TIPS FOR THE COURSE

For those of you who are taking your first programming class, you will 
have to work very hard during the first several weeks to "get the hang"
of programming.  Programming is actually really easy to do and once you
learn it you may actually like it.  However learning programming sometimes
is a bit confusing at first.  You may feel as if you are walking around
in a "fog".  There are some things you can do to make things better:

  -  Ask questions.

  -  Ask questions.

  -  Don't skip class - during lecture - I will try to simplify things
     and give you different ways to think about the material.  

  -  Read the book before you come to class - if you come with questions
     you will be way ahead.

  -  When you find a portion of the text book difficult - read faster.
     Skim over sections of the book which we have already covered and
     those sections which we are about to cover then go back to the
     hard section.

  -  Much of computer programming is somewhat arbitrary - there is no
     good reason that certain things are the way that they are.  

  -  Don't let yourself get behind - come to my office hours or call
     me on the phone - you may be hung up on something very simple.

  -  Don't give up 
     
You will be quite capable of doing the work in this class regardless of
your background.  Don't get discouraged because some other student with
3 years of programming experience seems to understand everything the first
time - they had to learn this stuff the first time too.


                          TIPS ON GETTING HELP

There will be students with a wide range of backgrounds in this course.
It is tempting for students with less background to get a great deal of
help in programming from the more advanced students.  While this may 
seem like a good idea at the beginning of of the term - chances are 
that by the middle of the term you will be so lost that you may 
fail the course.

It is important that you do your own work on the programming assignments.
You should also work on your programming assignments early so that they
are finished on-time and you have ample opportunity to ask questions if you
have a problem.  

It IS acceptable to ask (and answer) questions about things which you are
confused about.  This is especially true at the beginning of class.  Often
the person who best can answer is another student in the class.  Make sure
to check the answers to the questions however.


                            TIPS ON THE TEXTBOOK

The Etter text for this course is very good with many worked out examples.
Here are some tips for using it effectively:

  -  FORTRAN statements are summarized on the inside covers.  At the end of 
     each chapter is a summary of the statements covered in that chapter.
  
  -  Answers to the self-tests and to selected problems are in the back
     of the book.

  -  Appendix A lists the intrinsic functions such as square root, etc.

  -  There is a glossary and an index

Examples from the book have been typed in and are available on-line.  You
can use the UNIX cp command to get a copy of the programs:

  cp /usr/usrs/local/f77/prog2-5.f myprog.f

Where myprog.f is the file name which will be stored in your directory.