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EML 3002C MECHANICAL ENGINEERING TOOLS: C++ Fall 1997
Van Dommelen

GOALS

To familiarize students with structured and object oriented programming concepts.

PREREQUISITES

Sophomore standing in Mechanical Engineering.

INSTRUCTOR

Dr. Leon Van Dommelen
http://www.eng.famu.fsu.edu/dommelen. dommelen@eng.famu.fsu.edu Contact me.
Office: 3:00-3:50 pm T, 5:40-6:30 pm R or by appointment.
Phone: (850) 487-6324. I tend to forget to check my voice mail.

TIMES

Class: 1:15-2:30 TR 2:45-5:30 W
Final: Wednesday 12/10/97 7:30-9:30 am (if the FSU schedule is correct)

TEXTBOOK

Kris Jamsa, Rescued by ... C++. Jamsa Press, Las Vegas, NV, 1993. ISBN 0-9635851-5-0, $19.95.

COURSE OUTLINE

Below is a tentative list of lectures with topics covered, objectives, and notes.

• Basics

  Lessons 1, 2, and 3

  The objective is to get the students up and running. The students are to write and compile a program to print `Hello World' to the screen (hello/2/). Illustrates include, main, void, cout grouping, g++ compiler, and syntax errors (hello/1/). Comment on complexity issues in programming. Star Wars? Make clear why large tasks require programming languages, since the programming effort during class must obviously be limited.

  Lessons 4, 5, and 6

  The objective is to get the program to do useful things. The students modify the program to read in a simple part's steel weights, and the raw steel price, then compute and print the material cost of the part (inout/1/). Illustrates variables, assignment, input, output, comments, operations. The student add a second material, aluminum, and then examine precedence and parentheses (inout/2/).

  Lessons 7 and 8

  The program complexity is increased somewhat to show the need for structured programming. The program is modified so that it only asks for the steel or aluminum price if the part contains that material (menu/1/). The students then modify the program so that it can compute more than one part at a time. After each part, the program presents a two choice menu: do the next part or quit. Illustrates if for checking whether the material is in the part, if...else for the menu selection, while for looping, for for clearing the screen for the menu (explain the existence of screen of varying sizes), and the C true/false representation. (menu/2/).

• Functions

  Lessons 9 and 10

  The program complexity is again increased to illustrate the desirability for modular programming. The previous two-part menu is cast as a character function that returns the choice, so that the code of the main program becomes more clear. Also, we can clean up the code a bit by using the menu in two places (function/1/). Next the computation of the part cost and the printing of error messages is also moved to separate functions to streamline the program further (function/2/). Finally the menu is expanded to four choices: compute a part, change the price of steel, change the price of aluminum, or quit, the first three performed by functions. The function for computing the cost of a part takes the prices of aluminum and steel as its arguments and naturally shows the need for passing arguments by reference rather than by value (function/3/).

  Lessons 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15

  Explain scope and improvements in clarity and robustness due to using local variables. Some students verify that local variables in the main program and subroutines with identical names are different (advfun/1/). Then they make the variable global (advfun/2/). Mention the runtime library. Let some students print the date at the start of their program (advfun/3/). Explain overloading functions. Some students overload the error message function to print out a value at the end of the message and use it to protest negative material cost (advfun/4/). Explain references and default values. Some students convert their arguments to references and default values (advfun/5/). The students resynchronize on advfun/5/.

• Arrays, Structures, and Pointers

  Lessons 16, 17, and 18

  Discuss the need to maintain a data base of parts, instead of a single part. Explain the reductions in likely errors by grouping related part data together. Information sheet? The students create a part structure (array/1/). Explain the advantages of arrays in dealing with variable numbers of items, or with many items, or with extensive code addressing the items. The students convert their program to create an array of the parts structure (array/2/). Discuss zero-terminated character strings. The students use them for the part names (array/3/).

  Lessons 20 and 31

  Address the question how we can allow the user to add new parts to the data base interactively. Explain memory and pointers. The students modify their program to add new parts in the free-store. Explain pointers to pointers. The students modify the program so that all parts are created on demand, into a pointer array.

• Classes

  Lessons 21, 22, and 23

  Now add the requirement that we check that the part number is 4 digits. Show that we need to search through the code to find the two places where we input the part number. Explain classes: the code can be attached to the structure. Show that this eliminate code duplication as well. Explain the reduced risk of errors with code reuse (less code used more). The students convert their structures to objects, with methods to input the various parameters of the part. (classes/1/). Discuss the question how easy it would be to port over the parts code to another program, say keeping a parts inventory. Assuming that the current program would not be all parts, you have to search each function whether it is dedicated to parts or has code related to parts. Since you want to add a new variable, the number of copies of the part, to the parts structure, you have to search through all functions for places where the part data may be initialized or modified and add code for the new data item. Explain encapsulation. Suppose some programmer simply pokes a wrong value in the part number? The students bring all part related code together in the object, using encapsulation, constructors and destructors. (classes/2/).

• Inheritance As time permits
• Advanced Concepts As time permits.

METHODS OF INSTRUCTION

Lectures, solution of problems on computers, projects.

STUDENT EVALUATION

The course grade for this part of the class will be computed as:

• Group computer programs 30%
• Individual projects 30%
• Examinations 40% Grading is at the discretion of the instructor.

IMPORTANT GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

Please note:

1. Projects are handed in by E-mail.
2. Projects that are not handed in when due cannot be made up.
3. If you are absent from a project, your group may have to proceed with one member less. You will not receive the group grade for that project.
4. Individual projects must be performed individually. Unusual similarities in the way things are coded will be taken as evidence of cheating.
5. Programs should be very neat and well written and commented or credit will be lost.
6. Students are bound by the honor code of their university. It requires you to uphold academic integrity and combat academic dishonesty. Please see your student handbook.

COMPUTER USE

Uses Personal Computers to teach C++ programming.

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