put your creative skills to excellent use by submitting a design to the CS15 T-shirt contest! Make a funny drawing or saying and submit it to us either in person or by email. If your design is chosen, it will be put on t-shirts and you will be immortalized forever!!! Please get submissions to us before the Thanksgiving break.

UTA Infosession! (posted: Wed. 11/07 2:42PM)

Just as a reminder, the UTA Infosession is today, Wednesday, 4pm on the 3rd floor atrium. If you finish CS15, you will be qualified to TA CS4 in the spring. TAing is a great experience, and a great way to get involved with the department. At the infosession, you'll also be able to hear about classes you may be interested in taking next semester. Not to mention, there will be food!

PizzaDex Clarifications (posted: Tue. 11/06 4:13PM)

In the MyList.java file, you will find two methods called getNext() and getPrevious(). These sound like accessors, but they aren't. All they should do is update your _current pointer to point to either the next or previous node respectively, just as prev() and next() in the lecture slides do. Also, the method called delete in lecture is called remove in MyList.java, but you probably figured that one out.

Tetris Helpsession Slides Posted (posted: Sat. 11/03 1:02PM)

The Helpsession slides have been posted for Tetris. Make sure to take a look at them as you do the Design Questions--you'll probably find them very helpful.

Tetris Help Session (posted: Sat. 11/03 12:30PM)

The Tetris Help Session will be held Thursday, November 8th at 8pm in CIT Room 368. We'll have somebody downstairs to key everyone up to the 3rd floor. Tetris is a much larger project so this help session will go into more depth than previous ones. We highly recommend that you attend, and remember to bring questions!

Tetris is Out (posted: Sat. 11/03 9:08AM)

This is just a reminder that Tetris is now out and design questions are due on Thursday, November 8th at 2:30pm. Tetris is a big project and the design questions will take you a while, so be sure to start early. Don't panic if you're not finished with Swarm yet, but it's probably a good idea to finish it up before starting on Tetris.

Midterm Questionnaire (posted: Tue. 10/30 4:12PM)

Before we will grade your Swarm, you must fill out the Midterm Questionaire. To get to it, type 'cs015_midtermQ' into a terminal. Your feedback is important, and it's anonymous, so don't be afraid to be honest!

Special DreamWorks Lecture (posted: Thu. 10/25 4:01PM)

DreamWorks Pipeline Architect Jeff Beall (CS'96) will be giving a lecture on Monday, October 29th from 3-4:30pm in Lubrano (4th floor CIT). The presentation will give an overview of technology is used at DreamWorks Animation to facilitate the computer animation production process. He will be looking at some of the departments involved in production, their technical needs, and how they work together to assemble the movie. He will also focus on what goes into creating the visual effects for computer animated feature films, using several shots as examples. Finally, he will present aspects of their software engineering process for building the technology for production.

Though the lecture is advertised for cs123/cs125 students, cs15 students are more than welcome, and will have no problem understanding the presentation.

Cartoon Handin Issues (posted: Mon. 10/22 9:55PM)

There have been some problems with handing in Cartoon. The first, and more serious one is that if you handed in early, we may not have your handin due to some technical problems that are not your fault . You should have gotten an email about this already if this problem may have affected you, but if you handed in Cartoon early, you should hand it in again. Don't worry about the fact that the early deadline has now passed. If you handed in early originally, you'll still be getting the extra points.

Also, lots of people are getting "Compilation Failed" messages when trying to hand in their code. It seems that xemacs likes to create files of the form '#filename.java#' or '.#filename.java#' which confuse our script. If you get a compilation error when you try to hand in, first try removing any such files from your project directory and handing in again. You can see these files that start with a '.' by typing 'ls -al' in your terminal. If that doesn't fix it, hand the project in anyway but go see a TA to make sure it worked. If you can compile your code successfully, there is a 99% chance the error message is not your fault, but you should see a TA just to make sure.

Very sorry for the inconvenience(s). Good Luck with your projects!

Advanced Swing (posted: Thu. 10/18 5:54PM)

The slides and lab for Advanced Swing are now up on the Labs section of the website. Feel free to use them to do extra credit for your Cartoon, and come to TA hours if there is anything in them that you don't understand.

Cartoon Design Questions (posted: Tue. 10/16 11:27AM)

There was an error in our grading database and the design questions for Cartoon were not successfully recorded. If you already picked up your design questions, please bring them to a Head TA so we can record you down as having completed the assignment and what grade you received. If you have not yet picked up your DQs, we still have them and will put them back in the handback bin once we re-record the scores. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience!

Advice for Cartoon (posted: Thu. 10/11 4:30PM)

Getting familiar with Swing can sometimes take a lot of trial and error. Because of this, the best way to be successful coding your Cartoon is to code incrementally. This means that you should start by coding a frame and panel, compile the code, and make sure what you expect to show up actually shows up. Then you can move to sliders, buttons, and your composite shape. Good luck!

