COMS W3157 Advanced Programming (2024)

Spring 2022

• TR 4:10pm-5:25pm, 417 International Affairs Building (first two weeks on Zoom)

  • CourseWorks open to whole Columbia first few weeks – search on Vergil

• Three synchronous and in-person exams for all sections

  • Thursday, Feb 24, 4:10pm: Midterm exam #1
  • Thursday, Apr 14, 4:10pm: Midterm exam #2
  • Tuesday, May 10, 4:20pm: Final exam

  (Exams can be switched to online format if necessary.)

  All students in all sections MUST take the exams at those times.There are no make-up or alternate exams.If you cannot make any of those exams, please take the course next semester.

• Instructor: Jae Woo Lee

• Office hours:

  • Jae’s office hours
  • TA office hours

Course essentials

• OVERVIEW AND LOGISTICS
• REQUIRED READING:ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICIES
• Lecture Notes
• Linux Programming Environment
• Jae’s Git Tutorial
• Lab Workflow

All of the above and many more resources can be found on the3157 Resources site.

Syllabus

Unit 1: C programming basics

• UNIX CLI basics
• Compiling & linking
• Makefile
• Git
• Binary number
• Data types
• Expressions & statements
• Storage class
• Process address space

Unit 2: Pointers and arrays

• Pointers
• Arrays
• Pointers vs. arrays

Unit 3: Function pointers and structs

• Function pointers
• Struct
• Linked list

Unit 4: File I/O

• Standard I/O
• Redirection
• File I/O

Unit 5: UNIX processes, shell, TCP/IP

• UNIX overview
• Creating processes using fork & exec
• Introduction to TCP/IP networking

Unit 6: Sockets API and HTTP

• Endianness
• Sockets API
• HTTP 1.0

Unit 7: Web-based software architecture

• HTTP 1.0 vs. HTTP 1.1
• 3-tier architecture

Past Lectures

• Course overview and logistics
  • Slides: OVERVIEW AND LOGISTICS

• UNIX CLI basics
  • Linux Programming Environment

• Compiling & linking
  • Lecture note 01
  • main.c, myadd.c, myadd.h
    • Compiling & linking, a two-step process
    • Function declarations
    • #include <stdio.h> - how this is NOT including library code
    • Independent compilation of .o files

• Introduction to Git
  • Jae’s Git Tutorial

• Compiling & linking (continued)
  • main.c, myadd.c, myadd.h
    • Using header file to prevent linking problem
• Makefile - 01
• Integer data types - 02
• Binary numbers - 02

Note that 01 and 02 refer to Lecture note 01and Lecture note 02.

• Binary numbers (continued)
  • 0x7FFFFFFF, 0x80000000, 0xFFFFFFFF
• Integer literals
  • Differences between 0, '\0', and '0'
• Expressions & statements - 02
  • Assignment as expression
  • ++x and x++
  • Comparison and loginal operators
  • Bitwise operators
    • Picking out (i+1)th right-most bit

• Lab workflow and submission process
• Expressions & statements (continued)
  • Bitwise operators
    • Review Picking out (i+1)th right-most bit
    • Turning on (i+1)th right-most bit
    • Turning off (i+1)th right-most bit
  • loops
• Storage class - 02

• Macros & Include guards - 01
• Process address space - 02
  • How local variables are allocated on the stack
• Pointer types - 04

• Pointer types (continued)
• NULL pointer - 04
• Array basics - 05
• sizeof operator - 05
• Grand Unified Theory (GUT) of arrays and pointers - 05
• Heap memory allocation - 05

• Review Heap memory allocation
• Char arrays
• Strings literals
• strcpy(), strncpy(), strcat(), strncat()
• Argv array
• How to approach lab 2 part 2

• Review Argv array & Lab 2 part 2
• Exam 1 logistics & coverage
• const keyword - 07
• Function pointers - 07
• Sample code: lectnote07.c

• Complex declarations - 07
  • lectnote07.c
• struct - 07
  • struct.c
• linked list in C - 07
  • list1.c, list2.c
• Lab3 linked list
  • two differences: (1) void *data (2) struct List

• Exam 1, covering:
  • Labs 1 and 2
  • All lecture materials before struct
  • All ANN emails
  • Textbook sections on the topics covered in the lectures

