Frequently Asked Questions

I have spent over thirty-five years in the operating systems business, as a developer, architect, manager, and in a variety of staff roles. I have been very active in the development and refining of engineering tools and processes. I have always loved teaching. I teach this course because it is critical material, and I care about helping the next generation of engineers master it.

Software is, in one way or another, what most of us are going to do for a living. Anybody can cob-together a few hundred lines of code that does more or less what (s)he wants. Figuring out what a complex system has to do, how to structure it to meet a myriad of today's (and tommorow's) requirements, organizing and managing the construction to reliably deliver it, creating a testing regime to meaningfully assess its correctness, and being able to measure all of the above is extremely difficult.

Large software projects are some of the most complex things that human beings have ever constructed, and organizing and controlling them is a hard problem. The problems are far too complex to have closed-form solutions ... but there are tools and techniques that can make them more tractable. This is a course in the concepts, issues, and techniques surrounding modern software construction. It is material you will definitely use, and I hope you will find it interesting.

General Administrative Information

Information on the course goals, contents and administrative procedures for the course can be found in the slides for the first lecture.

Lecture and Assignment Schedule

The subjects for all lectures, the reading assignments, and the dates of all exams are described in the course schedule.

Lecture Notes

Copies of lecture slides are always available on line, but you are strongly encouraged to attend the lectures.

You are free to print off and study slides for any lecture any time, but it if you print out slides well in advance of the associated lecture you should recheck them shortly before the lecture, as I try to improve lectures each time I give them.

Quizzes and Examinations

Information on what I am testing for in quizzes, section exams, and the comprehensive final, along with sample questions and answers, can be found in the testing overview. I do not give make-ups for quizzes. I do give make-up exams (different from the original exams, a few weeks after the end of the semester), but only in cases medical necessity (as substantiated by the physician who was treating you at the time).

Grades and Grading

The grading formula can be found here.

I do not grade on a curve, but I try to calibrate my assignments and standards, and the breaks usually wind up within a few points of 90/80/70/60.

I am always willing to explain why I scored an answer in a particular way, to fix arithmetic errors, and to regrade questions where I misunderstood your answer (but not where your answer was confused or you misunderstood the question). If I make a mistake in a question (making it too hard to answer correctly), I try to find a way to compensate you for my mistake. Other than that, you get the grade you earned.

I never change grades in response to excuses or hardship stories. If you need a good grade in this course, you need to earn it.