Programming for Masochists

Introduction

This course introduces programming under conditions of sustained administrative pressure. Students who complete it will have written a substantial body of code, and will have learned to submit it inside a window narrower than the one in which they wrote it.

The course has no lectures. All contact is delivered through workshops. Workshop material is not recorded, not published in advance, and not repeated.

Course materials, including all workshop content, the assessment specifications and the model solutions, were generated using artificial intelligence. Students may not use artificial intelligence in any part of their own work.

The course is co-badged with COMP1131, ENGN1412, COMP6111, COMP6131 and ENGN6412. All cohorts attend the same workshops, sit the same examination and are assessed against the same weightings.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. Understand that an institution is not, in the general case, on your side.
2. Identify the individuals within an institution who are, and route around the rest.
3. Experience and bear the administrative burden of self-advocacy.
4. Write programs in a language announced in the first workshop.
5. Produce a written report of exactly the required length.
6. Escalate a matter through three levels of an organisational hierarchy without obtaining a decision.
7. Respond to an academic integrity interview at short notice.
8. Accept a result.

Indicative Assessment

1. Programming Report 1 (20) [LO 4,5]
2. Programming Report 2 (20) [LO 4,5]
3. Attendance Signature Record (10) [LO 3]
4. Workshop Participation (5) [LO 3]
5. Final Examination (45) [LO 1,2,6,7,8]

Workload

Workshops and self study. The course does not publish an expected total hours figure.

Requisite and Incompatibility

Not listed.

Prescribed Texts

All texts below are prescribed. Students are expected to have read all prescribed texts before the first workshop. Editions are prescribed exactly; other editions are not accepted. All prescribed texts are examinable.

1. Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms — first edition, 1968, Addison-Wesley
2. Niklaus Wirth, Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs — 1976, Prentice Hall
3. Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie, The C Programming Language — first edition, 1978, Prentice Hall
4. Bjarne Stroustrup, The C++ Programming Language — first edition, 1985, Addison-Wesley
5. Dan Gookin, DOS For Dummies — 1991, IDG Books
6. Charles Petzold, Programming Windows — third edition, 1992, Microsoft Press
7. Herbert Schildt, Teach Yourself C — second edition, 1994, Osborne McGraw-Hill
8. Laura Lemay, Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 3.2 in 14 Days — 1996, Sams
9. David Flanagan, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide — first edition, 1996, O'Reilly
10. Harvey Deitel and Paul Deitel, Visual Basic 6 How to Program — 1998, Prentice Hall
11. Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Structured Computer Organization — second edition, 1984, Prentice Hall
12. Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves — 2000, Pantheon Books
13. Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume I — 1867
14. Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England — 1845
15. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto — 1848
16. Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution — 1900
17. Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks — 1971, Lawrence and Wishart
18. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed — 1968
19. E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class — 1963, Victor Gollancz
20. David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory — 2018, Simon and Schuster

Preliminary Reading

Students who find the prescribed reading load unmanageable are referred to the prescribed reading on self-advocacy.

Assumed Knowledge

Students are assumed to have achieved a level of knowledge equivalent to the course for which this course is a prerequisite.

Fees

Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.

Unit value

6 units

Units / EFTSL

6.00 / 0.12500

Student Contribution Band

Not listed.

Domestic fee paying

Not listed.

International

Not listed.

Offerings, Dates and Class Summaries

Workshop allocation is by self-enrolment. Allocations open and close without notice.

The list of offerings for future years is indicative only.