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The two semester 1 courses, CL and FP, are prerequisites for the Semester 2 Informatics 1 courses, Data and Analysis (DA) and Object-oriented Programming (OOP). That is, it is necessary to take the two Semester 1 Informatics 1 courses, in order to be permitted to take the two Semester 2 Informatics 1 Courses.
This course guide concerns the Semester 1 Informatics courses, FP and CL. Each course is 11 weeks long.
The
goal of this course is to introduce the notions of computation and
specification using finite-state systems and propositional logic.
Finite state machines provide a simple model of computation that is
widely used, has an interesting meta-theory and has immediate
application in a range of situations. They are used as basic
computational models across the whole of Informatics and at the same
time are used successfully in many widely used applications and
components. Propositional logic, similarly is the first step in
understanding logic which is an essential element of the specification
of Informatics systems and their properties
This course provides an
introduction to the concepts of programming, using a functional
programming language, Haskell. Students learn to solve small-scale
problems
succinctly and at an abstract level without being bogged down in
details. The course will use examples and exercises that reinforce some
of the content of Computation and Logic. Exercises will be drawn from
domains across the School of Informatics.
There is a required textbook for the FP courses:
Other reading recommendations will be made by individual lecturers. Lecture notes will be available for most sections of the course. They will be given out in lectures and can also be obtained from the ITO in Appleton Tower. Additional reading material in the form of books and articles will be available in the George Square library. You are encouraged to read as widely as possible.
Informatics 1 lectures are held 2 - 2.50pm on Mondays, 11.10 - 12am on Tuesdays, 11.10 - 12am on Thursdays and 2 - 2.50pm on Fridays. The Monday and Friday Informatics 1 Lectures take place in Appleton Tower Lecture Theatre 1 (AT LT1), the Tuesday and Thursday Lectures take place in Appleton Tower Lecture Theatre 3 (AT LT3). In Week 1 there are three introductory lectures. An introduction to first-year will be held in the Monday lecture slot, an introduction to Informatics 1 courses in the Thursday slot and an introduction to the School of Informatics' Computer System, DICE, in the Friday lecture slot. There is no lecture on Tuesday 23rd September. From Week 2, FP lectures normally take place in the Monday and Tuesday slots and CL lectures in the Thursday and Friday slots. (However, in Week 2 itself, the Tuesday and Thursday lectures have ben swapped so Tuesday 30th September will be a CL lecture and Thursday 2nd September will be an FP lecture.) The last lecture is on Tuedsay 2nd December. This means there are 20 FP lectures and 18 CL lectures. See the detailed lecture timetable below for further information.
Attendance at lectures is very strongly advised.
Course notes will take the form of handouts, which will be
given out at lectures each week. Further copies of all materials will
be available from the Informatics Teaching Organisation (4.02
Appleton Tower). Large print versions of all course materials are
available on request.
In addition to the regular exercise sheets, there will also be a major coursework assignment on the Computation and Logic course. This will be handed out in the lecture on Thursday 13th November. Solutions must be handed in to the ITO (AT 4.02) by noon on Friday 21st November. Marked solutions will be returned by tutors in Week 11 tutorials.
All coursework, including the weekly exercise sheets, is compulsory.
Coursework assessment is formative. This means that marks from coursework do not contribute to the final mark for the course. Nevertheless, doing the coursework is essential to gaining a proper understanding of lecture material. If you do not do the coursework then you are very unlikely to pass the exams. Some exam questions may be directly based on previous coursework questions.
Tutorials will be used for in-depth discussion of course material, and discussion of coursework exercises and their solutions. Exercises will be assigned by lecturers approximately one week in advance, and students should bring attempted solutions to tutorials.
Attendance at tutorials is obligatory. You must let your tutor know if you are ill or otherwise prevented from attending. Tutorials start run from Tuesday of week 3 (7th October) to Friday of week 11 (5th December).
If you are unable to make the time assigned to you for tutorials then contact the ITO (see contacting the ITO below).
Computing facilities for Informatics 1 are provided in the Computer Laboratories Level 4 and 5 of Appleton Tower.
Informatics 1 students are particularly encouraged to use the computer laboratories during the following Informatics 1 drop-in lab times.
| Mondays | 3-5pm | Computer Lab West (CLW), AT level 5 |
| Tuesdays | 2-5pm | CLW |
| Wednesdays | 2-5pm | CLW |
| Thursdays | 2-5pm | Computer Lab South (CLS), AT Level 5 |
| Fridays | 3-5pm | CLW |
Demonstrators will be in the labs from Friday of Week 1 (26th September) until Friday of Week 11 (5th December).
