IMPORTANT NOTICE: Do not purchase a copy of the second edition of the Carey XML textbook. If you do purchase the second edition, it won't match the practice tests. That is not the correct textbook. However, it is the one that is stocked in the ACC bookstore as of 8/24/07. You can check with some of the other bookstores around town or go online to find and purchase a copy (probably used) of the correct textbook, which is ISBN 0-619-10188-1.
This is the official web page for this course at http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/Spring08/Itse1356WebPage/ITSE1356.htm.
Broken Links:
Occasionally one or more of the links, which tie these online,
documents together, may become accidentally broken. If you
discover a broken link, or any other problem with the online documents,
please notify me as soon as possible so that I can repair the problem.
Communications via Email
If you send Email to me, it is imperative that you include your name and the
identification of the class in which you are enrolled (ITSE1356) on the
Subject line. I normally have a very large number students in any given
semester. If I have to search the rolls to identify you, I may not answer
your Email.
In addition, because I receive approximately 30,000 spam and virus Email messages each month, I use a very aggressive spam blocking program. If your Email message doesn't contain the identification of the class in which you are enrolled (ITSE1356) on the Subject line, your message will probably be put in quarantine by the spam blocker and I will probably never see it.
It is also important that you provide a telephone number where I can contact you. I receive many Email messages from students with invalid return Email addresses.
I have been notified that ACC will no longer forward my ACC Email messages to my preferred Email address. Please do not send Email messages to baldwin@austincc.edu. Send them instead to Baldwin@DickBaldwin.comQuestions via Email:
From time to time you may need to ask questions via
Email, and I encourage you to do so. However, please make
the question as specific as possible. For example, "What
is XML?" is not a question that I can easily answer via Email.
Orientation:
All students are required to complete the online orientation.
First complete the online orientation by clicking the Orientation Instructions
link below. Then send an Email message to
Baldwin@DickBaldwin.com certifying that you have completed the orientation according to the
instructions.
Check this area daily for messages from Professor Baldwin to
all students enrolled in the class.
Note that this bulletin board contains postings that are new to this
semester, in addition to postings that were carried forward from
previous semesters due to the fact that the information in those older
postings continues to be important over time.
I typically receive hundreds (occasionally thousands) of Email messages each day, many of them from my students.
When you send an Email message to me, make absolutely certain that the Subject line contains the following information as a minimum:
Include your current telephone number somewhere in the body of the message, and make it easy to find. If my Email or your Email goes down, I may try to call you on the telephone.
If you don't comply with the above, don't expect me to answer
your
Email messages.
01/11/08 Please Be Patient
Other than questions regarding registration, please
do not send Email regarding this course prior to the first day of
classes. If you do, I probably won't answer it. A great
deal of preparation is required to teach a course of this nature.
I have many responsibilities to take care of in the final days before
the course begins and I do not have the time to work with individual
students until after the course actually begins. If I reach the
point that I can accept Email regarding this course prior to the first
day of classes, I will post that fact on this bulletin board.
01/11/08 Computer Studies Student Information Form
The following is requested by the Computer Studies department, but is not a requirement of the course in which you are enrolled. Whether or not you provide the following information will not be taken into account when determining your grade in the course.
If you are willing to provide this information, please compose an Email message containing the following information and send it to Baldwin@DickBaldwin.com
If you do provide the information, please make the subject line of your Email message read as follows:
Last Name, First Name, Course Number, Student Information Form
DO NOT include this information in the message that you send confirming that you have completed online orientation. Send separate messages for those two purposes.
You should be able to copy and paste the following form into your Email client and then fill in the blanks. Don't be too concerned about neatness when filling in the form.
Last Name:_____________________
First Name:_____________________
Student ID:_____________________
Course Number: IT__ ____
Telephone Numbers
Home:___________Any issues that the instructor should be aware of:
Work:___________
Other:___________
Email address:_________
_________________________________________________
Reasons for taking the course:
_____Personal InterestPlease indicate the following:
_____Required by degree program, which is ______________
_____Work related - please explain in comments section below
_____Recommended by ______________________________
_____Other, please explain in comments section below
_____Hours working per weekWhat computer courses have you completed at ACC or elsewhere?
_____Number of credit hours enrolled in this semester
_____Number of computer courses completed at ACC
_____Highest degree earned
_____________________________________________________
What computer or computer related work experience do you have?
