Dear CS302 Student,

Welcome to CS302: Introduction to Programming. We look forward to showing you
our passion for Computer Science and helping you achieve the personal
satisfaction that comes from writing and developing working programs that
meet a detailed program specification.

CS302 is a challenging course for many students, similar to a 300 level Math course
in difficulty.  Students who excel at programming master many things, including:

- an ability to break a problem into smaller more manageable parts
- an ability to solve complex problems with a correct series of 
  small almost trivial steps
- an in depth understanding of many new vocabulary terms,
  including terms that describe problems.
- knowledge of what an IDE is and how programmer's use it develop
  computer programs.
- formal (and informal) debugging techniques
- an ability to write code that allows a user to interact with your program
  and other programmers the ability to maintain and revise.

To ensure that you have the best possible experience,
we invite you to get started today:

 A) Read the Course website: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~cs302  There is a lot
there, so please get started on reviewing course policies. Please be
patient while some pages get updated for the current semester.

B) Attend your first lab meetings: LABS DO NOT MEET DURING WEEK 1
   The first labs will meet on Tuesday 9/10 or Wednesday 9/11.

C) Register for Piazza to be sure that you get all program information
and class discussion about programming assignments.
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~cs302/?r=piazza

D) Enter cs302 Exam dates and times in your calendar.
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~cs302/?r=coursework#Exams
Students are required to notify me of conflicts and accommodation
requests before Sep 20th.  Do not send email with exam conflict and
accommodation request information.  We have a web form for 
submitting the required information and the web form will help 
ensure that I get all required information at one time and in one form.
Instructions on how to submit your requests via the web page will be
provided during lab (Week 2).  

 E) Installing Eclipse and the Java Development Kit (JDK) 
on your home computer or laptop is not required, 
but some getting started information is provided at:
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~cs302/?r=atHome

F) McBurney: Students with McBurney VISAs must provide copies of their
VISA to me (in class or my mailbox on 5th floor CS) before Sept 20th to
ensure the best possible chance of accommodation.  It is not necessary
to meet with me in person. I will do my best to accommodate according to
McBurney VISA recommendations.

G) Religious Observances: Students with religious observances during the
semester must provide the dates and times of those observations for the 
entire semester to me before Sept 20th for alternate arrangements to be possible.

Have a great semester learning to program in Java. We look forward to
seeing you in class,

-Deb