EECS 339: Introduction to Databases, Fall 2010

Instructor:Peter A. Dinda (Office Hours: Thursdays 2-4)
Teaching Assistant:None
Time:Fall 2010, MWF 12-12:50
Location:Tech M152
Recitation Section:Eliminated
Course number:EECS 339
Enrollment Limit:40 (currently 43 registered)

Due to a lack of TA support for this course, some content has been removed. In particular, the third project and the homeworks will be handed out, but they will not be graded or supported. I strongly encourage you to study these materials on your own since I think they are very useful for understanding important elements of database theory (the homeworks) and database systems (the project) at a deeper level. Also, the intended TA-led recitation section and office hours will not be held.

Communication

Note that we will not use CMS/Blackboard for anything.
  • Newsgroup: We will be using the Google Group CS 339 - Northwestern University for simple, persistent, and searchable communication among everyone in the class. This is where you want to go to post questions about lecture, homework, and programming projects. You need to sign up to access the group, which you can do here - only Northwestern email addresses will be accepted:
    Subscribe to CS 339 - Northwestern University
    Email:
    Visit this group
  • I will occasionally send emails to everyone registered using CAESAR. These emails will go to the addresses that CAESAR has.

    • General Handouts

  • Syllabus
  • Using Oracle in Our Environment
  • Perl in a Nutshell
  • The T-Lab and Wilkinson Lab
    If you do not already have a T-Lab/Wilkinson Lab Linux and Windows account, you should get one now. You will these labs convenient places to work, especially with partners.
  • EECS 339 Virtual Machine
    You will be given an account on a server virtual machine configured for use in this class. We will talk more about this in class and email.
  • VLAB: The Virtual Lab
    If you would like to do a project that requires you to build a custom server, you can ask us for a VLAB account to create your own virtual machine.
  • Using Unix Remotely Without The Excruciating Pain

    • Projects

  • Microblog (3 weeks) (pdf) Due on October 18.
  • Portfolio Manager (pdf) Due on November 22.
  • Btrees (3 weeks) (pdf) Due to a lack of TA support, this will be handed out, but not supported or graded

    • Homeworks

  • HW 1: Entity-Relationship data model (pdf) Due to a lack of TA support, this will not be supported or graded
  • HW 2: Relational data model (pdf) Due to a lack of TA support, this will be handed out , but not supported or graded
  • HW 3: Relational algebra (pdf) Due to a lack of TA support, this will be handed out, but not supported or graded

    • Exams

  • Midterm (Tuesday, November 2, Tech L251, 6-8pm)
    Review Session: Monday, November 1, 6pm, Tech M164
  • Final (Thursday, December 9, Tech M152, 12-2)
    Review Sesion: Monday, December 6, 6pm, Tech LG52

    • Useful Videos/Slides

  • Introduction to Unix (Peter Dinda) (video, part 1, video, part 2) (use your netid to accesss)
  • PHP for Active Content (David Choffnes) (slides, video, (code (intro.php and serveImage)) (use your netid to accesss)
  • Java Servlets and Server Pages (Andrew Simpson) (slides, video) (use your netid to accesss)
  • Introduction to CVS (Peter Dinda) (slides, Real) (use your netid to accesss)
  • Peer-to-Peer Databases Lecture (Ashish Gupta, David Huber, Jay Bruins) (slides-1, slides-2, Real) (use your netid to accesss)

    • Helpful Things

  • Comer's Ubiquitous B-Tree Paper
  • E.F. Codd's seminal paper on the relational data model
  • Phillip Greenspun's SQL For Web Nerds Book, which we will make use of early in the class.
  • A Gentle Introduction to SQL, which has tutorials and examples of the slight differences in SQL from RDBMS to RDBMS.
  • Fabian Bustamante's List of C and Unix Resources, which may help you if you are unfamiliar with getting around on Unix.
  • Johan Vromans's Perl Reference Guide
  • O'Reilly's Free Sample Chapters from their Perl Books
  • GraphViz graph visualization framework
  • SQL Fairy SQL Schema Translator and Visualizer
    • Peter Dinda
    Last modified: Sun Dec 5 13:35:25 CST 2010