CS107, Lecture 1
Welcome to CS107!
reading:
Course Syllabus
Bryant & O’Hallaron, Ch. 1 (skim)
Honor Code and Collaboration Page
This document is copyright (C) Stanford Computer Science and Nick Troccoli, licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License. All rights reserved.
Based on slides created by Cynthia Lee, Chris Gregg, Jerry Cain, Lisa Yan and others.
NOTICE RE UPLOADING TO WEBSITES: This content is protected and may not be shared, 1
uploaded, or distributed. (without expressed written permission)
Asking Questions
• Feel free to raise your hand at any time with a question
• If you are more comfortable, you can post a question in the Ed forum thread
for each day’s lecture (optionally anonymously)
• We will monitor the thread throughout the lecture for questions
Visit Ed (or access via Canvas):
https://edstem.org/us/courses/77494/discussion
Today’s thread:
https://edstem.org/us/courses/77494/discussion/6449897
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Plan For Today
• Introduction
• CS107 Course Topics
• CS107 Course Policies
• Unix and the Command Line
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Plan For Today
• Introduction
• CS107 Course Topics
• CS107 Course Policies
• Unix and the Command Line
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Teaching Team
• Lecturer in CS, taught CS106X, CS107, CS110, CS111
• Stanford BS/MS (coterm) in CS
• Systems track undergrad, AI track grad 5
Companion Class: CS107ACE
• CS107ACE is an extra 1-unit “Pathfinders” or “ACE” section with additional
course support, practice and instruction.
• Meets for additional weekly sections and has additional support
• Entry by application – see the announcement on the CS107 course website for
details
• In addition to all normal CS107 requirements such as lab
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Course Website
cs107.stanford.edu
*lecture videos / lecture grades on Canvas
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Plan For Today
• Introduction
• CS107 Course Topics
• CS107 Course Policies
• Unix and the Command Line
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What is CS107?
The CS106 courses (or equivalent) provided you with a solid foundation in
programming methodology and abstractions (variables, functions, data
structures, pointers, recursion, classes, algorithms).
CS107 follows on this to build up and expand your breadth and depth of
programming experience and techniques to show you how machines really
work.
CS107 key question: how / why?
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CS107: How/Why?
The CS106 series taught you how to solve problems as a programmer. CS107
goes a level deeper to understand the how and why:
• How is data in our program really represented?
• How does heap memory work?
• How does a computer know how to run the code we write?
• How does a program map onto the components of computer systems?
• Why is my program doing X when I expected it to do Y?
Understanding computing at this level demystifies how these seemingly-
complex systems work and can aid future projects you work on.
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Course Overview
1. Bits and Bytes - How can a computer represent integer numbers?
2. Chars and C-Strings - How can a computer represent and manipulate more
complex data like text?
3. Pointers, Stack and Heap – How can we effectively manage all types of memory
in our programs?
4. Generics - How can we use our knowledge of memory and data representation
to write code that works with any data type?
5. Assembly - How does a computer interpret and execute C programs?
6. Heap Allocators - How do core memory-allocation operations
like malloc and free work?
7. Ethics, Privacy, Partiality and Trust - How do we act responsibly in maintaining
security, protecting privacy, and ensuring warranted trust in the systems we
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build and maintain?
CS107 Learning Goals
The goals for CS107 are for students to gain mastery of
- writing C programs with complex use of memory and pointers
- an accurate model of the address space of C programs
- the compile/runtime behavior of C programs
to achieve competence in
- translating C to/from assembly
- writing programs that respect the limitations of computer arithmetic
- identifying bottlenecks and improving runtime performance
- working effectively in a Unix development environment
- using ethical frameworks and case studies to inform decision-making
and have exposure to
- understanding compilers and disassemblers
- a working understanding of the basics of computer architecture 13
CS107 and Programming Experience
• We hope that CS107 can help further develop your programming experience
and comfort with programming.
• CS107 focuses heavily on debugging and getting to the root of why something
is happening.
• Across assignments, we will be emphasizing how to become a better debugger,
how to write better code, and how to further your software development
skills.
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Plan For Today
• Introduction
• CS107 Course Topics
• CS107 Course Policies
• Unix and the Command Line
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Course Syllabus and Schedule
cs107.stanford.edu/syllabus
cs107.stanford.edu/calendar
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CGOE Students
cs107.stanford.edu/cgoe
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Getting Started Guide
cs107.stanford.edu/getting-started.html
(on course website under ”handouts”)
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Textbook(s)
• Computer Systems: A Programmer’s Perspective
by Bryant & O’Hallaron, 3rd Edition
• 3rd edition matters – important updates to content
• Stanford Library has generously scanned all readings
for CS107 under “fair use” (private study, scholarship,
research). [Canvas -> Files]. Please do not distribute.
