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Some general notes
for anyone taking my classes:
- Study. If you can work the problems
and answer the questions at the ends of the chapters in the book, you
will probably do well on the tests and in the course. If you can
neither answer the questions nor work the problems, you will almost
certainly do poorly on the tests. If you do not know whether you
can work the problems or not, I invite you to find out.
- Please come to
class prepared. This means you have read the material to
be covered, you have your book with you, and you have any
assignments with you at the beginning of class. If you are
prepared, you can ask good questions and it makes the discussion
more interesting. Look at the online material for the course, both the
references I'll link on the class page and from the text.
- Do not wait until
the last minute to start on your homework. "My computer
was down" is the modern equivalent of "the dog ate my homework."
The best students get an early start on assignments.
- Pay attention to
details such as the way your programs and papers look,
spelling, organization, and the like. The best programs have both
good form and good function. This is also true for papers.
Our craft
is details.
- Full-time school
is the equivalent of a full-time job. That is, you should
be spending at least 40 hours per week on school. Consider that if
you're taking 15 hours, you should be spending about 6 hours outside of
class for each 3-hour class. Some weeks it will be more, some
less, but that's a reasonable minimum.
- I don't consider students who come to my office
during office hours an annoying interruption; I always welcome the
contact and often enjoy the discussions. I'll help you, but I
won't tutor you.
- For all classes, I
will send e-mail only to your UTD e-mail address, even if you write to
me from some other address. There have been times when I couldn't
figure out who the student was because the non-UTD e-mail didn't carry
his or her name. This is also now school policy.
- Zip files.
Sometimes you'll have to create a Zip file, or a compressed
folder, as Windows calls it, to hand in assignments. However, you
cannot e-mail anything with a .Zip extension to a UTD e-mail
account. Simply change the extension to .Piz and send it.
You can upload Zip files to WebCT, however.
- Questions via E-mail. I will try to answer questions sent to me via e-mail, but if
it is something that could be asked during office hours or
in class, you may not get a timely answer, if at
all. Answers to questions of this nature should not take
up time outside of the normal school hours.
- What is good program
documentation?
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