About

Instructor: José M. Vidal
   Homepage: http://jmvidal.cse.sc.edu
   Office: SWGN 3A51
Class Homepage: http://www.csce242.com
Meeting Time: MW 9:05--9:55am. Swearingen 2A27.
Textbook: Recommended books as well as gotapi.com.

This class will cover the development of web applications. We cover all the basic technologies necessary for building web applications as well as new technologies and trends which will used by web application developers in the next decade.

We define web applications as programs whose execution is divided between the web browser (client) and the web server. The client-side is often developed in Javascript while server-side implementations use many different programming languages. Sample web applications include gmail and google maps.

This is an introductory class and no previous knowledge of web technologies or programming is assumed. This class is a pre-requisite for the more advanced CSCE 590: Web applications class. The topics covered are:

1. HTTP, HTML, XHTML, CSS
2. Javascript: DOM manipulation, XML, JSON, DHTML, AJAX
3. Javascript libraries: scriptaculous, jquery, yui
4. Web application frameworks: Google app engine, Django, Ruby on Rails
5. Cloud computing: map reduce, hadoop, Amazon's EC2 and S3
6. Web services and mashups, REST programming
7. Web applications for the iphone and other mobile devices

No Lectures

Instead of having in-class lectures I have decided to create screencasts of a few of my lectures which you will be responsible for watching. I will also supplement these with other online lectures on by experts on the field. After all, why should you listen to me talk about the birth of the web when you can listen to Tim Berners-Lee instead? There will be in-class quizes to verify that you have seen the lectures and performed the reading for that week. Since we have no lectures, class time will instead be taken up by these quizes and more hands-on exercises, which are also part of your grade, as well as one-on-one help from me. I hope this will provide you with a more personalized experience, and that you will learn faster this way. Because, there is a lot to learn!