• If you want more context, you may want to purchase Full textbook CS107 full chapters
a full copy
CS107-specific readings
• A C programming reference of your choice
• The C Programming Language by Kernighan and The textbook (and C
Ritchie (free link on course website Resources page) programming references) are
• Other C programming books, websites, or reference very good resources in this
sheets course, especially post-midterm!
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Course Structure
• Lectures: understand concepts, see demos
• Labs: learn tools, study code, discuss with peers Great preview of homework!
• Assignments: build programming skills, synthesize lecture/lab content
• assign0: due next Monday (covers today and part of Wednesday’s lecture)
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Grading
**** 40% Assignments
* 5% Lab Participation
* 5% Lecture Points
** 20% Midterm Exam
*** 30% Final Exam
Read our full course policies document:
https://cs107.stanford.edu/syllabus.html 21
Grading
**** 40% Assignments
* 5% Lab Participation
* 5% Lecture Points
** 20% Midterm Exam
*** 30% Final Exam
Read our full course policies document:
https://cs107.stanford.edu/syllabus.html 22
Assignments
• 7 programming assignments completed
individually using Unix command line tools
• Free software, pre-installed on Myth machines /
available on course website
• We will give out starter projects for each
assignment
• Graded on functionality (behavior) and style
(elegance)
• Functionality graded using automated tools, given
as point score – no TA review
• Style graded via automated tests and TA code
review, given as bucket score
• Grades returned via course website
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The Style Bucket System
+ An outstanding job; could be used as course example code for good style.
ok A good job; solid effort, but also opportunities for improvement.
- Shows some effort and understanding but has larger problems that
should be focused on.
-- Shows many significant issues and represents minimally passing work.
0 No work submitted, or barely any changes from the starter assignment.
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Assignment Late Policy
Assignments are due at 11:59PM PDT, but also allow for late submissions up to 2
days after the published deadline, with a cap:
• Submitting by the published deadline does not incur any cap
• Submitting after the deadline but within 24 hours means you can get at most
95% of the points.
• Submitting between 24 hours and 48 hours after the deadline means you can
get at most 87.5% of the points.
Submissions closed beyond 2 days, and this policy does not apply for the last
assignment (assign6), where no late submissions are accepted except for
Head-TA granted extensions.
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Assignment Late Policy
Only the Head TA can grant extensions of the on-time deadline due to
medical/emergency/extenuating circumstances, or extensions beyond the 2-
days-late period. All extension requests must be received in advance of the
assignment deadline, or as soon as possible if extenuating circumstances occur
later, or extenuating circumstances prevent reaching out prior to the deadline.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to the course staff or the instructor if any
personal circumstances or issues arise!
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Question Break!
What questions do you have about the overall course goals,
textbook or assignments?
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Grading
**** 40% Assignments
* 5% Lab Participation
* 5% Lecture Points
** 20% Midterm Exam
*** 30% Final Exam
Read our full course policies document:
https://cs107.stanford.edu/syllabus.html 28
Lab Sections
• Weekly 1-hour 30-minute in-person labs led by a CA, starting next week,
offered Wednesdays through Fridays.
• Hands-on practice in small groups with lecture material and course concepts.
Designed to act as prep/preview of homework!
• Graded on attendance + participation
• Lab preference submissions open Tuesday 4/1 at 9AM PST and are not first-
come first-serve. You may submit your preferences anytime until the start of
class Friday 4/4 at 11:30AM PST. Sign up on the course website.
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Grading
**** 40% Assignments
* 5% Lab Participation
* 5% Lecture Points
** 20% Midterm Exam
*** 30% Final Exam
Read our full course policies document:
https://cs107.stanford.edu/syllabus.html 30
Lecture Recordings
• Because CS107 is offered on CGOE (for professional development students)
this quarter, the course is being recorded for later viewing.
• See the calendar page (or lecture dropdown) on the course website for slides
and lecture code. Materials are posted the evening before each lecture.
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Lecture Points
At the same time, staying current with the material is essential to your success
this quarter! Our goal is to incentivize staying current with lectures to enable
you to start early on assignments and have the material you need to work
through section material.
• In each lecture (starting Fri), we’ll use Poll Everywhere to take polls and do
practice questions. If you submit answers to all questions in a lecture
(regardless of correctness), you get credit for that lecture.