• Lab3 linked list (continued)
  • two differences: (1) void *data (2) struct List
• Standard I/O, redirection, pipelines - 09
  • Pipeline demo

• File I/O API in C - 09
  • ncat.c
• Buffering on standard I/O - 09
• Binary file I/O - 09
  • fcrop.c

• Formatted I/O - 09
  • lectnote09.c
• Lab 4 overview & demo
• File permissions in UNIX - 11
  • Expressing perms in octal number
  • search permission in directories
  • setuid permission in executables

• Numeric IDs in UNIX - 11
  • User ID, Group ID, Process ID, Port number
• fork & exec
  • How processes are created in UNIX
    • fork-example.c
  • How shell programs work
    • shell.c

• Spring Break – No Class

• Mid-semester TA Chat – No Class

• Big endian vs. little endian

  • endian-demo.c

• Netcat utility - 12

  • Demo of chat session using netcat

• Remote mdb-lookup using netcat - 12

• Lab 5 overview

• Review Remote mdb-lookup using netcat - 12

• How the Internet works - 12

  • Five Internet protocol layers
    • L1: Physical layer
    • L2: Link layer
    • L3: Internet layer

• Five Internet protocol layers (continued)

  • L4: Transport layer
  • L5: Application layer

• UNIX I/O using file descriptors - 11

• Sockets API - 14

  • First half of Overview of Sockets API and HTTP 1.0

• Sockets API: simple echo client & server example
  • tcp-echo-client.c,tcp-echo-server.c

• Sockets API: simple echo client & server example (continued)

  • tcp-echo-client.c,tcp-echo-server.c

• HTTP 1.0 - 14

  • Second half of Overview of Sockets API and HTTP 1.0
  • HTTP protocol demo using netcat

• Lab 6 overview

• Sockets API: file sender & receiver example
  • tcp-sender.c,tcp-recver.c

• Exam 2
  • Coverage:
    • Labs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
    • Lectures up to and including 4/7
    • All ANN emails
    • Textbook sections on the topics covered in the lectures

Beyond C: Bash and Python

1. Shell Scripting by Kent John Hall (TA)
   • Compiled executable vs. shebang script vs. sourced script
   • Shell language features
     • Variables
     • Comparators
     • Control flow
     • Functions
     • Trap handlers
     • Command substitution
2. How Python Actually Works by Michael Jan (TA)
   • What’s a beautiful, high-level language like PYTHON doing herein this low-level nitty-gritty systems programming course?Attend this lecture to find out…
   • C knowledge required, Python knowledge not required

• Lab 7 demo
  • HTTP 1.0 vs HTTP 1.1
  • Dynamic web page
  • 3-tier architecture

In Memory Of C

1. free()ing the Mystery of malloc() by Hans Montero (TA)
   • Invalid free revisted: what’s at the beginning of malloc’d chunks?
   • Free chunk management algorithms, memory fragmentation
   • GNU implementation of malloc() & free()
2. Valgrind: Unlocking the Gates of Death by Ivy Basseches (TA)
   • What is Valgrind?
     • Dynamic Binary Instrumentation (DBI) frameworks
     • Shadow value tools
   • Behind the scenes: how does Valgrind execute a program?
   • Tracking heap and stack (de)allocation with Valgrind

• From C to C++

  • a.cpp

• Course wrap-up

Upcoming Lectures & Exams

• Exam 3 (aka Final Exam)
  • Coverage:
    • Labs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
    • All lectures except guest lectures
    • All ANN emails
    • Textbook sections on the topics covered in the lectures

Assignments & Exams

• HW0 Part A due Tue 1/18
• HW0 Part B due Thu 1/20
• Lab 1 due Sat 2/5
• Lab 2 due Sat 2/19
• Midterm exam #1: Thursday, Feb 24, 4:10pm
• Lab 3 due Sun 3/6
• Lab 4 due Thu 3/24
• Lab 5 due Mon 4/4
• Midterm exam #2: Thursday, Apr 14, 4:10pm
• Lab 6 due Sat 4/23
• Lab 7 due Tue 5/3
• Final exam: Tuesday, May 10, 4:20pm