Welcome back!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable break.

I've taken the liberty of subscribing everyone's lab46 address to the class mailing list. Please feel free to subscribe other e-mail addresses you may check more frequently. I'd like to use this mailing list as a means of disseminating important information and announcements to the class, and also having others in the class carry on conversations.

The class IRC channel is **#csci**, so go ahead and create a screen session and join it. This will also be a useful resource for class communication.

Finally the course notes wiki: http://lab46.corning-cc.edu/notes/asm

Is there for our class project documentation purposes.

Speaking of the class project, we're going to be building a CPU simulator. Now, before I lose anyone in a sense of impossible realization... we're going to be building this thing from the ground up, and we're going to be implementing it in a collaborative fashion--- the ENTIRE class is going to be working TOGETHER on ONE project. You need to communicate with one another, and regularly, helping each other out.

The project will be done in Object-Oriented C++. We WILL be using classes. For those fresh out of C/C++ Programming... don't worry, we can review. And on programming in general. EXCELLENT QUESTIONS TO ASK.

The course homepage/syllabus is located here: http://lab46.corning-cc.edu/haas/spring2011/asm

Please read through it. Let me know if there are any questions.

The core of the class activity will be around implementing the CPU simulator, researching the various components/concepts/functionality, and documenting the effort.

We will be making heavy use of subversion, which is the version control system some already have some familiarity with (those that do, be sure to help those who don't-- those who don't... ASK). We already have a repository, and I've made an initial commit. To check out a copy of the repository, I'd recommend everyone do the following (note the Lab46 prompts to indicate location):

<cli>
lab46:~$ cd src
lab46:~/src$ svn co http://lab46.corning-cc.edu/projects/cpu cpu
A    cpu/main.cc
A    cpu/README
Checked out revision 1.
lab46:~/src$ 
</cli>

In **~/src/cpu** will be the repository.. In there already is a README file (be sure to read through it, I've included some information to get us started), and a simple main.cc that doesn't do anything significant yet.

I cannot stress how important it will be to ASK QUESTIONS AND COMMUNICATE. This has the potential to be one of the most involved and invigorating classes ever, but in order for it to be so communication MUST happen, and regularly.

I think everyone in the class has the ability to do well in the class. It all comes down to participation and effort.

Again, PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS. Nobody is on their own here. In fact, this may be for many the first class where very little you do is to be done by yourself (the journal being an exception).

For a starting exercise on the mailing list, I'd like everyone to chime in and introduce themselves. Name, major, interests, etc. sort of thing just to get the ball rolling. As I said, everyone is already subscribed, so just go ahead and send a message.

I look forward to hearing from everyone.