Technical and Methodological Knowledge

• Comprehension of systematic, constructive methods for writing, testing, debugging, simulating and modifying programs
• Comprehension of the most important concepts of a current and suitable programming language
• Comprehension of simple algorithms and fundamental data structures
• Knowledge of the most usual sources of errors in programming

Cognitive and Practical Skills

• Use of fundamental concepts, methods and tools for writing, testing debugging, simulating and modifying programs
• Use of abstract and systematic ways of thinking in programming
• Documenting and communicating program characteristics

Social Competencies, Innovation and Creativity

• Taking pleasure in solving programming exercises
• Intellectual curiosity in programming topics

• Fundamental procedural programming concepts (including recursion and input/output)
• Fundamental design principles, problem solving strategies, algorithms and data structures (including abstract data types)
• Fundamental development methods (concerning program comprehension, correctness, debugging, documentation and programming style) and programming tools (including appropriate programming environments)

Preliminary talk: October 3 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Audi.Max.

The whole module Program Construction is covered by the course of the same name described here. We abbreviate it by PK (for German Programm-Konstruktion). PK provides the first level of programming education in all bachelor studies in informatics and business informatics at the Vienna University of Technology. It is recommended to take this course in the first semester.

In previous curricula the module Program Construction was covered by the courses Foundations of Program Construction (GPK) and Programming Practice (PP). Students who already passed one of these courses (or do not need one of them because of a very old curriculum) can still take the other course. However, students not satisfying this precondition have to take PK instead of GPK and PP.

Activities

• Each of the 4 weekly lecture units in the Audi.Max. has a focus on theory or examples of practical use: Monday 13:00-14:00 theory and 14:00-15:00 practical use, Thursday 14:00-15:00 theory and 15:00-16:00 practical use. Each participant is supposed to attend all lectures. The first lecture on October 3 (13:00-15:00) gives much organizational information. Please take notice of the lecture documents (only in German).
• Exercises on exercise sheets shall be solved, the solutions shall be stored in the exercise environment and validated by "checking".
• There are almost weekly tutorials, each with about 25 students for about 2 hours. Attendence is required, and the performance in the tutorials contributes to the assessment. Selected students present solutions of exercises on the exercise sheets and answer questions. An emphasis is on ad-hoc programming exercises that have to be solved alone during the tutorial on a computer. Time and location of the tutorials are determined when registering for them.
• 3 regular tests build the most important contribution to assessment. They  happen on November 16, December 7 and January 25 in several labs on computers (using similar software as in the tutorials). The test on November 16 will take 45 minutes, the others 90 minutes each.
• On October 5 there will be an classification test on computers. It will take 45 minutes. Participation is optional, but it is recommended to all students with programming experience. Students who solve at least 70% of the tasks participate in special tutorials for advanced students (instead of the usual tutorials). The classification test can be used as replacement of the first regular test if at least 50% of the tasks are solved.
• in February there will be a supplementary test. Participation is possible only if exactly two of the regular tests showed a positive result (the other a negative one). In this case the result of the supplementary test replaces that of the negative test. The supplementary test covers all topics discussed in the lecture. (the exact date will be announced in TUWEL).
• It is important to practice programming. To get individual support, tutors will be happy to help in the "programming coffee" that will take place in the InfLab (always Monday 10:00-11:00). Furthermore, a tutor will be assigned to each student as a contact person.

Prerequisites of attending

To attend the components of the course the following preconditions must be satisfied:

• On time registration in TISS.
• Participation at a test requires a registration in TUWEL.
• The participation at a tutorial requires a registaration to a certain tutorial group in TUWEL.

Tutorials

We differentiate between advanced tutorials and usual tutorials. Advanced tutorials are attended by students who solve at least 70% of the tasks in the classification test, usual tutorials by all other participants in the course. These to kinds of tutorials differ as follows:

• There are 9 almost weekly usual tutorials. Usual tutorials start in the week after the classification test.
• There are 5 almost weekly advanced tutorials. Advanced tutorials begin only after the first regular test.
• Excercises for advanced groups and usual groups can be different.

More information on each tutorial will be given at the begin of the semester.

Exercise environment

Each participant gets access to a computer where all software needed to solve the exercises can be found. Programs written to solve the exercises must be stored there. Advisors can access these programs. There will be a short introduction into the use of the exercise environment in the first tutorial.  Students are usually logged in into the exercise environment during tutorials. Exercise sheets can also be solved in the exercise environment. If exercise sheets are solved on another computer, the written programs have to be copied into the exerciste environment before the begin of tutorials.

Communication

An important part of the communication is by mail. Mail to students goes to mail addresses of the form  eXXXXXXX@student.tuwien.ac.at, where XXXXXXX is the registration number. Please read such mail carefully and timely because some mails may require quick reactions.

Upon registration for a tutorial, each participant gets the contact address of the tutor responsibe for individual support. Please contact this tutor whenever you need help.

There is a hotline for the course: pk@complang.tuwien.ac.at

ECTS-Breakdown:

• 3.0 ECTS (75 hours) for the participation in lectures including preparation and solving the exercises given in the lectures.

• 3.6 ECTS (90 hours) for solving exercise sheets and participating in tutorials.

• 2.2 ECTS (55 hours) for preparation for tests and participation in tests.

• The course assessment results to equal parts from assessments of the following four components:
• the first regular test (or alternatively the classification test)
• the second regular test
• the third regular test
• the tutorials

Info: The supplementary test can replace one negative or not attended regular test.

• For a positive course assessment it is necessary that the assessment of each of these four components is positive. Otherwise the course assessment is negative.
• Each of these components is rated with a maximum of 100 percent points. The assessment of a component is positive if at least 50 percent points have been achieved. If the course assessment is positive, the grade is computed from the sum of percent points: "sehr gut" with at least 350 points, "gut" with at least 300 points, "befriedigend" with at least 250 points, "genügend" with less points.
• A certificate will be issued when participating on at least one test or tutorial.
• The assessment of the tutorials is composed to equal parts from
• the quality of the solutions of ad-hoc programming tasks
• the quality of the solved excercises at home
• the general participation within the tutorials

Please download and read the script, in the ideal case already before the course starts. The script is in German.

The course addresses first-year students. Hence, no specific previous knowledge is required. Students without previous programming experience are supposed to be able to achieve the specified objectives (assuming appropriate participation). Students with programming experience are supposed to gain insight into new aspects.