COMP2017: Systems Programming
Semester 1, 2023 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
In this unit of study, elementary methods for developing robust, efficient, and re-usable software will be covered. The unit is taught in C, in a Unix environment. Specific coding topics include memory management, the pragmatic aspects of implementing data structures such as lists and hash tables and managing concurrent threads. Debugging tools and techniques are discussed and common programming errors are considered along with defensive programming techniques to avoid such errors. Emphasis is placed on using common Unix tools to manage aspects of the software construction process, such as version control and regression testing. The subject is taught from a practical viewpoint and it includes a considerable amount of programming practice.
Unit details and rules
| Unit code | COMP2017 |
|---|---|
| Academic unit | Computer Science |
| Credit points | 6 |
|
Prohibitions
?
|
COMP2129 OR COMP9017 OR COMP9129 |
|
Prerequisites
?
|
INFO1113 OR INFO1105 OR INFO1905 OR INFO1103 |
|
Corequisites
?
|
COMP2123 OR COMP2823 OR INFO1105 OR INFO1905 |
| Available to study abroad and exchange students |
Yes |
Teaching staff
| Coordinator | John Stavrakakis, [email protected] |
|---|---|
| Tutor(s) | Haoyan Qi, [email protected] |
| Michael Mai, [email protected] |
| Type | Description | Weight | Due | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment |
A1
Solve a programming problem
|
10% |
Week 04 Due date: 14 Mar 2023 at 23:59 |
9 days |
| Assignment |
A2
Solve and explain programming problem to instructor
|
5% |
Week 06 Due date: 28 Mar 2023 at 23:59 |
16 days |
| Skills-based evaluation |
A2 viva
Viva voce for A2 submission made before due date. See timetable for date.
|
30% | Week 07 | 25 minutes |
| Assignment |
A3 Milestone
The milestone for Assignment 3
|
5% |
Week 09 Due date: 26 Apr 2023 at 23:59 |
5 days |
| Assignment |
A3 Final
Solve and explain programming problem to instructor (final submission)
|
10% |
Week 11 Due date: 09 May 2023 at 23:59 |
16 days |
| Skills-based evaluation |
A3 viva
Viva voce for A3 submission made before due date. See timetable for date.
|
30% | Week 12 | 25 minutes |
| Assignment |
Problem13
Solve security related problems
|
10% |
Week 13 Due date: 23 May 2023 at 23:59 |
7 days |
Assessment summary
A1
Solve a programming problem. Students will be provided with a description of the problem, will write a solution that is to be completed independently, submit by the due date, and be evaluated by tests.
A2, A3
Solve and explain programming problem to instructor. Students will be provided with a description of the problem, will write a solution that is to be completed independently, submit by the due date, and be evaluated by explaining their solution and answer questions from the instructor.
A3 Milestone
This is part of Assignment 3. Submissions will be graded against automated test cases.
A2, A3 Oral Examinations (Viva):
This is an interview between the student and the teacher. The student will be asked questions about their own assignment submission as well as other questions related to course contents. The grade is based on the students responses in understanding of their own code and the course contents being assessed.
The student must be present at their required timetabled time (see timetable) for this online assessment and have the necessary ID and camera/microphone in operation.
Students who do not attend the oral examination are not awarded any marks for their assignment or the oral examination.
There is a specifically scheduled viva voce per student. The duration is 25 minutes. The A2 viva takes place in either Week 7 or Week 8. The A3 viva takes place in either Week 12 or Week 13. The specific time and date of A2 viva and A3 viva are listed on the students’ timetable.
Marks are awarded only when both a solution is submitted, and a viva voce is performed. Automated testing of the program will contribute to the grade.
Further details are provided by teaching staff.
Problem13
Solve a problem related to programming with security. Students will be provided with a description of the problem, which may include analysis of existing code, writing or amending code, and writing test cases against the problem description and/or code. This is to be completed independently, and submitted by the due date.
Conditions for pass in this course
- At least 50% total
Special consideration
Approved special consideration may be granted an extension to complete the assignment and may additionally be examined in an oral assessment. The oral assessment can be based on the assignment contents and that will contribute to the grade of the assignment.
Further information about assessments
Lecture 1 will include information about assessment conditions and submission instructions
Detailed information for each assessment can be found on the course website upon release: edstem.org
Use of language translation tools for all online assessments is forbidden. All answers must be provided in the English language, including code comments.
Students may be asked for further development of their assessments if they fail to attend at least 80% of their tutorials or have approved special consideration.
Late submission
In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:
- Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
- After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.
This unit has an exception to the standard University policy or supplementary information has been provided by the unit coordinator. This information is displayed below:
No late submissions are accepted for any assessments.
Academic integrity
The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.
