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Choosing Between COMP 110 [014],
116 [016], and 121 [015]
- There is no difference between these courses in terms of
satisfying requirements or prerequisites. The choice should
be made on the basis of which course better suits the student,
as elaborated below.
- Computer science students who have had one or more programming courses
prior to college may not need COMP 110, 116 or 121; they
might be able to go directly into COMP 401. (Going directly into
401 is usually not a good idea unless a student has had a particularly
strong programming course.) Speak with Dr. Stephen F. Weiss (weiss@cs.unc.edu,
919-962-1888) if you think you might qualify. A student who earns a
B or better in COMP 401 may ask for and obtain "By Exam" credit for
COMP 110. (Other than via the AP Computer Science test, this is the
only mechanism offered for obtaining By Exam credit for COMP 110.)
- Students who want to acquire the skills of programming and can afford
to take only one programming course should take COMP 110; it
will give them a useful and practical skill: the ability to write programs
using Java, one of the most important and ubiquitous contemporary
programming languages.
- COMP 121 is strongly mathematical. It assumes a familiarity
and facility with high school algebra. Functional programming is based
on mathematics, and it uses mathematics throughout.
- Students who have had a programming course in high school and who
intend to take further programming courses, should take COMP 121.
It will broaden their view of programming and, in the long run, should
strengthen their programming skills and prepare them for more advanced
study in computer science. Functional languages are taught in the first
programming courses (e.g., at Yale and MIT) because they provide a clearer
view of programming concepts.
- COMP 116 is a new course, created at the request of faculty
in mathematics and the sciences, that is intended to be a more self-contained
introduction to programming that is also more focussed on examples in
mathematics and science.
- COMP 116 uses MATLAB to teach computation and programming,
and introduces the C language in the later parts of the course. COMP
116 does fulfill prerequisites for COMP 401, so that students who become
interested in computer science can continue in the discipline, but it
is not designed to be or recommended to be an equivalent to COMP 110.
Students who like math are welcome.
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