This course introduces basic concepts of programming and computer science, such as dynamic and static typing, dynamic memory allocation, objects and methods, binary representation of numbers, using an editor and compiler from the command line, running programs with arguments from the commmand line, using libraries, and the use of basic data structures such as arrays, lists, sets, and maps.
This course is particularly meant for students who did not learn programming in high school, but who enjoyed programming in CS101 and who want to develop their programming skills.
Every week there will be one lecture, and a three-hour lab. I will provide materials (lecture notes and on-line tutorials) that students sometimes need to study before coming to the lab. You will spend all three lab hours on a fun programming project. The difficulty of the projects will slowly increase over the semester. There will be no separate homeworks or projects, however, you will be asked to finish projects at home if you could not complete it during the lab.
I'm trying to make this webpage and the materials suitable for self-study, for students who cannot take CS109 or who quickly want to improve their programming skills (for instance during the semester break).
I have made a complete written tutorial that walks you through all the material in the course. Read the tutorials on The command line, Introduction to Kotlin, and Incremental testing, then start working on the programming projects. The difficulty of the projects increases slowly during the course. You'll need to read more of the tutorials as you progress through the projects.
In this course we will use the Kotlin programming language.
In my experience, students develop a style of programming in their first programming language. They find it difficult to learn a different style later, even if they switch to a different language. This means that students should start early to use a modern language that encourages writing clean and elegant code, and supports a good object-oriented and functional style.
We will therefore use Kotlin in this course. Kotlin is fully compatible with Java, so you can use it for anything that can be done in Java, but it is a much more modern, much more readable, and much more sensible language. We will also experiment with compiling Kotlin source to Javascript, so you can run your programs inside a web browser, and will even write small apps that can run on Android phones.
Most students will still have to learn C++ and/or Java later during their studies—but I believe that after getting programming practice in Kotlin, they will be able to write better code in those languages as well.
Gabin and Daegeun offer an office hour once a week:
Here you can ask questions about the self-study material or the projects (or anything else related to the course). You can also come with your computer and program during the office hour, using it in the same way as the lab.
We will have one lecture per week, on Mondays from 16:00 to 17:15, in the joint classroom #2 (this is in building E3-2: if you take the corridor past Strikezone, go out of E3-1 and enter E3-2 through the door opposite to you, it's one of the first doors on the left).
Our programming lab takes place on Friday from 13:00 to 16:00. in classrooms #3, #4, and #5 of building E3-1, as follows:
All non-Korean speakers must be in classroom #4. In the other rooms, TAs will only speak Korean.
Programs will not be graded, because programming is part of the learning experience (it is not an exam).
However, students must submit all programming projects they have done. Grades will be deducted for missing labs without excuse, or for not submitting lab projects.
The final grade will be composed as follows (small changes reserved):
Attendance will be taken in nearly every class. If you miss at most 2 lectures, you receive 10 attendance points. For 3 missed lectures, you receive 9 attendance points, and so on. For 12 or more missed lectures you receive no attendance points.
Going to a conference, workshop, doctor, interview, is no excuse for missing the class — you can use the two free missed classes for this.
There will be a midterm exam and a final exam.
The midterm exam is on April 9, from 16:00 to 17:30 in the Terman Hall in the Creative Learning Building.
The final exam is on June 4, from 16:00 to 17:30 in the Terman Hall in the Creative Learning Building.
Here is a rough list of what we will cover in each week of the semester.
| Week 1 | Introduction, command line tools |
| Week 2 | Basic Kotlin, command line arguments |
| Week 3 | Types of objects, dynamic and static typing |
| Week 3 | Number types |
| Week 4 | Dynamically allocated objects, stack frames, garbage collection |
| Week 5 | Arrays and lists |
| Week 6 | Sets and maps |
| Week 7 | Strings and text processing |
| Week 8 | Midterm exam |
| Week 9 | Function objects |
| Week 10 | Higher-order functions |
| Week 11 | Compiled programs |
| Week 12 | Objects |
| Week 13 | Object-oriented programming I |
| Week 14 | Object-oriented programming II |
| Week 15 | Project presentations |
| Week 16 | Reserve |
| 02-26 | Introduction to Kotlin | intro slides, basic kotlin slides |
| 03-05 | Incremental testing, number representation | slides |
| 03-12 | No lecture (business trip) | |
| 03-19 | Data classes, objects, references, and the heap. Arrays, two-dimensional arrays. | object slides, array slides |
| 03-26 | Sets review, compiling programs, nullable-variables | compilation slides, null slides |
| 04-02 | Maps, LED project introduction | maps slides |
| 04-09 | Midterm exam in Terman Hall | |
| 04-16 | Midterm week: No lecture, no lab | |
| 04-23 | Midterm review, Exceptions | slides |
| 04-30 | Classes with methods | slides 1, slides 2 |
| 05-07 | No lecture (Children's day) | |
| 05-14 | Higher-order functions | slides |
| 05-21 | Android mini-apps | slides |
| 05-28 | Review & Question hour | quiz slides |
| 06-04 | Final exam in Terman Hall | |
| 06-11 | Final week: No lecture, no lab | |
This term we will be using Piazza for class announcements, discussion, and asking questions.
Here is our Piazza class page.
You are responsible for checking the announcements on our Piazza class page regularly (if you make a Piazza account and enroll for the course, announcements will be mailed to you automatically.)
If you do not understand something, it is important that you ask questions. Piazza allows you to ask questions and get answers from the instructor, the teaching assistants, and your classmates. You can ask questions anonymously, so don't be shy and ask!
Both Korean and English are acceptable on Piazza :-). You make it easier for me if you write in English, but if the TAs can answer your question, then Korean is just fine.
To ask questions, you need to register on Piazza and enroll as a student for CS109. To do so, go to the CS109 enrollment page. Select "Join as student". You will then need to use your KAIST email address (ending with @kaist.ac.kr) to create an account.
Every week you will be assigned to read about certain topics in the course tutorials. You will find each week's reading assignment posted on Piazza.
It is important that you do not just read through the tutorials briefly. Turn on your computer, and follow the steps of the tutorial on your own computer. That way the material will become active knowledge that you can apply yourself when you program.
You will find the project for each week posted on Piazza. The full list of projects for self-study can be found here.