CSC152 2004F, Class 20: Weekly Project Discussion (Week 5)

Admin:
* Convo tomorrow.  Extra credit for attending.
* Syllabus rearranged.
* Questions on the exam?
* Bad Rooster!

Overview:
* The project
  * Choose one
  * Talk about groups
  * Think more in depth
* The exceptions homework
* Abstract classes (if time)

/Questions on the Exam/

Q: How do I compare two strings?
A: a.compareTo(b)
Q: How do I use Students in compareStudentsByName?
A: Cast the parameters to Students.

/Project/

* Something big enough to take the rest of the semester (say, 3-4 hours a week)
* Something small enough that we can actually complete it as a group.
* Small groups work on individual parts
* Parts go together to make a coherent whole
* Weekly full-group meetings (Tuesdays)
* Past projects:
  * Distributed auction system
  * Email reader
  * Othello
* What should we do this year?
  * Four-year planner (schedule classes; get warning about failed prereqs; AI suggests classes for you; AI makes sarcastic comments about your schedule) (6)
    * Negative: Courses change too much (but the data are already there)
    * Negative: Preferences change too much
    * Positive: Useful tool
  * Pente: (1)
    * Hybrid of Go, Othello, and Tic-Tac-Toe (five in a row)
    * Two-player game
  * Text-based multiplayer game (MUDs) (9)
    * Positive: Sounds really cool
    * Negative: Need an overall plan
    * Parts:
      * Rules and their implementation (state of game)
      * Textual user interface
      * Communication between computers
      * "AI" for non-user-controlled part of game
  * Interactive campus map (8)
* Second round:
  * Grinnell MUD: You wander around Grinnell and try to learn something
  	You wander into a classroom.  There is a well-dressed man at the front insulting his students.  
  * Interactive Campus Map

* Dead in advance
  * RateMyProfs.noncom, the Grinnell method
  * Text-based multiplayer game development environment [too large]
  * Drawing program
  * Text editor

Hmmm ... overall design.  Give Sam a few days.

How do we form groups?
* By choice.  Let people choose who they want to work with.
* By topic.  Let people choose which topic they work on and hope things distribute evenly.
* Mixing Myers-Briggs characteristics creates successful groups.  
  Introvert/Extrovert
  intuit/sense
  Thinking/Feeling
  Perceiving/Judging
* By gender
  * Same-sex groups are better for women
  * Mixed-sex groups are better for men
* By self-perception of expertise

Group Problems:
* Disagreement
  * Explicit and implicit (I don't care what we decided, I'm doing it my way)
* One person does all the work (by choice)
* One person does none of the work (by choice)
* Scheduling