COMP6771

Advanced C++ Programming

Week 1.1

Course Outline

Teaching Staff

Lecturer in charge	Lecturers	Tutors
Hayden Smith	Hayden Smith Christopher Di Bella Matthew Stark	Adrian Martinez Gary Bai George Fidler Jason Zavaglia Josephine Anugerah Mirette Saleh Nathaniel Shead Oliver Richards Rahil Agrawal Ryan Fallah Saeed Baig Simon Hadded

Course Objectives

You will develop:

skills in writing software using C++20
skills in using libraries to develop software
skills in using tools to build and test software
knowledge and understanding about unit testing
knowledge and understanding about reactive programming, object-oriented programming, and generic programming

What is C++?

Lightweight-abstraction programming language
Lets you use the right abstractions at the right time

C++ Design Pillars

Don't leave room for a language between C++ and assembly.
Abstractions should have as little cost as possible.

C++ is not C

C++ is backwards compatible with C, so it's easy to think that you can build your C++ understanding directly on top of your C understanding
However, while valid C code is often valid C++, good C is is almost never good C++ code. Over the years C++ continues to diverge from C
For example, when we teach you best practice, we will not be using:
- malloc
- free
- C-style arrays
- C-style strings
And will be sometimes discouraging use of:
- raw pointers (char *, int *)

What's C++ good for?

Mars Curiosity Rover, courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

James-Webb Telescope, courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

This course is an independent class and is neither affiliated with, nor authorized, sponsored, or approved by, Microsoft Corporation.

Learning Resources

Will help you in a pinch (e.g. before exams and interviews)

Also covers newer stuff the Swan book doesn't

Comprehensive intro to C++ (>100 pages of exercises!)

+

Learning Resources

cppreference.com

Good for looking up APIs and recalling language rules

DO NOT USE CPLUSPLUS.COM

abseil.io

Good for looking up APIs and getting tips on how to use C++

code.visualstudio.com

Documentation on how to use the course editor

Where to get help

Your question/answer hierarchy:

Piazza forum
Your tutor (see Timetable page for links)
Lecturers (cs6771@cse.unsw.edu.au)
Hayden (hayden.smith@unsw.edu.au)

Questions that are non-sensitive will only be answered on the forum

Schedule & Structure

See course outline for full course schedule
Weekly teaching provided includes:
- 4 hours of lectures
- 1 hour of tutorial
- 7+ hours of recommended practice and associated work

We may provide additional material and webinars to assist in your learning. While these will be recommended, they will not be required.

Assessment

Assessment	Weighting	Due Date
Assignment 1	15%	Late Week 3
Assignment 2	15%	Early Week 7
Assignment 3	20%	Early Week 10
Exam	50%	Exam Period

Assignment due dates are subject to change (never earlier), so always see the assignment specification for more information

Assessment

Final exam may be scaled
Final exam:
- Hurdle exam
Assignments:
- have an emphasis on testing
- rely on version control (assumed knowledge)
- have a late penalty outlined in the specification
Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
- Immediate zero for assignment.

Gitlab

This course is taught on gitlab.

For every tutorial (9) and every assignment (3) we will automatically deploy new repositories and subsequent changes to those repositories in your gitlab account.

E.G. For me personally: https://gitlab.cse.unsw.edu.au/z3418003/20t2-cs6771-tut01

Gitlab

If you are not familiar with git, or haven't used vlab in course before, we encourage you to check out the git instructions provided in the first tutorial.

If you're really out of your depth, you can always post on the forum. Your tutor will demonstrate a bit more of this in week 1.

Feedback

During your first tutorial your tutor will ask for a few volunteers to be added to private channel with tutors to discuss and share thoughts around how they're finding the course.