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From: hcc@cs.olemiss.edu (Conrad Cunningham)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: File Structures Textbook and Course Suggestions?
Message-ID: <1991Feb22.182826.13881@cs.olemiss.edu>
Date: 22 Feb 91 18:28:26 GMT
Organization: University of Mississippi, Dept. of Computer Science
Lines: 28

My department has "sophomore" (second year) core course called File Systems, 
modeled more or less according to the ACM CS5 guidelines.  The course
follows our introductory sequence (beginning programming and data
structures using Pascal) and uses Pascal for the laboratory exercises.
We seek to emphasize file design techniques and implementation
structures/algorithms.  I have taught the course two of the past six
offerings.  Many students seem to view this course as dry,
uninteresting, and not a particularly important addition to their
educations in 1991. 

(1) I am looking for ways to change this course to make it more
interesting and useful and was wondering how other computer
science departments are handling this material in the 1990's.
Do you have separate CS5-like courses or is the material folded into
other courses?   Is your CS5 course part of the required "core"?  At
what level is the material taught?  What languages/environments do you
use for practical  exercises?  How do they relate to other courses in
the curriculum? 

(2) We are considering a textbook change and would appreciate any
recommendations you might have.

Thanks!
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H. Conrad Cunningham  | Dept. of Computer & Info. Sci., Univ. of Mississippi
Tel:  (601) 232-5358  | 302 Weir Hall, University, MS 38677  U.S.A.
Fax:  (601) 232-7010  | Email:  cunningham@cs.olemiss.edu 
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