Systems Programming - Spring 2016

Schedule

• Feb 23: Introduction to the Course: syllabus; what is systems programming; why it is useful to know the C programming language; getting started: a very first example; using the compiler; a very simple Makefile.
  Material: slides used in class
• Feb 25: Basic types, literals, minimal I/O, basic expressions, control structures.
  Material: wordcount.c, wordcount2.c, lecture slides/notes
• Mar 3: Pointers, arrays, and strings, basic use of pointers (e.g., in string processing); more I/O.
  Material: findword.c, findword2.c, findword3.c, lecture slides/notes
• Mar 10: Structure of a program; the main function; defining functions; static variables; global variables; scope rules;
  Material: reverse.h, reverse_array.c, reverse.c, reverse_list.c, reverse_both.c, reverse.mk (Makefile), lecture slides/notes
• Mar 15: More details on the build process; the pre-processor; multi-file projects; compilation units; symbols; shared declarations; the pre-processor; the linkers; modularization and information hiding in C.
• Mar 15: Aggregate types; structures and unions; enumerations; type definitions; initializers for structures and arrays; nested structures, multidimensional arrays, and other non-trivial types.
  Material: dictionary.h, dict.c, querydict.c, querydict.mk (Makefile), lecture slides/notes
• Apr 5: More on using pointers; other dynamic data structures; pointer arithmetic. Pointers and structures, pointers and arrays. Pointers to functions.
  Material: printargs.c, insertionsort.c, quicksort.c, printargs.c, funcptr.c
• Apr 7: Defining classes and objects in C. Using pointers to functions: generic objects and virtual methods.
  Material: stack.h, stack.c, test_stack.c, graphics.c, graphics.c, test_graphics.c
• Apr 12: An in-depth look at expressions and the execution model: operator precedence; type conversions; the assignment statement; the execution model: evaluation order; sequence points.
• Apr 19: Overview of the C standard library: basic string/character manipulation; File I/O; File-system operations; dynamic memory allocation and management; simple dynamic array.
• Apr 21: Multi-threading: Threads, mutexes, locks, monitors, atomic operations.
• Apr 26: Introduction to C++: classes, exceptions, namespaces.
  Material: classes.cc, namespaces.cc, errors_in_cpp.cc
• TBD: Using make, from a simple project to complex activities.
• TBD: Example of a special-purpose platform: GPU programming using CUDA.
• TBD: GPU programming: examples.
• TBD: GPU programming: examples.
• TBD: Debugging C programs with a symbolic debugger
• TBD: Other POSIX system operations;
• TBD: Brief introduction to C++.
• TBD: Example of a special-purpose application: a Database system;