• We will provide 4 pre-excused absences for when you are ill, in COVID-19
isolation, or have other extenuating circumstances. They are intended only for
these scenarios!
• Further excused absences are granted by the Head TA only in cases where you
have already used your excused absences for extenuating circumstances and
further extenuating circumstances necessitate additional accommodations. 33
Lecture Points
If you would prefer not to attend lecture in person, will send out a form in Week
4 that will give you the option to instead count your final exam score in place of
your lecture participation grade - in other words, we will not count any lecture
credit as part of your grade, and instead add 5% to your final exam weight.
Polls require being present in the classroom – CGOE students can choose to
either upweight the final or complete a quiz by the end of the week each week.
We’ll do a PollEV dry run (doesn’t count) in lecture Wednesday, and lecture
points will start with lecture on Fri 4/4 (first real poll Fri).
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Grading
**** 40% Assignments
* 5% Lab Participation
* 5% Lecture Points
** 20% Midterm Exam
*** 30% Final Exam
Read our full course policies document:
https://cs107.stanford.edu/syllabus.html 35
Exams
• Midterm exam – Tuesday, May 6, 7-9PM outside of class
• Submit our exam information form by 11:59PM on Friday, April 18 if you have an
academic or University conflict with this time, and absolutely cannot make the regularly
scheduled midterm. Any alternates will take place on 5/5 or 5/6.
• Final exam – Wednesday, June 11, 8:30AM-11:30AM
• No alternate final! You MUST be able to take the final exam at the scheduled time
(except for university athletics or OAE accommodations). If you have any concerns,
please reach out to me (Nick).
• Both exams are in-person, closed-book, closed-note, closed-computer paper-
and-pencil exams. You are provided with a reference sheet during the exam.
• CGOE students have a window during which to take the exams
• Submit our exam information form if you have a midterm conflict, are a CGOE
student wanting to take exams on campus, or if you want a left-handed desk! 36
Grading
**** 40% Assignments
* 5% Lab Participation
* 5% Lecture Points
** 20% Midterm Exam
*** 30% Final Exam
Read our full course policies document:
https://cs107.stanford.edu/syllabus.html 37
Question Break!
What questions do you have about section, lecture or exams?
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Getting Help
• Post on the Discussion Forum
• Online discussion forum for students; post questions, answer other students’ questions
• Best for course material discussions, course policy questions, short debugging questions
or general assignment questions (DON’T POST ASSIGNMENT CODE!)
• Visit Helper Hours
• Chat about course topics or just hang out
• Sign up in a queue for 1:1 TA help; schedule will be posted / hours start tomorrow.
• Mix of in-person-only and online-only helper hours
• Best for group work, coding/debugging questions (with TAs only!) or longer course
material discussions
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Course Staff Contact Information
• Email the Head TA for requests of a personal nature, such as about: Office of
Accessible Education accommodations, extension requests or other
accommodations, enrollment questions, auditing, or other personal matters.
• Email the instructor for questions about private/personal matters.
• Email your lab TA for questions about lab attendance grades, or for lab
accommodations (e.g. missing a lab due to extenuating circumstances).
• Email the grader listed at the top of your assignment grade report if you have
questions about assignment style or manual review grades - for questions
about assignment autograder test scores, please email the Head TA.
• We are not able to answer course material or assignment questions via email;
instead, take advantage of Ed or Helper hours resources!
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OAE Accommodations
We are eager to do everything we can to support you and make you successful
in CS107! Please upload your OAE letter via our OAE form on the course
homepage as soon as possible. In particular, please let us know of any needed
exam accommodations by Fri 4/18 if possible.
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Course Flexibility
If you are ever sick or encounter an emergency or other exceptional
circumstance, we have a variety of accommodation mechanisms, including:
• Extended time on assignments
• Makeup labs
• Lecture pre-excused misses
• Exam accommodations for emergencies/illness
• Ability to attend all helper hours remotely with Head TA permission
If you feel ill or are sick, please stay home and take care of yourself. We never
want you to feel that you must attend class or helper hours if you are not feeling
well. And if you are ill or have another emergency or exceptional circumstance,
please reach out to us so that we can help!
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Stanford Honor Code
From http://honorcode.stanford.edu (newly updated Honor Code):
The Honor Code is an undertaking of the Stanford academic community, individually and
collectively. Its purpose is to uphold a culture of academic honesty.
Students will support this culture of academic honesty by neither giving nor accepting unpermitted
academic aid in any work that serves as a component of grading or evaluation, including assignments,
examinations, and research.
