Problem Set 0: Registration Survey - My Answers

David Evans 17 January 2002

1.  Your full name

David Evans

2.  Name you want me to call you (spell out phonetically if non-obvious
    how to pronounce)

"Dave" or "Coach Dave"

3.  Anything you want to tell me that will help me learn your name

Its the most common name in Wales, but I'm not Welsh.
Its the name of the guitarist for U2 (who goes by "The Edge").

4.  Are you already registered for this course?

No, but I don't have to.

5.  Major and year

Originally, VI-3 Class of 1993. (This is MIT-speak for Computer Science).
I did a 5-year Master's though so didn't get my degree until 1994.

6.  How did you find out about this class?

Back in 1989, I was lucky enough to take 6.001 from Prof. Sussman (co-author of the Wizard book). This course is based on 6.001 (but only loosely).

7.  Why are you taking this class?

I've wanted to teach this course since getting to UVa in Nov 1999. I get to teach it this semester because of a University Teaching Fellowship. You can read my proposal.

8.  Is there anything particular you hope to get out of this class?

Yes, I hope the course this year will go well enough so I will be able to teach it again, and I will get enough good feedback from this class to teach it better next time. Eventually, I hope this course will be part of a CS major in the College of (Liberal) Arts and Sciences, and will be taken by around a thousand students every year.

9.  Have you ever written a computer program?  (If not, that's fine.
    Skip to question 12.)

Yes.

10. What programming languages have you used and how much?

BASIC (first in 1978-1988, about ~20 000 lines)

Pascal (1987-1988, ~2 000 lines)

Scheme (1989-, ~20 000 lines)

C (1990-, ~500 000 lines)

FL (1991-1992, ~5 000 lines) - FL a language designed by John Backus' group at IBM Almaden as the successor to FP. I was an intern there for two summers.

CLU (1992-1996, ~40 000 lines)

C++ (1994-, ~50 000 lines)

Java (1995-, ~50 000 lines)

A little bit of ML, Smalltalk, Ruby, PERL, PHP and some others I can't remember.

11. Which is your favorite?

It depends on what I am doing:

• For building big systems: C (with Splint)
• For reading other people's code: CLU
• For fun: Scheme, FL

12. Where do you prefer to work on assignments that require you to use a
    computer?

In my office (Olsson 236A) or at home.

13. Would you work in a public lab if there were staffed lab hours?

No, but I'll sometimes stop by the lab and see how things are going.

14. If so, which public lab(s) would you prefer to work in?

Olsson 001

15. What times and days?

Late at night.

16. Would you prefer to work on assignments alone or with assigned
    partners?

With my trusty assistants.

17. Would you prefer to have take-home or in-class exams? (All tests
    will be open book and notes.)

Take home.

18. What book, movie or music has most changed your life?

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas R. Hofstadter. I read it about 15 years ago when I was in High School. If I hadn't, I'd probably be a lawyer or a downtrodden musician now.

19. Anything else you think I should know about you?

Pretty much everything you would want to know (at least that I'm willing to tell anyone!) is on my home page, http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/.

University of Virginia Department of Computer Science CS 200: Computer Science

David Evans evans@virginia.edu Using these Materials