CSC321.01 2016S, Class 01: An Introduction to the Course

Overview

Preliminaries

Welcome to CSC 321!
I'll be taking attendance for the first week or so, since I'm really bad at learning student names.
I'm working on getting the other Web sites for the class set up. I'll let you know as soon as I do.

Upcoming Work

ASAP: Finish the Ruby Tutorial.
8pm Tuesday: Reading Journal on the Ruby Tutorial
- Message subject: CSC 321 Journal Day 2 (Your Name)
- What's something familiar you discovered about Ruby?
- What's something new and exciting that you discovered about Ruby?
- How does Ruby handle a programmer's need for multiple inheritance?
- What is something you found particularly confusing or puzzling in the reading?
For Wednesday: Make sure you've signed up for the fifteen or so services indicated in the email.
For Wednesday: Skim Hartl, Chapter 1

A core part of Grinnell's software design curriculum.
A good CS graduate can prove things and build things
This course helps you learn some of the strategies for building things.
- Particularly bigger pieces of software
Bigger software requires
- Multiple programmers and coordination among those programmers
- Organizational techniques, particularly for how different parts interact.
- Organizational techniques for the team.
- Version control! (and versions of the program)
- Different kinds of problem solving - In the large as well as in the small.
- Clients and a way to better understand client goals.
- Multiple files! (And multiple types of files.)
- Maintenance (maintain ants)
- Perhaps some attention to efficiency
- Testing, testing, and more testing.
- Modularization
- Formal commitments and penalties for failing to meet those commitments (aka "deadlines" or "death marches")
- (May require) custom environment, including hardware and software stack
- Scalability
- Documentation

What do you want out of this course?

Learn how to structure software well so that you don't have the PITA experience of the good reverend.
Knowledge and skills for working on large pieces of software.
Learn how to write software that can be scaled.
Familiarize myself with common tools that programmers and SWEs use.
Be a competent CS major.
Learn how to work with people (peers, clients)
Use different parts to provide a coherent whole.
How to enter an existing project. (More CSC 322 than 321, but ...)
Good design practices for working larger groups.
New languages and techniques and environments
Agile development.

Why are you enrolled in this course?

In reflecting on the purposes of the software design sequence, the CS department decided
- Real projects, that might take more than a semester.
- Separate "skills/info" from the project.
- Somehow intertwine the two.
Discovery: Full semester doesn't work for 321 and 322 together.
Starting this semester, new experiement: 321 is seven weeks, 322 is 14 weeks.
It's a 300-level class, so assume 10-12 hours per week outside of class.
- Coding! (4-6 hpw)
- Reading and responding and watching (4-6 hpw)
You will do some learning through watching videos (if you choose).

Model/Domain

Books Etc.

Fox and Patterson: Engineering Software as a Service.
- Kindle, Print, MOOC, SPOC
- Fox and Patterson are supposed to be rewriting the book at this instant
Rails Tutorial