CS363A part-U

Syllabus

Spring 2004

Instructor part-U: Prof. R. P. Loui, loui-at-cs.wustl.edu

for Part-W see David Butler

Assistants:

M Raquel Bujans rb3-at-cec.wustl.edu
M Marc Pendlebury mp4-at-cec.wustl.edu

Time and Place:

Notice that Part-U and Part-W alternate each week, but keep the same times:

M 12-2 in Sever 201 (lab)

F 12-1 in Busch 100 (lecture)

Texts:

NONE. There will be handouts. You are free to find online help.

Catalog Description:

CS363A Server-Side and CGI Scripting

This course introduces experienced programmers to CGI and other kinds of web programming in several languages: ASP, SQL, PERL/GAWK, PHP. It will investigate input validation and security; search engine, database, and shopping cart applications; using the browser as a generic GUI for applications; customized web design; and some server management. JAVASCRIPT, RUBY, and PYTHON will also be discussed. Equal time will be given to UNIX and WINDOWS platforms. The course will emphasize practical design through small projects.

Prerequisites: programming at a CS101, CS136, or equivalent level, and web design at a CS160 or equivalent level, some UNIX familiarity beyond CS100.

Credit: 3.0 units

Insider Description:

this is where we actually teach you cgi programming in a variety of platforms and you think about where all the action is in programming .

this is not a team-design course with open-ended objectives; it is a do-your-own-work skill-acquisition and programming-paradigms course with a real grading "curve".

there is a lot to learn in this course, and the profs are still trying to learn it too, but the basic platform is incredibly rich and rewarding for interesting and useful software engineering.

Requirements:

You get a grade for part-U and a grade for part-W. Each is worth 1/3. For the final third, you will do a final project in your choice of tools. Final project options will be available later in the course. Each part will be graded separately. Part-U will depend on six homework projects (one per week).

Normal Lab Session:

Students are encouraged to bring in their laptops and plug into the network, or else to pair with a NEW student in class each week. Students seen working with people for the second time will be forcibly re-assigned.

In each of the part-U labs, you will have two hours to complete a supervised task. Failure to complete the task will result in a small deduction on both students' homework grade that week.

mini-calendar

   January 2004
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
                LOUI1
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
   LOUI-LAB1    BUTLER1

   February 2004
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7
    BUTLER-LAB1 LOUI2
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14
    LOUI-LAB2   BUTLER2
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
    BUTLER-LAB2 LOUI3
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
    LOUI-LAB3   BUTLER3

   March 2004
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
29  1  2  3  4  5  6
    BUTLER-LAB3 LOUI4
 7  8  9 10 11 12 13
this is spring break week
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
    LOUI-LAB4   BUTLER4
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
    BUTLER-LAB4 LOUI5
28 29 30 31  1  2  3
    LOUI-LAB5   BUTLER5

   April 2004
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
 4  5  6  7  8  9 10
    BUTLER-LAB5 LOUI6
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
    LOUI-LAB6   BUTLER6
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
    BUTLER-LAB6 PROJECTS
25 26 27 28 29 30  1
    TBA         PROJECTS

   May 2004
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
 2  3  4  5  6  7  8
	     final exams begin
 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
 THERE IS NO FINAL EXAM FOR THIS COURSE
 PROJECT DUE DATE TBA
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
               commencement

tentative outline

LOUI1
	course mechanics
	cs363 account and directory on wolf and k9
	comments on gawk as a language
	  original part of unix
	  aho, weinberger, kernighan
	  c-like (more c-like than bash, perl, or c++)
	  small/easy to learn/easy to master
	  consistent across time (not extensible!)
	  fairly consistent across implementations (no libraries!)
	  powerful and quick
	  larger programs are surprisingly easy to read
	  reasonable tradeoff between semantic power and difficulty
	  some semantic traps
	  best features:  associative arrays as hashes/regexp matching/parsing upon input
		auto-initialization/auto-coercion/fundamental types/fairly clean syntax/
		local variables as procedure polymorphism 
	  worst features:  lacks support for serious systems programs (though pipes just
		added)/semantic differences att vs. linux vs. sun/not elegant to look at/
		slow to loop
	here
	GAWK:
	  checking the directory
	  #!
	  saying hello
	  permissions error : forbidden
	  script error : internal server error
	  header error : internal server error
	  making it visible (linking)
	  simple system call
LOUI-LAB1
	check that students can do all of this and start moving beyond it
	cp, sftp, ssh file transfer, pico, vi, and dos2unix
	output that rewrites a form
		stuffing default values
		setting hidden values
	will specify a calculator and make you implement it
	GAWK:  gsub and split quiz
LOUI-HW1
	design your own calculator 

LOUI2
	GAWK:
	  get:  ENVIRON variables
	  post:  getline
	  multiple named fields
		& and =
		two-stage split
		RS and FS (don't forget to reset them!)
	  reading from files
		getline < fname > 0
		close

	  textarea
	  special characters
		gsub
		sprintf
		dd
	  writing to files
		chmod a+rw
	  debugging to /tmp files
		mkdir
		chmod a+rwx
	  system security issues
          checking the client IP
	  setting and reading cookies
	  using grep on a file as a database query engine
	  handling images:  djpeg, cjpeg, wc, ls -s, pnmcat
	  logging and counters
LOUI-LAB2
	shopping cart with cookies, shopping cart with session id's
LOUI-HW2

LOUI3
	GAWK:
	  cgi just to vary the html output
	  re-entering the same script
	  parsing multi-part file type enc
	  file locking
	  input type=image
	  each pixel a form?
LOUI-LAB3

LOUI4
	PERL:
LOUI-LAB4

LOUI5
	PHP:
LOUI-LAB5

LOUI6
	PYTHON/RUBY:
LOUI-LAB6