Pedantia: Section, February 4
Section D
15-212, Spring 1998

From sal@ri.cmu.edu Sun Feb  8 03:19:52 1998
Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 03:14:37 -0500 (EST)
From: Speck of Dust 
To: 15-212 Section D
Subject: *READ NOW* 15-212D: 2/4/98

Ok, you guys, it's 1:30 on a Saturday night, and I'm in my apartment
working on your homeworks, exam, and papers. Now, although I am a graduate
student, I'm pretty sure that there are better ways to spend my late-night
weekends; I'm just not sure what they are.

Ok, enough complaining... I'll go out after I write this. Read through it
right now, though, because there's a lot of really important information
in it.

In This E-mail
  Examination
  Things Due
  Collaboration
  Handouts
  Review Sessions
  Homework
  Extended Office Hours
  Java Buds
  Section Notes

Examination
  You have one. Wednesday. Just in case you forgot. ;)

  We're gonna kick the other sections' b**t's, right?!

Things Due
  Sunday at Midnight, "Decidedly Difficult" is due. On Wednesday
  during section, Homework #3 is due. For Wednesday, you should also
  have a programming partner. For you Java knowledge, start the tutorial
  at http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/TOC.html. In particular, do
  "Getting Started", "Learning the Java Langauge" (except "More
  Features"), and "Essentail Java Classes" (only "String and String
  Buffers" and "Accessing System Resources"). Also, try to get through
  Nutshell chapters one and two. BUT, STUDY FOR YOUR EXAM FIRST.

Collaboration
  Like I told you guys a few weeks ago, you can't collaborate on the
  homework assignments. I'm not going to harangue you all about this
  (though I do like the word "harangue"), but that means that you have to
  be responsible about this. It's all a question of when you "decouple"
  from each other; there has already been a pair of people in another
  section that decoupled too late and submitted identical work. Please 
  don't make our section the one to lose somebody to this.

Handouts
  I've been typing up a storm this weekend. On the web page, there are a
  bunch more handouts, some of which you should read before the
  examination:

    Rosetta Stone: My version of "Greek To Me", containing all the symbols
      you need to know.
    Decidedly Difficult: The short assignment due Sunday night
    Homework #2 Solutions: Exactly what it sounds like
    Homework #3: Due Wednesday
    Examination Review Questions: Care of Adam Berger (Section B)

Review Sessions
  There will be two review sessions for Wednesday's examination. The
  first will be on Sunday at noon, probably lasting until around two. If
  you can come to part of it, do. We will be going over whatever questions
  you might have. For the best possible coverage of what you want to
  discuss, send me e-mail with a question or topic with which you would
  like help. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find a room, so
  please check your e-mail at 11am. The second will be on Monday morning
  at 9:00 in Wean 5409, taught by Adam Berger (the instructor from section
  B). He will be covering the review questions that can be found on the
  web page for our section. 

Homework
  
  Two things: First,  [See Homework #3 Issues under "Pedantia" on the
  15-212D web page]

  Second, "Where the heck is all my homework," you might be asking. Well,
  here's the deal: Homework #1 will be available on Monday morning, and
  you can certainly pick it up during my Monday office hour. Homework #2
  will be available, marked, in the afternoon of the same day (again,
  during office hours). Finally, we won't be able to publish solutions to
  Homework #3 until Friday, so if you have any questions about it, bring
  them to the review session on Sunday or my office hours on Monday and
  Tuesday. 

Extended Office Hours
  In light of our upcoming... event, I will be holding double office hours
  this week. That's right, *twice* the hours, for the same price! The
  second set of hours will be on Monday, from 4 until 5:30. Now, keep in
  mind that there will be many people there, so try to get as much
  information that you need tomorrow during the review session. 

Java Buds
  You need a partner for Java. If you cannot find one by Monday night,
  send me e-mail and I will compile a list of those people who need
  partners. I have already received one such request.

Section Notes
  Here's what we covered in section. Make sure you understand these topics
  for the examination:

  Bulliten Boards (read them)
  Java
    Get partners by Wednesday
    Reading (see "Things Due", above)
    Midterm
      Tuesday
      Covers L+P: 1.1-1.5 (scan), 2.1-2.4, 3.1-3.3, 3.4-3.5 (scan),
        4.1, 4.2 (scan), 5.1-5.3 (scan 5.2, don't worry about the
        math) 
    Langauges
      For each level
        Definition
        Pumping Theorem (only for DFSA)
        Proof by by contradiction using closure
        Equivalence of different representations
        Deterministic vs. Not
        Special Characteristics
      Levels:
        1: DFSA, NFSA, Regular Expressions (2.1-2.4)
        2: CFG, Parse Trees, PDA (3.1-3.3)
            note: Non-deterministic PDAs are *more powerful* than
            deterministic ones. This is in contrast to both FSAs and
            Turing Machines. 
        3: Turing Machines, Pairs of PDAs
  Turing Machines
    Errors in the book (ex. 4.1.8 and 4.1.9, at least)
    Basic Machines
    Recursively Enumerable Languages 
      (not covered; read section 4.2)
      Decidable vs. Semidecidable vs. Not decidable
    Extensions
    Key Design Strategies 
    Hold your place with a space
    Use basic machines as building blocks
  Hard Questions
    Church-Turing Thesis (not covered, see section 4.1)
    Halting Problem
    Universal Machines (not covered, see section 4.2)


Good luck on your exam!

-- Sal
smile.

Page maintained by Salvatore Domenick Desiano (sal@ri.cmu.edu).

smile.