COM1317 Spring 1999 Syllabus and Calendar

Version of 5/7/99:
Major change in schedule. Midterm now Tues 5/18/99. See the note of explanation for these changes at the end.
 

You can also look at the Northeastern University Academic Calendar

APRIL
16 Friday. Last day to drop a SPRING 1999 course without a W grade. 4pm 120HA
19 Monday PATRIOTS DAY. Normal class schedule
MAY
21 Friday. Last day to drop a SPRING 1999 course with a W grade. 4pm 120HA
31 Monday. MEMORIAL DAY. University closed (no class)
JUNE
7 - 11 Monday - Friday. SPRING 1999 Final Exam Week
The readings listed for a given class meeting are the readings you should do before you come to that class. You will get a lot more out of each class if you've read the material first (and most certainly, a higher grade in the course!). If I feel that too many people are getting behind on their reading, I'm not above giving a pop quiz on the readings that are due for a particular class, so watch out!
 
Thurs. April 1
First class. Go over course description, syllabus, and calendar.
 
Mon. April 5
Pages xvii-xxii, Secs. 1.1-1.3. The Basics.
 
Tues. April 6
Secs. 1.4-1.7. More of the Basics.
 
Thurs. April 8
Secs. 1.8-1.9 and 2.1-2.2. TP Monitors.
Online Web form must be filled in by 5pm today, at the latest. I will have given you the URL in class.
 
Mon. April 12
Sec. 2.3. Presentation Server.
 
Tues. April 13
Sec. 2.4-2.5. Workflow, Transaction Servers.
 
Thurs. April 15
Secs. 2.6-2.9. Processes and Threads.
 
Mon. April 19
Review for Quiz #1.   Secs. 3.1-3.2. Remote Procedure Calls.
 
Tues. April 20
Quiz #1 -- covering all the material through April 19th.
 
Thurs. April 22
Go over Quiz #1.
 
Mon. April 26
Sec. 4.1-4.4. Queues and Queued Transactions.
 
Tues. April 27
Introduction to Locking = The implementation of Isolation.
 
Thurs. April 29
 
Secs. 6.1-6.2. Locking. Two-phase Rule and implementation.
 
Mon. May 3
Secs. 6.3-6.5. Deadlocks, Performance and Hotspots.
 
Tues. May 4
All of Chap. 7. High Availability. .
 
Thurs. May 6
Homework #1 on Locking due
 
Mon. May 10
Secs. 8.1-8.3. Database Recovery and the Recovery Manager.
 
Tues. May 11
Secs. 8.4-8.7. Log-based Recovery Algorithms.
 
Thurs. May 13
Secs. 9.1-9.2. Two-Phase Commit.
 
Mon. May 17
Review for Midterm Exam. Concentrating on Chapters 6, 7, and 8.
 
Tues. May 18
Midterm Exam -- covering all the material from the beginning of the course through Thurs. May 11th.
 
Thurs. May 20
Go over Midterm Exam.
Homework #2 on Recovery due.
 
Mon. May 24
Secs. 9.3-9.4. Failure handling, Optimization.
 
Tues. May 25
Secs. 9.5-9.7.  Process Structuring.
 
Thurs. May 27
Homework #3 on Two-Phase Commit due.  
Secs. 5.1, 5.2, 5.4. System examples: CICS, X/Open, OSI, OMG, MIA/SPIRIT.
 
Mon. May 31
MEMORIAL DAY, HOLIDAY. NO CLASS.
 
Tues. June 1
Secs. 5.6, 5.10, 5.11. More examples: ACMS, Microsoft Transaction Server, Web Servers.
 
Thurs. June 3
Last class of the quarter. Review for final exam.
 
Week of June 7 - 12
FINAL EXAM WEEK.
 
 
Have a nice summer!
 
 
Note on the major schedule changes made on May 7th (from my email to the class):
 
Here's what has happened. I will be out of town next Monday and Tuesday,
May 10th and 11th. Professor Salzberg will give the only two course
lectures on the important topic of Recovery on these two days -- Chap. 8.

It doesn't make sense to have the Midterm on Thursday the 13th under
these circumstances, since I would not be able to review it for you in
advance. So we'll use Thurs the 13th to consolidate some of the
material, including discussing the upcoming Homework #2 on Recovery,
now due on Thursday the 20th, the class following the Midterm, and
Homework #3, a week later, on the 27th. We'll use Monday the 17th to
review for the Midterm and finally the Midterm will be given on
Tuesday the 18th. I realize that this is pretty late in the term, but
the sudden scheduling of my trip has altered things.
 
 
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