CS 1102-A08 : Background Survey

This brief survey gathers information on your background and perceptions of programming and programming languages. People often struggle to learn material that contradicts their existing beliefs about related concepts. I therefore want to understand what you already know/believe about programming and languages in order to target parts of the class accordingly.

The survey should take about 10-15 minutes to complete.

Answers to all questions are required with the exception of one marked as "[optional]".

A Bit About You

• First Name or Preferred Nickname:

• Last Name:

• Class Year: 2009   2010   2011   2012   Mass Academy   Other

• What excites you about computer science? (i.e.: what areas, why are you taking CS?, etc)

• Where did you first learn to program?

  At WPI

  High School AP

  At school, but non-AP class

  At a Job

  Self Taught

  I'm new to programming

• What's the largest program (in terms of number of lines) that you've written in each of the following languages?

  C:	C++:	C#:	Java:
  Javascript:	Lisp:	Pascal:	Perl:
  Python:	Scheme:	Visual Basic:

• Do you program outside of your classes?

  Yes     No

  If yes, describe what kinds of programs you write (i.e., large-scale commercial software, embedded system controllers, small scripts, games, web applications, etc)

• How confident are you in your programming skills? (assuming you had to write a 100-line program from scratch and without help)

  Very confident     Mostly confident     Somewhat confident     Not confident

• How confident are you in your skills in approaching open-ended problems?

  Very confident     Mostly confident     Somewhat confident     Not confident

• In case we have to assign you a homework partner, it would help to know a bit about how you like to approach assignments and programming. For example, statements like "I like to start assignments early/last minute" or "If there were challenge problems, I'd try to do them" could help us match you better (no points lost for being honest and saying you do things last minute if that's your style). [optional]

• Have you ever written a program that runs on the web? (some sort of script, not just html)

  Yes     No    

• What, if anything, do you wish you knew more about regarding programming languages? [optional]

Perceptions and Beliefs About Programming and Programming Languages

If you are unfamiliar with the terminology in the later questions, select the "not sure what these terms mean" option.

• All real modern programming is done in object-oriented languages.

  Agree     Disagree

• From a programmer's perspective, all programming languages are basically equivalent.

  Agree     Disagree

• Programming is largely a trial-and-error activity---you just have to keep fiddling around with the program until it works.

  Agree     Disagree

• If a programming language were truly useful, then a large company (like Microsoft) would write a lot of their code in it.

  Agree     Disagree

• The more lines of code a program contains, the more complicated the task that it performs.

  Agree     Disagree

• Efficiency is the most important attribute of a programming language.

  Agree     Disagree

  If you disagreed, what other attributes do you consider at least as important?

• It is important to know whether a language is interpreted or compiled.

  Agree     Disagree     Not sure what these terms mean

  If you agreed or disagreed, explain why

• Manual memory management is usually preferable to garbage collection.

  Agree     Disagree     Not sure what these terms mean

  If you agreed or disagreed, explain why

• What are procedures/functions used for in programming? (i.e.: when do you use them in a program, why do languages provide them, etc)

A "no binding for field ..." message when you submit mean that you failed to choose an option for one of the multiple-choice questions. If you get such a message, use the back button to come back to this page and continue.