Daniel Tomasevich

Dr. Tomasevich's classroom delivery is very dry. For those of us who already are very familiar with command line OS's, it's also hard to handle the pace. He reads slowly and pedantically from his notes. The earlier comparison to Ben Stein was not far off the mark. I often fought to stay awake.

However, for people who have never used command line interfaces before, it may be a better experience.

Doing well requires a LOT of memorization. Even with my extensive background with command line interfaces, I don't recall all of the command line options and syntax. So that means EVEN MORE work for students who haven't done this before.

Study, study, study your commands and their parameters. His exams are tough. But, contrary to what others have said in previous reviews, you most likely do need to know UNIX (Linux) if you want to be employable in this market. If you do well on Tomasevich's exams, you'll be ready.

This class was a joke! I'm sure the department staff got together one day (probably April 1st) and were like "hmm....we have to make a theory of computing class.....hahaha, let's get Tomasevich to teach it...yeah...he'll teach anything!" But seriously, I must have come to this class like 4 times the whole semester. The teacher...let's just say he's not the best lecturer. He is quite boring, and reads directly from his book/notes. You gotta love the eye rolling when u ask him a question though, that's great! (If you ever took him u'll know what i'm talking about). Ok, there were like 2 quizzes worth a total 5% of the our final grade. Then there is a paper (7 pages) due at the very end of the semester, worth 95% of the grade. That's it! The paper must have took me like 2 hours at most to write. And that's the only amount of work I put into this class. Don't buy the book!!! It's completely useless! And as far as what I've learnd about computing ethics...I'm still downloading games and music from my Kazaa, so nope, not much....

This is a 1 unit class. You get exactly what you expect. Class is basically based on 1 paper. Lectures are really dull but that's due to the class subject. Sometimes I wonder why they even added this class into the CSC core requirements; seems more like a English or Humanities class to me.

If you feel like you need every single little thing explained to you over and over and over again and you thought that Ben Stein on Ferris Beuler's Day Off was a rivoting speaker, then this is the class for you. The tests focus on rote memorization. You may or may not think this is necessary, but it's a pain to study for. The homework is easy, but essential. The lectures are beneficial if you can keep your brain from shutting off within five minutes. It's difficult, I warn you, but there is no other way. On the plus side, it's a credit/no credit class, so you only have to pass. On the not plus side, it's remarkably difficult to pass for a credit/no credit class and the final is killer. Recommend that you find another class, but if you can't, form study groups and bring 32 oz mugs of coffee to class with you. Take lots of notes. Lots of work displayed on a projection screen (meaning: in the dark. You ever have an astronomy class at 7 at night?) Oh, right, and his classes were all taught very late in the evening. If you can manage to stay awake and alert you might have a chance of passing, but it's not as easy as it sounds.

Solid teacher. You will learn a lot about Unix. Pretty dry lectures.

some projects are too difficult, but plenty of partial credit given on homeworks as well as on the exams.

Somewhat out of date with Unix/Linux and knows nothing about modern Windows (2k and XP). So, some of the things he focuses on are not really relevant.

csh is old and outdated shell. Should move up to bash and linux oriented material. Some comparison to Windows 2k/XP would be nice.

Should speak with industry side programmers to make class more up to date.

Anyway, CRedit/NoCredit class. So, it's all good. Recommend you go to classes. First couple are very basic, but it gets more advanced quickly.

i always fell asleep.. horribly boring voice.. really hard tests... the website that the homework is posted on is down a lot and he wont give you an extention.. a lot of the things he teaches are compleatly out of date and no one uses them in the real world anymore.. no one in the real world knows all the options for all the commands, asides from a few common ones... yet this is what he tests you on..

This class might sound easy, but it really isn't. Yes I'm a CSC major, but why the *uck do we have to learn the UNIX. After taking the class i realized i didn't learn anything. Tomasevich is an average typical teacher. He does have teaching problems: talks and moves to fast sometimes, boring, crappy writing, he mumbles ( at least he can speak english), and he never has spare time for his students. I think i could have done better in class if he had more time with his students. Homework, it sucks. Exams,they suck.

UPDATE I felt compelled to follow up on this review for a number of reasons. I'd like to preface this continuation by saying that I make no apologies for the previous review for I fully believe that teachers should be held accountable for the quality of their craft. With that said my conscience dictates that I embellish my review to include new events.

Tomasevich by some turn of events has made a practical 180 in his teaching style. He has been treating people with respect, been patient, answered questions, and displayed a dry, yet very funny, sense of humor. I could only guess as to the nature of this change. It would be too self-centered to suppose that he could have read my review and changed his approach but if indeed that were true it would reflect nothing but the best as to the intent of a site such as this, the desires of all involved in education, and most importantly the character of Tomasevich himself. Perhaps he simply had something bothering him. Whatever the case I have been truly impressed by the transition in his teaching. It is certainly for the better and to his credit reflects the best qualities a teacher can have, the ability to become a better one.

