Help with Course WWW Pages

This course has a fairly extensive set of WWW pages associated with it. This page provides information about how to use them more effectively.

1 Searching the Course WWW Pages

Several search engines (e.g., Google) allow you to limit a search to a specific domain of site. So, for example, you can search Prof. Bernstein's lectures for the word "Java" using the following search:

  site:w3.cs.jmu.edu/bernstdh/web/common/lectures Java

Similarly, you can search all of Prof. Bernstein's pages for the word "debug" using the following search:

  site:w3.cs.jmu.edu/bernstdh/web/ debug

2 Lecture Notes

The syllabus contains links to the "slides" that will be used during lectures. These "slides" are in a form that is useful for lectures and discussions but are not really amenable to being printed. The title page of each set of "slides" contains a printer icon that can be used to create/load a version that can be printed.

3 Menus

The WWW pages for this course use a simple menu system (in addition to traditional in-line links) to help you find what you need. The various menu items operate as follows:

E-Mail	Click on this button to send email to your Professor.
Help	Click on this button to get help (including WWW pages, references, articles, etc...)
Policies	Click on this button to get information on course policies and procedures (including style guides, policies regarding collaboration, etc...).
Solutions	Click on this button to get solutions to programming assignments, exams, etc...
Study-Aids	Click on this button to get materials that will help you study for exams.
Syllabus	Click on this button to open the syllabus.
Tools	Click on this button to open a page that contains a list of tools you might find useful in this class.

4 Note Markers

Many pages contain note markers that, like footnotes or endnotes in a printed document, provide additional information. You activate purple note markers by clicking on them and you activate yellow/gold note markers by hovering the the cursor over them. In particular:

	Hover the mouse cursor over this kind of marker to get important information about this topic.
	Click on this kind of marker to open a page that contains useful information/hints on this topic.
	Click on this kind of marker to open a page on another site that contains reference information (e.g., the Java Reference Manual at www.sun.com).
	Right-click/control-click on this kind of marker to download a file (containing data, a code sample, etc...)
	Click on this kind of marker to see an example (e.g., a movie).
	Hover the mouse cursor over this kind of marker to get a definition.
	Click on this kind of marker to check an answer (i.e., to "expand" an answer that that is being hidden). (Click on the "expanded" answer to hide it again.)