COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00002 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	TASKS FOR THE TEACHING ASSISTANT IN CS206
C00006 ENDMK
C⊗;
TASKS FOR THE TEACHING ASSISTANT IN CS206


	The teaching assistant in CS206 has to know quite a few things.

	Currently CS206 is taught using the IMSSS PDP-10 time-sharing
system which uses the TENEX operating system.  Many of the files, however,
are on the AI Lab system in directories 206,JMC and 206,NXL.  The teaching
assistant should be familiar with both systems.  There is a connection
between the two so that a terminal attached to one system can be used
to run programs on the other and files can be transferred.  When this
connection isn't working right, ask Jeff Rubin or Ted Panofsky about it.

	There is a CAI system for teaching LISP on the IMSSS machine
written by Tom Wolpert, and he is around to tell you about it.  This system
is optional with the students, but many of them find it they learn from
it better than from the lectures.  Unfortunately, some find the lectures
much easier.

	The course has the following parts:

	1. Learning to program in LISP.

	2. Learning some applications to game-playing programs and compiling.

	3. Syntax directed computing.  This part is not well-organized yet.

	4. The newer list processing languages.  This will be based on guest
lecturers.

	5. The term project.  Students will have considerable choice of project,
but improving the LCOM4 compiler in various ways is the most straightforward
project.  Some will get to do MACSYMA projects this year.

	6. There will be some lectures on mathematical theory of computation
applied to LISP, but it is not yet clear whether I will be able to devise
exercises and exam questions.

	Teaching materials:

	1. The LISP 1.6 and the UCI LISP manuals are available at the Stanford
Bookstore, and the students will buy them.

	2. About four chapters of lecture notes will be distributed, and it
will be necessary to arrange for the printing and distribution, determine
a price and collect it according to whatever is the current practice of the
computer science department.

	3. There will be handouts from time to time with sets of exercises
project descriptions, etc.

	4. There will be a midterm graded by the TA, but probably no final.

	5. The term project will be due at the time of the final, and the
TA will help grade it.

	6. The TA will grade the homework, but there will not be very much
of it requiring grading.