Printed Notes For a ridiculously low price, you can obtain a pre printed copy of the notes from the bookshop You are strongly advised to do so, as this will enable you to avoid laboriously taking notes in lectures and concentrate on understanding the material It will also save you a large amount of time printing each page from a Web browser The printed notes accurately represent the span of the course you will be specifically advised if examinable material not appearing in these notes is added to the course But note that anything appearing in laboratory exercises and assignments is automatically considered examinable this includes the feedback notes However, the Web notes are undergoing constant revision and improvement comments are welcome so you are advised to browse through the Web copies for updated pages You will be advised in lectures if there is a substantial change to any section Textbooks The material on data structures and algorithms may be found in many texts lists of reference books in the library are part of the Web notes The Web notes are, of necessity, abbreviated and should not be considered a substitute for studying the material in texts Using the notes The notes make use of the hypertext capabilities of Web browsers you will find highlighted links to subsidiary information scattered throughout the text Occasionally these links will point to Web resources which may be located off campus and take some time to download you may find it productive to use the Stop facility on the browser to abort the current fetch you can try again later when the Net is less heavily loaded In all cases, the browsers Back command should take you back to the original page Program source Example source code for programs will sometimes pop up in a separate window This is to enable you to scan the code while referring to the notes in the main page You will probably need to move the source code page out of the way of the main page When you have finished with the source code page, select File Close to close the window Selecting File Exit will close the window and exit from Netscape possibly not your intention The first tutorial will be in the fourth week of semester As long as one tutorial group does not become ridiculously overloaded, you may go to whichever tutorial suits you best Four assignment exercises will be set for the semester You should be able to complete most of the first two assignments during the initial laboratory sessions Completed assignments which should include a summary report, the program code and any relevant output should be submitted by following the submission instructions at the end of the Web page The report should be in plain ASCII text The native form of any wordprocessor will be rejected If you prefer to use a word processor to prepare your report, then ensure that you export a plain text file for submission when you have finished all word processors have this capability This allows you to concentrate on the content of the report, rather than the cosmetics of its format However, the general standards for report structure and organisation title, authors, introduction, body grouped into related paragraphs, conclusion, etc expected for any other unit apply here also Communication This course attempts to be paperless as much as possible Assignments will be submitted electronically and comments will be emailed back to you Please ensure that your reports include email addresses of all authors The preferred method for communication with the lecturer and tutors is, at least initially, email All routine queries will be handled this way we will attempt to respond to all email messages by the next day If you have more complex problems, email for an appointment suggest a few times when you will be free You may of course try to find me in my office at any time but early in the morning is likely to be a waste of time, but emailing for an appointment first ensures you some priority and enables you to avoid wasting a trip to the floor when there may be zero probability of success John Morris
