Instructor: Dr. Steven Robbins
Office: 4.01.23 SB
Phone: 458-5544
Address: srobbins@cs.utsa.edu (subject must contain CS 3733)
Course Homepage: /classes/cs3733s2008/
Office Hours: MF 10:00 - 10:50 am , W 12:00 - 12:50 pm
Class Times: MWF 11:00 - 11:50 am in room 3.02.02 SB
Recitation Time: (The recitation section will meet in 3.02.10A SB.)
     Fridays at 12 noon
Recitations will not meet during the first week of class.

Texts:

• Operating Systems Concepts, 7th Ed by Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne
• UNIX Systems Programming (USP) by Robbins and Robbins
  

Prerequisites: CS 2734, CS 2413, CS 3233

Note that prerequisites will be enforced.
You must be a good C programmer and be able to debug C programs by yourself to take this course. If not, you should sign up for CS 2213, Advanced Programming

• To understand fundamental operating systems concepts.
• To become more familiar with UNIX.
• To become a better programmer.

We will be using our workstation laboratory in room 3.02.04 SB.

The emphasis of the course is on process management, but we will cover Parts 1 through 4 of Silberschatz along with the Linux and Windows case studies. Most of our specific examples will come from UNIX, and we will be covering most of chapters 1-8 and 18 of USP as well as some of the project chapters.

• 30% Midterm Exams (Tentative dates: Friday, February 25 and Friday APril 4)
• 40% Assignments (recitation assignments, programs and problem sets)
  
• 30% Final Exam (Monday, May 5, 1:30 - 4:00)
  

Notification of final grades:

If you wish to receive your final grades by email, send me an email message some time after the last class and before the final. The message should have the subject line
CS 3733 Grade Request
and the message should have a valid return address. After I have graded the final exam and determined the letter grades for the course I will reply to your email message.

Tuesday, March 25, is the last day to drop this course. No make-up exams will be given except for university sanctioned excused absences. If you must miss an exam (for a good reason), it is your responsibility to contact me before the exam. Leave a message at the above number or send me email.

Unless otherwise stated, all assignments are due at the beginning of class on the due date. There will be a 10 percent penalty for assignments turned in after that time. Do not miss class to finish an assignment. Turn in what you have for partial credit. Assignments which are more than 12 hours late will not be accepted unless prior arrangements have been made.

Programs must following the programming style guidelines given.

You must keep copies of the source code for all assignments for this course at least until you receive the your final grade for the course. At any time during the semester you may be asked to demonstrate any of your programs.

You are to do the assignments without collaboration. You can ask me questions about any aspect of an assignment. General discussion with others on the system or on an approach to a problem is constructive and is okay. However, since your grade is based on your assignments, they must be your own work. Students who hand in programs or written assignments which are identical or nearly identical are cheating. Students may not work on the programming assignments together. This type of scholastic dishonesty usually results in immediate failure in the course and can lead to additional disciplinary action.

Important: If you use computers long enough you will delete a file by mistake. When working on assignments, make copies of your course code often and store the copies in a safe place. At a minimum, you should store them on your account in a different directory. It is a good idea to use a separate directory for each assignment and a separate subdirectory for each part of the assignment. Copy everything from one part of the assignment into a new directory before starting on the next part. After you have worked several hours on a program and have it almost working, make a backup copy before doing any major modifications.