Lester I. McCann

General Information for My Students

This page is devoted to documents that describe general information of interest mainly to students in my classes. Class-specific information can be gathered from your class' web page. Current class web pages are linked from the Classes page.

• Programming Style Documents -- Complete program documentation isn't just a good idea; it's the law! (At least it is in my classes and in just about every "real life" programming shop.) This collection of information and examples should allow you to correctly and completely document your programs.
• How is my current average calculated? --- I make available my current score list after every exam. I trust my venerable grading program, but there's no reason that you should be expected to trust it. This page explains how to compute your class average manually.
• Linux (UNIX) Editors. When you're editing your code, I generally don't care which program you use. If you don't know a text editor and would like to learn one, I have two recommendations:
  • Using the Vi Editor -- Vi is the classic UNIX editor, and is the one I use. Actually, I use Vim, which is what you get when you type 'vi' in most versions of Linux. Trust me, you want VIM's enhancements.
  • Using the Pico Editor -- Pico was the default text editor of the Pine text email/news client. You can run Pico as a stand-alone text editor. It wasn't designed for writing code, but it is very easy to use. Pico's successor is Nano. They're similar enough that I didn't feel the need to rewrite this document.
  • Emacs? I don't use it. One or the other of Vi(m) or Emacs is all you really need to learn. Hate the modes of Vi? Try Emacs. Hate the bloat of Emacs? Try Vi. Want to start a religious argument? Try announcing that either is the One True Editor.