His testing still seems a little disconnected from the homework and the pacing of his class but it has been a pleasure to attend his lectures and I can only marvel at his change of approach. I can recommend Tomasevich as a humorous and instructive teacher.

ORIGINAL REVIEW

Tomasevich is not a bad man, nor is he a bad lecturer. He is, however, a bad teacher. My jaw has dropped on numerous occasions due to his replies to questions by students. He be-littles, demeans, and insults students rather than being helpful or constructive. It's as if he assumes the questions are of questionable motivation, or simply 'stupid' questions.

To be fair, he delivers information very well. I've learned a lot attending his lectures, and done excellent on the homeworks which are fairly simple, this brings me to my other difficulty with Tomasevich, his tests.

I felt comfortable going into his test. I'd recieved excellent on the homework assignments and felt I'd dedicated a sufficient amount of time to the class material. When I took the test I was at a complete loss. There were only ten questions and those questions asked for the most complex uses of the commands. There was no way to illustrate any varied level of knowledge of the material, only the most thorough understanding or nothing. He refered to his test as a "spaghetti plate" of the information, but his "easy" questions involved the most complex use of commands. I.E. doing an fgrep search finding only C++ files, larger than 600k, used within the last 45 days. Know it or else because if you don't you won't get to show what you do know.

The complexities of his tests belie the simplicity of his homework and lectures. Were this more than an introduction to Unix I would be more forgiving for such difficult exams. But Intro or no this class had no cohesion between level of preperation and difficulty of testing.

My overall feeling is that Tomasevich does not like teaching. He seems to try and dissuade questions and seems irritated and assumptionary before you even ask. My advice to him would be to spend some time looking at his life and deciding what he wants to do, because teaching doesn't appear to be it. If it is than he needs to realize that as a teacher his role is to answer the questions students pose him, reveling in their curiosity, not diminishing them or quashing their willingness to learn.

I was amazed that so many people gave Professor Tomasevich such high ratings, although I heard lots people complaining about him during the semester. Since CSC212 is an elementary class for Computer Science Department, many computer newbies in this class may think that he really knows UNIX; I don't agree with them.

He is not a bad person at all; he is just... a bit off as a computer science instructor. He would be a great teacher if he teaches History.

He might be good enough for students who know nothing about command-based OS, but for students who knows a bit DOS and programming language, he is just a letdown. His lecture is just like notes-reading section; He is just reading & copying all the stuff from his notes. He knows the UNIX commands in the notes well, but he cannot answer other UNIX questions like "Does command 'w' show us the users on all servers in SFSU or just one machine?". He never gives you a direct answer either; if you asked him will he post up a sample exam, he would explain how the exam will be but never answer YES or NO first. (FYI: He never provides sample exams) Also, sometimes he has difficulty to understand students' question.

He is welling to teach, but he is somewhat childish. If you got an assignment late, don't try to explain. If you showed anything dissatisfied look about his decision, he would try to make you even more unconfortable. He is also willing to discuss computers or joke around after the class though.

Homeworks are EASY, but the exams are quite difficult. You really need to know lots UNIX in order to perform the tasks asked in his exams. He is an easy grader anyway, so you won't lose too many points.

CSC212 is an easy course, so you won't depend on the instructor too much anyway, but if you want to learn something on UNIX, just go to the bookstores and grab a UNIX book. CSC212 is designed to be an introductory course for newbies. (Too bad it's a requirement for CPSC transferred students)

Professor Tomasevich has a broad knowledge on Unix; it was quite impressive that he could simply write up a complicated unix program and explain it in great detail. Unfortunately he talks pretty fast, so you better be all ears during his lectures. His exams are fair, and he gives a good exam review on his website. There are two midterms and a final. Most of the exams were based his lectures, so take good notes. He is willing to help students during his office hours & answer questions. Overall, a pretty good professor.

I agree about what other reviewers said. Tomasevich is an excellent teacher. He can explain things clearly although he has accent. He is a very nice teacher and willing to help. He hands out review sheet before the test, which is very helpful and he gives partial credit even though your comands don't work at all! This course is sort kind of boring and easy, but that is not his fault, it's the course problem. I recommand him.

I don't feel that UNIX is necessarily very interesting, but Mr. Tomasevich outlined his expectations and the course material well. Additionally, he made himself available to me twice outside of office hours, when I had questions about my programs. I appreciated his willingness to meet with me, and to go over my trouble areas. That demonstrated to me that he really cares about his students.

Mr. Tomasevich is a neat teacher. He is patient, funny and knows a lot about UNIX. His lectures might seem disorganized to lots of students, because he sort of picks and chooses things to cover, without an overall theme. Or, the overall theme is spread out over a couple of weeks. A lot of material is covered in this class. His tests are somewhat difficult. The final is difficult. However, his homework assignments are easy; he is an easy grader. The class is credit/no credit only. If you are not currently enrolled in CSC 210 (C++) or have not had C++ or UNIX before, this class will be difficult towards the middle/end. Example of the semester:

% grep '..ck' *