_____________________________________________________
Comments:
_____________________________________________________
01/11/08 Possible errors in online study guides and exam answers
The online study guides were created using a test generator program on a
CD that was provided by the author/publisher of your textbook.
A student had this to say about Study Guide 1:
Professor Baldwin: I just completed XML Study Guide 1. While I could
quibble about some of the questions/answers, I think there are three answers
that are clearly incorrect.
F 12. DTDs and schema are required in XML documents.
ANSWER: T
NOTES: REF: 1.8
Student Assessment: The reference on page 1.8 says, “DTDs and schemas are
not required, but they can be helpful to ensure that your XML documents follow a
uniform structure.” (Another reason it would be false is that DTDs and schemas
are mutually exclusive, so clearly, “DTDs and schema are required” must be
false.)
F 27. The pound sign in the code fragment in Figure 1-12 is a character
reference.
ANSWER: T
NOTES: REF: 1.22
Student Assessment: The referenced page says, “…the ampersand symbol (&)
is interpreted by the XML processor as a character reference…” So it is the
ampersand, not the pound sign. I would even go so far as to say that the
ampersand is only the beginning of the character reference. A complete (valid)
character reference begins with the ampersand and ends with a semicolon and has
one of two formats:
1. &name;
2. &#number;
Where name and number need to follow certain rules.
T 29. Internet Explorer validates an XML document; Netscape only tests the
document for being well formed.
ANSWER: F
NOTES: REF: 1.27
Student Assessment: The referenced page says, “Netscape does not validate
XML documents, and Internet Explorer only validates XML documents against DTDs…”
Also, on page 1.09 it says, “Netscape’s parser is a nonvalidating parser,
whereas Internet Explorer checks for both well-formedness and validity in some
cases.”
The purpose of this posting is not to agree or to disagree with this student's assessment of the answers in Study Guide 1. Rather, the purpose of this posting is to explain how I will deal with this issue insofar as exams are concerned.
Each of the three exams will consist of 25 questions and answers randomly selected from a subset of the study guides by a test generator contained on the same CD that was used to create the study guides. Several versions of each exam will be generated with a different selection of questions on each version of the exam. Different students will be given different versions of each exam.
I will score your exam using the answers provided by the test generator. If your answer for each question matches the answer produced by the test generator, you will get credit for the question, even if the answer provided by the test generator is incorrect.
If you elect to challenge any of those answers, you must do so in writing in at least as much detail as was provided by this student prior to taking the exam. If you succeed in convincing me that your answer is correct and the answer provided by the test generator is incorrect, I will give you credit for the question retroactively. If you encounter a question on your exam that you have previously challenged, you must make me aware of that fact when you turn in your exam. I sincerely request, however, that you don't waste our time by mounting frivolous challenges. Before you mount a challenge, please make absolutely certain that you are correct in your assessment.
Please note that I will not respond to challenges after I have submitted your grade for recording at the end of the semester. You must complete your third exam sufficiently far in advance of that date to make it possible for any challenge that you may mount to be resolved by that date.
01/11/08 Early submittal of assignments
You are encouraged to complete and submit the assignments as soon as you are
prepared to do so. If you submit an assignment early, I will attempt to
score it and return your grade to you within a few days. If you don't
receive your grade within five days following submittal, please contact me to
make certain that your assignment wasn't lost in the submittal process.
01/11/08 Incomplete assignment submittals
Please make certain that your submittal contains all of the files
necessary for me to execute your application without having to add any files.
In other words, I will copy your submitted files into a folder identified by
your name. That folder must contain everything required to work together
to make your application complete.
01/11/08 Requests for assistance on assignments
I frequently receive requests from students asking me to help them to complete
an assignment. I am always happy to help students understand XML/XSL/XSLT
concepts that are germane to the course. However, because each assignment
is worth about four points on the student's final grade, it isn't fair for me to
help one student complete an assignment without providing the same assistance to
all students. Therefore, before you ask for assistance in completing an
assignment, please understand that it is highly unlikely that I will assist you
in completing the assignment. In all probability, I will simply refer you
to this posting.