A systems lecture at the start of the semester will provide an introduction to the School of Informatics computing environment. This will be held 2 - 2.50 pm on Friday of Week 1 (26th September) in AT LT1. This is one of the standard Informatics 1 lecture slots, and all Informatics 1 students are expected to attend this lecture.
The systems lecture will be followed by Informatics 1 Lab Week
which runs from Friday of Week 1 (26th September) to Friday of Week 2
(3rd October) inclusive. During this week, all students are
expected to attend at least one of the drop-in sessions, and to
work their way through an exercise sheet which will be handed
out in the systems lecture on 26th September.
In order to succeed in your studies it is important to keep up with the material of the course and make a good attempt at all the coursework and tutorial exercises.
The following feedback machanisms will help you to evaluate your progress on the FP and CL courses.
Class representatives attend a liaison meeting each semester where the lecturers, staff and reps discuss various topics regarding the course. They also represent the course at the Informatics Teaching Committee meetings.
To contact all class representatives together, send an email to inf1reps@lists.inf.ed.ac.uk. Class representatives can also be contacted individually; see http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/inf1/reps.html for contact details. Please rest assured that your feedback will be treated anonymously by the reps.
Informatics 1 class representatives should normally be students who are expecting to take Informatics courses in both Semesters 1 and 2, and class representatives are expected to serve throughout the year.
In particular, if illness or some other problem prevents you from attending lectures or tutorials for any length of time, or from doing coursework, please inform all of: your Director of Studies, the ITO (see contacting the ITO below), and your tutors. If you are ill, please make sure that a medical certificate is submitted to the ITO. Doctors will normally only give a certificate for a long period of illness or for an illness that strikes at a crucial time (e.g. if you miss an examination because of illness). If you are ill for a short period, or if other personal crises have had an adverse affect on your work, then your Director of Studies should submit a Special Circumstances Form to the examination board (through the ITO), on your behalf.
Information on special circumstances is considered by a Special Circumstances Committee which advises the Board of Examiners on matters that arise relating to unforeseen, non-academic special or mitigating circumstances, that may apply to students being assessed and that may have had an effect on the performance of the students. They provide a means whereby individual cases can be discussed in a manner which does not detract from the anonymity which is proper to the discussion of the Board of Examiners. The Board of Examiners will consider any information on special circumstances made available to it via the Special Circumstances Committee, and this information may influence the decision of the Board.
Note that the amount of information that will be presented to a Special Circumstances Committee about the details of any medical condition, or other special circumstance, will normally be the minimum required in order for a decision to be made on the relevance of the case to the Board of Examiners. As far as possible, in cases in which privacy is important, Directors of Studies will not divulge sensitive information about the precise nature of special circumstances.
| Week Beg. |
Week No. |
LECTURE MONDAY 2 - 2:50pm AT LT1 |
LECTURE TUESDAY 11:10 - 12am AT LT3 |
LECTURE THURSDAY 11:10 - 12am AT LT3 |
LECTURE FRIDAY 2 - 2:50pm AT LT1 |
Tue/Wed TUTORIAL |
Thu/Fri TUTORIAL |
|
| 22 Sept |
1 | Intro to 1st year | NO LEC | Intro to Inf1 | Intro to System | no tutorial |
no tutorial |
Inf1 introductory week (no tutorials) |
| 29 Sept |
2 | FP | CL(*) | FP(*) | CL | no tutorial | no tutorial | Inf1 lab week (no tutorials) |
| 6 Oct |
3 | FP | FP | CL | CL | CL Tut 1 | FP Tut 1 | |
| 13 Oct |
4 | FP | FP | CL | CL | CL Tut 2 | FP Tut 2 | |
| 20 Oct |
5 | FP | FP | CL | CL | CL Tut 3 | FP Tut 3 | |
| 27 Oct |
6 | FP (Class Test) | FP | CL | CL | CL Tut 4 | FP Tut 4 | Programming Class Test in Monday lecture |
| 3 Nov |
7 | FP | FP | CL | CL | CL Tut 5 | FP Tut 5 | |
| 10 Nov |
8 | FP | FP | CL | CL | CL Tut 6 | FP Tut 6 | CL assignment handed out Thu 13th |
| 17 Nov |
9 | FP | FP | CL | CL | CL Tut 7 | FP Tut 7 | CL assignment deadline noon Fri 21st |
| 24 Nov |
10 | FP | FP | CL | CL | CL Tut 8 | FP Tut 8 | Mock programming exam Mon-Fri pm |
| 1 Dec |
11 | FP | FP | NO LEC | NO LEC | CL Tut 9 | FP Tut 9 | FP revision lectures |
| 08 Dec to 19 Dec |
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Exam Period |
(*) CL and FP lectures swapped on Tuesday and Thursday of Week 2.
