Syllabus for Fall 1997 CSCI 363

The instructor for CSCI 363 is Dean Brock. The course will meet on Tuesday and Thursday from 12:15 PM to 1:30 PM in Robinson 217. The textbook for the course will be Java Network Programming written by Elliotte Rusty Harold and published by O'Reilly (ISBN 1-56592-227-1). During the first month of the course, we will cover the Internet Protocol. The assigned reading for this part of the course will be the following sections of Douglas Comer's book Internetworking with TCP/IP - Volume I: Principles, Protocols, and Architectures 3rd Edition

Two copies of this book will be placed on reserve in the library. One of the copies is the second edition which has slightly different chapter numbers.

This course covers the software end of computer networking; that is, the protocols that allow programs running on different machines to "communicate" with each other. We will use TCP/IP, the protocol used on the Internet, to illustrate concepts of computer networking.

Many homework assignments will be pen-and-pencil exercises, but the most significant assignments will involve some programming. Programming will be done in the Java programming language. This is not a "Java course". It is a course that uses Java's network interface classes to implement client-server applications. It is assumed that you are already a pretty darn good programmer and understand iteration and procedures, but not that you have prior exposure to Java. However, you should have had prior exposure to either C or C++. You should also know how to use Internet browsers, and it would be nice if you knew what makes up a "home page."

Programming assignments can be completed using any Java development environment. Sun's JDK, Java Development Kit, has been installed on the Alpha and SPARC workstations of the Computer Science department. MicroSoft's Visual J++ has been installed on the PC's in Robinson 004. If you own a PC running Windows 95 or NT, you'll probably find it useful to either download a copy of the JDK from Javasoft's download site or to purchase a copy of J++.

Grades will be based on a combination of graded homework, two in-class tests, and one final exam. The weights given to the various forms of graded material are:

The final exam will be given on Thursday, December 11, from 12:15 PM to 3:45 PM.

My office hours are Tuesday and Thursday from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM. I do frequently read electronic mail and sending a message to my computer account, brock@cs.unca.edu, usually results in a.

Copies of all handouts for CSCI 263 are available via the internet at


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