CS 141-01, Computer Science I: Programming Fundamentals, Spring 2011

Abstract

• CS 141 is a required course for computer science majors and should be taken during the first year. It is the first course in the sequence for majors and offers an introduction to the fundamental principles of programming, abstraction, and design. • This course is aimed at helping students acquire the reasoning and abstraction skills needed for designing algorithms and programs. This course teaches you how to think as a computer scientist, by teaching the process of building abstractions to hide implementation details, and of controlling the intellectual complexity of designing large software systems by decomposing problems into simpler sub-problems. • This course will use the Python programming language as the vehicle for exploration of fundamental computer science concepts. However, this is not a course about Python; it is about the structure and interpretation of computer programs. • The particular Python environment that will be used in this course is available in the computer labs on Rhodes College campus. Check the postings at the Barret Library for the hours of operation and locations of the on-campus computer labs. You can also download the software on your own computer, (http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.6.1/). This software is also available on the CD that comes with your textbook. • You are free to develop the code for the assignments on your own computer. However, keep in mind that the source code that you submit