On the other hand, if an assignment proves to be so difficult that none of the students can successfully complete it, I will make an accommodation for all students, such as curving the final grade to eliminate or greatly reduce the impact of that particular assignment.
01/11/08 If you purchase a used textbook, you may be interested in the following:
As of 11/15/04, you can download the Home Edition of XMLSPY free of charge at http://www.altova.com/download.html. Altova has this to say about the Home Edition:
"Altova XMLSpy® 2005 Home Edition is a FREE entry level XML development tool for getting started with XML technologies. It is ideally suited for hobbyists, entry-level developers, and students."
XMLSPY provides both an XML editor and an XML validator.
Because the copy of XMLSPY that comes with the textbook is only good for 120 days, and because ACC is not licensed for this software product, it is not my intention that XMLSPY will be installed on the computers in the ACC labs. Therefore, we will need a workaround for those instances where the textbook refers to the use of XMLSPY.
01/11/08 Hints for Assignment #3
Judging from the email messages that I have been receiving, several of you seem
to be having a lot of difficulty with Assignment #3. While I won't give
you the complete solution, I will provide some hints. The following text
is a solution with a large number of words purposely deleted from the style
sheet. Hopefully these hints will help you to write the complete solution.
Quotes {width: 620}
...DateTime...
position: absolute; top: 0; left: 500}
...Heading...
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif}
...Heading...
SubHeading {font-size:14pt; position:relative; top: -10px}
...Titles...
Column {display: inline; text-decoration: underline}
...Stock...
Symbol, #1 {position: relative; left: 40}
...Company...
LastSale, #3 {position: absolute; left: 330; width: 70}
...NetChange...
PChange, #5 {position: absolute; left: 480; width: 80}
...Volume...
LastSale, NetChange, PChange, Volume, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6 {text-align: right}
....down...
background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: left, center}
....up...
background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: left, center}
01/11/08 Do not send executable attachments
If you send an email message to me and expect me to read it, DO NOT attach any
executable files, even if they are encapsulated in a zip file. This
includes files with the following extensions, just to name a few:
.exe
.com
.scr
.bat
.pif
.vb
If you do send such files, my virus blocker will simply reject the message and I will never see it.
The following file extensions should be OK:
.java
.class
.htm
.html
.css
.xml
.xsl
.doc
.zip (Provided the zip file doesn't contain any executable files.)
If you find it necessary to send a questionable file for any reason, you should also send another message without an attachment notifying me that you sent the questionable file as an attachment so that I can be on the lookout for it.
01/11/08 Exams are ready
All three exams for this course are ready. You can take them any time
after the semester begins.
01/11/08 Completing your exams
You must complete your exams under Prof. Baldwin's supervision at the Northridge
campus during one of the times listed below. You may not complete your exams in an ACC testing center.
You may complete the exams by visiting with Prof. Baldwin in NRG room 4238 during his office hours.
If you arrive at Prof. Baldwin's office about ten minutes before he begins a class, he can get you started on the exam and you can finish it while he is in his classroom.
You may also complete the exams by visiting with Prof. Baldwin during any of his scheduled lab periods for other courses that he is teaching. In that case, you should be able to find him either in the lab or in his office. You will find his teaching and lab schedule on the ACC web site.
Before making a special trip to the campus, you should probably make arrangements in advance via email or telephone but that is not a requirement.
Finally, if you see Prof. Baldwin in NRG Room 4238 at any other time, he will probably be able to arrange for you to take the exam at that time.
Shouldn't the last sentence of the last bullet of Part 3 of Case 1 read as follows:
The Player element can also have three optional attributes named "PPG," "RPG," and "Assists," containing character data.
The Player element can also have three optional elements named "PPG," "RPG," and "Assists," containing character data.
I am at the house and I don't have the textbook here with me. For that reason, I can't be certain, but I believe that this student's assessment is correct. If this assessment helps you to complete the assignment, use it.
01/11/08 Openings for Paid Student Internships in Nanotechnology
See the following URL for information on paid internships for ACC students.
http://www.sematech.org/research/nwdi/index.htm
01/11/08 Textbook issues
A 2nd edition
of the textbook that is used for this course has been published.