We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.
You may only use artificial intelligence and writing assistance tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator, and if you do use them, you must also acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section.
Studiosity is permitted for postgraduate units unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission.
Simple extensions
If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension. The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.
Special consideration
If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.
Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.
Using AI responsibly
Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.
| WK | Topic | Learning activity | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 01 | Admin/introduction to C | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO8 |
| Week 02 | First C programs with text processing | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO6 LO7 LO8 |
| Addressable memory 1, string and arrays | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO8 | |
| Week 03 | C pointers and C library functions | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO6 LO7 LO8 |
| Addressable memory 2, structures and files | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO6 LO7 LO8 | |
| Week 04 | Structs, Unions, Bitfields and Files | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 |
| Memory management and linked lists | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO11 | |
| Week 05 | Dynamic memory and debugging | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO11 |
| Function pointers, Signals | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO11 | |
| Week 06 | File IO, Function pointers and Signals | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO11 |
| Preprocessor and Linking | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 | |
| Week 07 | Compiler pipeline, Signals, Makefile and Shared Library | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 |
| Parallelism and concurrency. Processes and fork | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 | |
| Week 08 | Processes and fork | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 |
| Interprocess communication IPC | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 | |
| Week 09 | IPC. Shared memory and Pipes | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 |
| Thread safety and synchronisation 1 | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 LO11 | |
| Week 10 | Parallelism with POSIX threads and optimisations | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 |
| Thread safety and synchronisation 2 | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 | |
| Week 11 | Synchronisation and Atomics | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 |
| Scalable algorithm templates | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 | |
| Week 12 | Memory usage patterns and overflow | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 LO11 |
| Performance of parallel programs | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 | |
| Week 13 | Revision | Tutorial (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 |
| Revision and examination overview | Lecture (2 hr) | LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6 LO7 LO8 LO9 LO10 |
Attendance and class requirements
Course websites:
The course website on edstem.org will contain information, including important announcements. Teaching staff will be communicating to all students and it is considered part of the course. Students are expected to regularly visit this website to know these announcements and information concerning format and schedule of assessment. Canvas is a website that will be used to disseminate the online lecture recordings and for publishing of results.
Online attendance:
Students are asked to attend their tutorial class each week as part of their assessment. Students are advised to follow the procedures concerning late attendance, or failure to attend. Such procedures will be presented in the course lectures.
Study commitment
Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.
Required readings
All readings for this unit can be accessed on the Library eReserve link available on Canvas.
- Computer Systems: A Programmer’s Perspective, Randal E. Bryant and David R. O`Hallaron, 9781292101767, 3rd edition, Pearson Education, 2016, Boston
Reference books
- Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie – The C Programming Language. Prentice Hall. 1988. 0-13-110362-8
- Lin and Snyder. Principles of Parallel Programming. Pearson Education. 2008
- Jeri R. Hanly, Elliot B. Koffman. Problem Solving and Program Design in C. 6th Edition. Addison Wesley. 2010. ISBN:0321198034. Note: 4th edition does not contain the chapter on IPC
- Paul Davies. The Indispensable Guide to C. 1st Edition. 1995. ISBN-13: 978-0201624380
Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University’s graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. apply code quality strategies appropriate for C, including preprocessor techniques, and use of common idioms
- LO2. use Unix commands and system calls (including usage of flags etc) from online manual system
- LO3. demonstrate the approach and concepts of Unix, including its tools philosophy, processes (including pipes and redirection), the file system, and the shell
- LO4. compose correct, clean code in C that allocates, deallocates and manages memory
- LO5. construct correctly implement standard linked list data structures. Higher performance could involve slightly more complicated structures such as binary search trees
- LO6. assess code execution using debugging tools
- LO7. apply a thorough automated testing regime using tools such as make, diff, scripts to present the outcomes, and a tool to manage regression testing. Higher performance could involve ability to construct such a regime
- LO8. read and write code that correctly uses the main standard library functions, especially for I/O, file handling, and string handling. Higher performance could involve elegant use of these functions, particularly avoiding idioms which are extremely inefficient.
- LO9. evaluate common memory-related errors (such as memory leaks, dangling pointers) and how to avoid these. Higher performance could involve detecting errors in example code, and fixing them using debuggers
- LO10. construct, debug, and evaluate parallel or concurrent programs.
- LO11. Understand and identify security vulnerabilities in memory usage patterns.
Every week students must:
- Read the required sections of literature
- Attend and take notes for the Lecture (Mondays)
- Make progress on and complete the assessments (as required)
- Prepare for the Lab by reviewing reading, lecture and lab questions
- Attend and participate in weekly Lab with tutor(as timetabled)
Additionally:
- Students should ask questions on edstem.org