In the past, examinations have occasionally been scheduled on Saturdays. If you cannot attend a Saturday examination, for good reason (e.g. religious reasons), inform your Director of Studies of this as soon as possible.
The role of the Programming Class Test is to provide a basic check on competence at Haskell programming half way through the course, and to provide students with early feedback on progress.
The 2 hour Programming Exam tests the ability of a student to independently construct working programs in Haskell and their ability to provide computational implementations of problems they have solved. This will be undertaken in a specially prepared computer laboratory that ensures students must undertake their work independently (e.g. access to email, IM, Wikis etc., will be denied).
A mock programming exam will be held in labs in week 10 of the semester. This will give students experience of a time-limited computer-based programming and problem solving session before the exam proper. You are strongly advised to take the mock exam as preparation for the actual exam.
Note that the pass requirements stated above represent a bare minimum and do not indicate good performance.
The requirements for passing are recommendations to the Board of Examiners. They can be waived or altered by the Board of Examiners if there are sufficiently strong reasons for doing so; for example, mitigating circumstances. It is therefore vital that you inform your Director of Studies of any such circumstances.
If you fail the Computation and Logic course in December, then it is possible to retake the exam in August. Similarly, if you fail the Functional Programming course in December, then it is possible to resit the Programming Exam in August. (the mark from the resit exam is combined with the mark from the October programming class test.)
If you still fail to meet the pass requirements after resitting then the only way to pass the course is to retake it another year.
Appeals against the final mark awarded may be considered by the University where there are irregularities in the conduct of the assessment or the Board of Examiners did not have all available information at the time of assessment. Appeals in cases where the information was available but not given to the Board (for example, you broke your leg the week before the examination but didn't tell anyone until the results were published) are generally not considered. It is essential to tell your Director of Studies before the Board of Examiners if you feel there are factors that may have affected your performance.
| Inf1 course organiser | Alex Simpson | Alex.Simpson@ed.ac.uk |
| Inf1 course secretary | Tamise Totterdell | contact details below |
| CL lecturer | Dave Robertson | dr@inf.ed.ac.uk |
| CL teaching assistant | Tom French | T.R.French@sms.ed.ac.uk |
| FP lecturer | Philip Wadler | wadler@inf.ed.ac.uk |
| FP teaching assistant | Willem Heijltjes | W.B.Heijltjes@sms.ed.ac.uk |
General administrative problems and questions should be raised with the Informatics Teaching Office (ITO), Room 4.02 Appleton Tower. (Opening hours: 8.45am-5.15pm, closed 11-11.30am and 1-2pm.)
To contact the ITO electronically, you are requested to fill in a Teaching Support Request Form at http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/admin/ITO/support/index.html
If you have other problems during the year, the following sources of help may be of use:
If you have problems with staff or other students, or with some aspect of Informatics 1 organisation, contact:
We have had occasional cases of student harassment in past years. Note that the University has a Code of Practice on Personal Harassment and the Division treats harassment seriously. The University Computing Regulations point out that "the holding or distribution of any material which is defamatory, discriminatory, obscene or otherwise illegal or is offensive or calculated to make others fearful, anxious or apprehensive" can result in legal proceedings, and the regulations permit the examination of computer files and emails in the investigation of such activities. If you feel you are a victim of harassment, don't keep quiet -- report the situation to your Director of Studies and/or the Course Organisers.
The use by the university of personal details concerning students, and the use by students of personal details from on-line university records, university publications, and other sources, is governed by the Data Protection Act. An explanation of the responsibilities of staff and students with respect to the Data Protection Act 1998 can be found on-line at http://www.cpa.ed.ac.uk/calendar/prefh/dpa.html
Last updated by Alex Simpson 19/09/08
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