However, I need to forewarn you that all of the materials for this course such as assignments, exams, etc., are based on the 1st edition as shown in the Syllabus.
If you purchase the 2nd edition, you may find that there are discrepancies between the course material and the textbook.
01/11/08 Data Files for Students
In order to complete the assignments for this course, you must start with the data files that
you can download here. The files
are contained in a zip file named DataFilesForStudents.zip. You
will need a password to extract the data files from the zip file. Your
instructor will provide the password after you have completed the online
orientation. (If you have completed orientation and have not received
the password, please notify your instructor.)
01/11/08 Grades
I have been notified that I am no longer allowed to send your grades to you via
email. Therefore, in order to view your grades on assignments and exams,
you must establish a Blackboard account. Since I have never established a
student Blackboard account, I can't tell you what is involved. All I can
tell you is that you can probably begin that process at the following link:
http://acconline.austincc.edu/
Please be aware that the classroom and the Distance Learning sections for this course were combined within Blackboard. You should find only one available section of this course within Blackboard, and that is the one you will need to connect to.
Once you are connected, you should be able to view your grades in the grade book. Once again, never having gone through that process as a student, I can't tell you what is involved.
Please be aware that only the individual grades showing in the grade book are of significance, and they are provided for information purposes only. The computations that purport to show your final grade are meaningless. I will compute and record your final grade according to the information contained in the syllabus and other related documents, and will cause that grade to be recorded at the end of the semester completely independent of the Blackboard grade book.
Also be aware that if you find any information in Blackboard that conflicts with information provided in the syllabus and its associated documents, the information in the syllabus and its associated documents will prevail. If you find such conflicts, please notify me.
If you are unable to set up your account and view your individual grades via Blackboard, please let me know.
Since I have very little experience using Blackboard, I may find it necessary to modify this posting as time progresses.
01/15/08 More Blackboard issues
If you are enrolled in one of my Distance Learning courses and you log into
Blackboard, you may find that Blackboard is showing you to be enrolled in one of
the following courses (which may not be the course in which you are actually
enrolled):
The reason for the confusion is that these three courses were combined for enrollment purposes to keep the low-enrollment courses from being cancelled.
The bottom line is, don't worry about it. As far as I know, Blackboard has no electronic link to the recording of your final grade in student records. I must fill out a separate online form for that purpose. As long as you can see your grade in Blackboard, that will satisfy the needs of Blackboard for this course.
01/20/08 Even more Blackboard issues
Because the following three courses were combined for enrollment purposes,
you may find that blackboard lists grade items that don't match the requirements
for your course. Don't worry about any requirements that may be indicated
in Blackboard that are not identified in the syllabus for your course and its
associated documents.
02/18/08 Problems validating XML
At the beginning of this semester, I received a new computer in my ACC office.
It came equipped with IE version 7.0.5730.13 installed. Unfortunately, the
free IE upgrade that in the past has made it possible to validate XML using IE
doesn't seem to work properly with this version of IE. The XML validation
link appears on the right-click menu, but it doesn't do anything when it is
selected.
Also unfortunately, the free Home Edition of XML Spy is no longer available. Also, if you purchased a used textbook, the copy of XML Spy that comes on the CD with that book has probably already expired. Although I can probably still validate XML files using the software that is installed on my laptop, I have no way of knowing that you have that capability.
Why am I telling you this? Because Assignment #2 requires that you submit a valid XML file. Until I am able to locate a free XML validator that you can download and use, I have no choice but to eliminate the requirement for you to successfully complete Assignment #2. Therefore, you don't need to submit Assignment #2. However, I am assuming that you have already invested significant effort in the completion of the assignment so I will give you full credit for Assignment #2 this semester and then decide what I am going to do about this situation for next semester.
If anyone knows of a free downloadable XML validator, I would like to know about it.
02/27/08 Correction to exam deadline
On 02/27/08, the syllabus was corrected to read:
All students must complete and submit the first exam not later than 8:00 am,
Monday, March 10, 2008.
All students must complete and submit the second exam not later than 8:00 am,
Monday, April 14, 2008.
All students must complete and submit the third exam not later than 8:00 am,
Wednesday, May 7, 2008.
-end-
File: ITSE1356.htm