Instructors will support this culture of academic honesty by providing clear guidance, both in their
course syllabi and in response to student questions, on what constitutes permitted and unpermitted
aid. Instructors will also not take unusual or unreasonable precautions to prevent academic
dishonesty.
Students and instructors will also cultivate an environment conducive to academic integrity. While
instructors alone set academic requirements, the Honor Code is a community undertaking that
requires students and instructors to work together to ensure conditions that support academic
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integrity.
Honor Code and CS107
It is your responsibility to ensure you have read and are familiar with the
honor code guidelines posted on the main page of the course website. Please
read them and come talk to us if you have any questions or concerns.
https://cs107.stanford.edu/collaboration
Please help us ensure academic integrity:
• Indicate any assistance received on HW (books, friends, etc.).
• Do not look at other people's solution code or answers
• Do not give your solutions to others or post them publicly on the web or our Ed forum.
• Tutoring is not appropriate for help with work that will be submitted for a grade.
• Do not use AI tools to write code/responses for you on assignments or any graded work.
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Honor Code and CS107
https://cs107.stanford.edu/collaboration
• Assignments are checked for similarity with help of robust software tools and
processes. Concerns are reported to the Office of Community Standards.
• Any cases determined by the OCS process to be Honor Code violations will
result in zero credit for the work of concern plus a course grade penalty of at
least a one grade bucket decrease (e.g. B to B-) up to failing the course.
• If you need help, please contact us and we will help you.
• We do not want you to feel any pressure to violate the Honor Code in order to succeed
in this course.
• We also have a retraction policy that permits retracting all or part of previously-
submitted assignment or other work up to 5 days after the on-time deadline, no
questions asked (except for the final exam).
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Use of AI Tools
• AI tools can be extremely valuable in certain contexts and enable easier
development / coding.
• However, for CS107 our focus is on not just the artifact but also the process:
developing skills to write code, debug code, and think critically about existing
code and code you write, all of which will make you a more powerful computer
scientist and let you work more effectively and efficiently!
• For these reasons, you should only use AI tools in the same way that you
would ask a friend in the class for help – high level questions, citations where
needed, etc. You should not use AI tools to write code/responses for you on
assignments or any graded work. Doing so is a violation of the Stanford Honor
Code.
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Plan For Today
• Introduction
• CS107 Course Topics
• CS107 Course Policies
• Unix and the Command Line
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What is Unix?
• Unix: a set of standards and tools commonly used in software development.
• macOS and Linux are operating systems built on top of Unix
• You can navigate a Unix system using the command line (“terminal”)
• Every Unix system works with the same tools and commands
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What is the Command Line?
• The command-line is a text-based interface (i.e., terminal interface) to
navigate a computer, instead of a Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Graphical User Interface Text-based interface
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Command Line Vs. GUI
Just like a GUI file explorer interface, a terminal interface:
• shows you a specific place on your computer at any given time.
• lets you go into folders and out of folders.
• lets you create new files and edit files.
• lets you execute programs.
Graphical User Interface Command-line interface 50
Why Use Unix / the Command Line?
• You can navigate almost any device using the same tools and commands:
• Servers
• Laptops and desktops
• Embedded devices (Raspberry Pi, etc.)
• Mobile Devices (Android, etc.)
• Used frequently by software engineers:
• Web development: running servers and web tools on servers
• Machine learning: processing data on servers, running algorithms
• Systems: writing operating systems, networking code and embedded software
• Mobile Development: running tools, managing libraries
• And more…
• We’ll use Unix and the command line to implement and execute our programs.
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Learning Unix and the Command Line
• Using Unix and the command line can be intimidating at first:
• It looks retro!
• How do I know what to type?
• It’s like learning a new language:
• At first, you may have to constantly look things up (resources on course website!)
• It’s important to spend as much time as possible (during labs and assignments) building
muscle memory with the tools
More next time!
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Assign0
Assignment 0 (Intro to Unix and C) is due in one week on Mon. 4/7 at 11:59PM
PDT. It relies on material from this and the next lecture.
There are 5 parts to the assignment, which is meant to get you comfortable
using the command line, and editing/compiling/running C programs:
• Visit the website resources to become familiar with different Unix commands
• Clone the assign0 starter project
• Answer several questions in readme.txt
• Compile a provided C program and modify it
• Submit the assignment
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Recap
• CS107 is a programming class in C that teaches you about what goes on under
the hood of programming languages and software.
• We’ll use Unix and command line tools to write, debug and run our programs.
• Please visit the course website, cs107.stanford.edu, where you can read the
General Information page, information about the Honor Code in CS107, and
more about CS107 course policies and logistics.
We’re looking forward to an awesome quarter!
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