Richard E. Pattis
Senior Lecturer
Department of Computer Science
and Department of Informatics
 Donald Bren School of Information
  and Computer Sciences
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697
pattis@ics.uci.edu
Office: 4062 Bren Hall
Phone: (949) 824-2704
Fax:     (949) 824-4056

I have put my collection of Quotations for Learning and Programing on the web. I hope to continue expanding
(and correcting) it. I always welcome feedback (e.g., corrections, misattributions, other quotations).

I am starting to index, annotate, and put on the web various Education-Related Video Clips.

Fall 2009 Schedule

Teaching Duties: Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) ICS-23 (Lecture A/Labs 1-2)
                          Final Exam: Monday, December 7th, 10:30am-12:30pm in MSTB 118 (closed book/closed notes/closed computer)

                          Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) ICS-90 (Lecture A)
                          No Final Exam (or any others)

As you can see, I'll be in class (lecture and lab) for some hours during the week, and will hold office hours much of the time I'm not in class.

Please note that my office hours are open. There is no need to schedule an appointment ahead of time. Just drop by; the wait is never long.
Also, generally I will be free to meet with students during the labs I attend (which our TA will also be attending).

If you want debugging help during my office hours, please ensure that your programming project is stored somewhere that I can
download it from, or you have it on a USB memory drive (or, just bring it loaded on your portable computer).

Time/DayMondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
10:00 -10:30 Lecture: ICS-23
MSTB 118		   Lecture: ICS-23
MSTB 118		   Lecture: ICS-23
MSTB 118
10:30-11:00 Lecture: ICS-23
MSTB 118		   Lecture: ICS-23
MSTB 118		   Lecture: ICS-23
MSTB 118
11:00-11:30 Office Hours
DBH 4062		 Lab 1: ICS-23
ICS 189		 Office Hours
DBH 4062		 Lab 1: ICS-23
ICS 189		 Office Hours
DBH 4062
11:30-12:00 Office Hours
DBH 4062		 Lab 1: ICS-23
ICS 189		 Office Hours
DBH 4062		 Lab 1: ICS-23
ICS 189		 Office Hours
DBH 4062
12:00-12:30   Lab 1: ICS-23
ICS 189		   Lab 1: ICS-23
ICS 189		  
12:30-  1:00  
 		        
  1:00-  1:30  
 		        
  1:30-  2:00 Office Hours
DBH 4062		   Office Hours
DBH 4062		   Office Hours
DBH 4062
  2:00-  2:30 Office Hours
DBH 4062		 Lab 2: ICS-23
ICS 189		 Office Hours
DBH 4062		 Lab 2: ICS-23
ICS 189		 Help Session
ICS 253
  2:30-  3:00 Office Hours
DBH 4062		 Lab 2: ICS-23
ICS 189		 Office Hours
DBH 4062		 Lab 2: ICS-23
ICS 189		 Help Session
ICS 253
  3:00-  3:30 Office Hours
DBH 4062		 Lab 2: ICS-23
ICS 189		 Lecture: ICS-90
ET 201		 Lab 2: ICS-23
ICS 189		 Office Hours
DBH 4062
  3:30-  4:00     Lecture: ICS-90
ET 201		    
  4:00-  4:30     Lecture: ICS-90
ET 201		    
  4:30-  5:00     Lecture: ICS-90
ET 201		    

Interesting Snippets

While developing a manuscript for a textbook on the Ada programming language in the late 1980s, I wrote a chapter on EBNF and began teaching it on the "first" day of my CS-1 class: primarily as a microcosm of programming, but also as a practical tool for later describing the syntax of Ada. These 21 pages (less than 1/4 the size of the original Karel book) discuss the sequence, choice, option, repetition, and recursion control structures (along with "procedural" abstracton via named EBNF rules). They explore various methods of proving that tokens satisfy descriptions, that descriptions are equivalent (and how to simplify them), and the difference between syntax and semantics. I have continued to use this approach until this day in my CS-1 classes.

A new cure for Short Bowel Syndrome (Brainstorm to Breakthrough: A Surgical Procedure is Born).

An excerpt from the chapter "He Fixes Radios by Thinking!" from the book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character (start at the bottom of page 18: "One day I got a telephone call..." and finish at the bottom of page 20: "...never thought that was possible.") Explains why debugging is best accomplished by thinking, not fiddling.

If Charles Schultz wrote Karel the Robot

Arlo and Janis: The hardest teacher

Doonesbury: Walden's Last B

My Favorite Graph: I show this graph (and its associated article) in class after discussing general graph theory terminology (up to connected components). It is scary and compelling at the same time.

De Millo, Lipton, and Perlis: Social Processes and Proofs of Theorems and Programs Communications of the ACM, May 1979; Volume 22, Number 5, Pages 271-280.

Philosphical Musings

Doubts are such tiny things. A mind with no room for doubts must have no room for thoughts either. -R. Pattis

The following dialog is from the transcript of "Between Time and Timbuktu" (a synthesis of the writings of Kurt Vonnegut) For more on Bokononism, from which this passage is inspired, see The Books of Bokonon (from the novel "Cat's Cradle").

Narrator: In the beginning, G-d created the Earth, and he said, "Let there be mud." And there was mud. And G-d said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done." And G-d created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud-as-man alone could speak. "What is the purpose of all this?" man asked politely. "Everything must have a purpose?" asked G-d. "Certainly," said man. Then I leave it up to you to think of one for all of this," said G-d. And he went away.

Stony Stevenson: I feel very unimportant compared to you [G-d].

Voice of Bokonon: The only way you can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and look around.

SS: I got so much, and most mud got so little.