Sick of killing trees? (posted: Wed. 10/03 11:51PM)

If you are bringing up lots of pieces of paper to the TAs and are starting to feel remorse for the trees you may be killing, try this: type 'cs015_print *.java' into a terminal from the folder containing your java files. They will print out double-sided, in a smaller font, and in two columns per side. Do your part! Save the trees!

Reminder: References due tomorrow at 5pm (posted: Mon. 10/01 9:34PM)

Just a friendly reminder that References is due in the handin bin at 5pm tomorrow (Tuesday, October 2). Come see a TA on hours if you are having trouble hand simulating the copy methods!

Lab resumes this week (posted: Mon. 10/01 1:59PM)

Don't forget that regular lab will be held this week at the normal times. We'll be working on interfaces and polymorphism!

NO LAB this week! (posted: Mon. 09/24 4:33PM)

There will be no lab this week since we'll need to have both Tuesday's and Thursday's lecture covered before we tackle lab 3 on Interfaces and Polymorphism. We expect that you will use this break from lab as an opportunity to get on top of your assignments in CS15, and catch up on any material you feel you are still shaky on. In particular, you may want to use the lab break as a chance to start early on References and TAPlayhouse, as these two assignments can be tricky. Lab will resume again next week (the week of Oct. 2).

LiteBrite DQs Graded! (posted: Sun. 09/23 4:38PM)

LiteBrite Design Questions have been graded and are in the handback bin in CIT 271. Keep in mind the early handin for LiteBrite is this Tuesday, September 25th at 11:59pm. The on-time handin is Thursday, September 27th, at 11:59pm. The late handin is Saturday, September 29th, at 10pm. Good luck coding!

New LiteBrite Help Session Slides (posted: Fri. 09/21 7:18PM)

The new LiteBrite Help Session Slides are up! These are the slides we made this year based on your design questions, and should be very helpful. They are on the Assignments page under 'new ppt'. Good luck on LiteBrite, and don't forget to come to hours with questions!

Tutors available (posted: Fri. 09/21 9:46AM)

If you are struggling with some of the concepts that are being covered in class, you may want to consider signing up to have a tutor. Tutors are past CS15 TAs and Head TAs, so they are very knowledgable about the course concepts. If you would like a tutor, please sign up at the Brown Resource Center and also send an email to the Head TAs so we can ensure that you quickly get a tutor.

LiteBrite Due Date (posted: Tue. 09/18 4:23PM)

There was a typo at the top of the LiteBrite Design Questions handout. The early handin is September 25 at 11:59pm (not 2:30pm), and the on-time handin is September 27 at 11:59pm (again, not 2:30pm). The corrected version of the handout is up on the site. You can find it on the Assignments page.

Sunday TA Hours (posted: Sun. 09/16 4:35PM)

Note that due to Clock being due on Tuesday, we are having lots of extra hours this week. Today (Sunday), hours are going all the way to midnight, so drop by with any questions you have!

Notes on Clock Assignment (posted: Thu. 09/13 4:41PM)

Compiling and running your Clock will be just like the compiling and running you did in lab1. To compile your Clock code, type 'javac *.java' into the terminal from your Clock folder. To run your successfully compiled code, type 'java Clock.App' into the terminal from your Clock folder. If you have any other questions, come see a TA on hours!

Collaboration Contract (posted: Tue. 09/11 4:32PM)

Remember to turn in your signed Collaboration Contract at your first lab! If you don't have the form, you can print it from the Course Info page on the website.

CS015 Internal Registration (posted: Tue. 09/04 2:53PM)

To receive your Computer Science Department login (necessary for the first lab), you need to complete the CS015 internal registration. Note that this is different from Banner course registration. Please visit the internal registration page and complete the form by Sunday (9/9) at midnight. You will receive a confirmation email by Monday (9/10) that we received your registration. Thanks!

First Day Lecture (posted: Mon. 8/27 5:07PM)

The first CS15 lecture is Thurs. September 6th, 2:30 - 3:50 (K hour) in MacMillan 117. The first day lecture is always a must-see, so see you there!!!

About CS15 (posted: Mon. 8/27 5:06AM)

CS15 is a course that focuses on introducing students to computer science through object-oriented design and programming, using Java. The course features an "objects first" approach to object-oriented programming (OOP), starting with objects, classes and methods, and then moves on to inheritance, interfaces and polymorphism, before covering traditional topics such as arithmetic and flow-of-control. OOP is then used to teach simple 2D graphics and graphical user interfaces, and the course finishes up with an overview of basic data structures, exceptions and file I/O. The course reinforces concepts with practical exercises in weekly laboratory sessions (under the supervision of undergraduate teaching assistants) and with challenging and engaging programming assignments such as Tetris, all of which have GUIs. There are no prerequisites and we do not assume any previous computer programming experience.

By the end of the course, students will have a good basic understanding of object-oriented design, and will have the ability to implement medium-size programs in java. They will also have been introduced to some important topics in computer science such as data structures and their algorithms and computational complexity. We recommend continuing with CS16 to gain a deeper understanding of data structures, algorithms and computational efficiency necessary to continue as a Computer Science concentrator. CS15 expects NO prior programming experience!