POS 371 Complete Course

Week 1

Discussion Questions

Review the document on code citation and documentation guidelines in the Course Materials section of your student Web site and the Avoiding Plagiarism tutorial available on your student Web site. Discuss the issues of proper citation as they apply to computer programs. What are the consequences of not citing computer programs properly?

Based on McBrides (2007) article, what personal and professional development activities should software developers pursue to prepare themselves to become software architects? What activities is the article missing that would help with this pursuit?

Identify the most common characteristics and elements within a computer program. Why do you believe this is the case? Explain.

Identify the most common characteristics and elements within a computer program. Why do you believe this is the case? Explain.

In the article "Microsoft Begins Its Radical Shift to Software as a Service" (2008), Orr discusses Microsoft's new software delivery model. How will this model affect the way software is designed, built, and maintained? What special end-user considerations exist?

What are the components that make up a computer language? Which of the components, if any, are not always required or present? Are certain components more critical to a program? If so, explain which ones and why they are more critical.

Week 2

Individual Assignment: Basic Alice Programming

Here, you learn basic Alice programming components. You create variables, worlds, characters, and objects. The assignment also teaches various motion, simple repetition, and proper object and character placement commands.

Submit an Alice A2W file and either a flowchart or a pseudo-code for each of the following projects:

Road to Hana: Create a world with a convertible (Vehicles) and a person of your choice (People) that will determine the drive time to Hana. The user is asked the number of miles between the current location and Hana, and the speed limit for the road to get there. Set up variables for the values. Create a third variable to hold the calculated hours for the trip. The formula for hours is as follows: miles divided by speed limit. At this point, the person should approach the camera, and the convertible should come into view, stopping next to the person. The person should look at the convertible, turn to the camera, and say a message in bubble text that includes the time in hours it will take to reach Hana. The car should drive away, and the person should walk in the opposite direction.

Mad Cow Disease: Create a world with a cow (Animals) and a stretcher (Furniture). The world should start with the cow facing the stretcher. The cow should begin swishing its tail, using the tailSwish method, and at the same time jump up in the air, move over to the stretcher, and come down on top of it. The cow should face the camera, swish its tail five more times, and say something about wanting to see a doctor.

Discussion Questions

Hogans (2007) article discusses many software development issues. Pick one of these issues, explain its significance, and critically examine the article's discussion.

Structured programming techniques may not be necessary or as helpful today as in the past. Do you agree or disagree with this perspective? Explain why or why not.

Differentiate between primitive and user-created methods of programming. Provide a scenario in which each method is preferred.

Crosss (2007) article discusses the advantages for a software company to release beta versions of products instead of final versions. What is the authors reasoning? Do you agree? Why might some companies prefer purchasing final releases to beta releases from other companies?

Week 3

Individual Assignment: Basic Alice Programming: Loops and Logic

This assignment will take your knowledge of programming and progress it to a new level. Along with creating worlds, objects, and people, you will develop higher levels of motion by creating loops. You also begin using logic, such as Boolean logic.

Submit an Alice A2W file and either a flowchart or a pseudo-code for each of the following projects:

Space Jump: Create a world with an astronaut (Web Gallery). Using the ask the user for a number function, have the astronaut jump a specific height. At the top, use a loop to spin the astronaut a specified number of times, using the same function. The astronaut falls down to the surface, raises his or her arm, and says a message. Use variables for the height of the jump and the number of spins.

Big 12 Ranking (former): Create a world that asks the user to enter a rank between 1 and 12 for the former Big 12 college basketball teams. A character of your choice (People) must associate that rank to a team name, using the table below. The person should say the rank and the team name. If the rank is not between 1 and 12, the person should say the number is invalid. The method should end.

Week 3 Individual Assignment: Basic Alice Programming: Loops and Logic

This assignment will take your knowledge of programming and progress it to a new level. Along with creating worlds, objects, and people, you will develop higher levels of motion by creating loops. You also begin using logic, such as Boolean logic.

Submit an Alice A2W file and either a flowchart or a pseudo-code for each of the following projects:

Space Jump: Create a world with an astronaut (Web Gallery). Using the ask the user for a number function, have the astronaut jump a specific height. At the top, use a loop to spin the astronaut a specified number of times, using the same function. The astronaut falls down to the surface, raises his or her arm, and says a message. Use variables for the height of the jump and the number of spins.

Big 12 Ranking (former): Create a world that asks the user to enter a rank between 1 and 12 for the former Big 12 college basketball teams. A character of your choice (People) must associate that rank to a team name, using the table below. The person should say the rank and the team name. If the rank is not between 1 and 12, the person should say the number is invalid. The method should end.

Week 3 Individual Assignment: Basic Alice Programming: Loops and Logic

This assignment will take your knowledge of programming and progress it to a new level. Along with creating worlds, objects, and people, you will develop higher levels of motion by creating loops. You also begin using logic, such as Boolean logic.

Submit an Alice A2W file and either a flowchart or a pseudo-code for each of the following projects:

Space Jump: Create a world with an astronaut (Web Gallery). Using the ask the user for a number function, have the astronaut jump a specific height. At the top, use a loop to spin the astronaut a specified number of times, using the same function. The astronaut falls down to the surface, raises his or her arm, and says a message. Use variables for the height of the jump and the number of spins.

Big 12 Ranking (former): Create a world that asks the user to enter a rank between 1 and 12 for the former Big 12 college basketball teams. A character of your choice (People) must associate that rank to a team name, using the table below. The person should say the rank and the team name. If the rank is not between 1 and 12, the person should say the number is invalid. The method should end.

Week 3 Individual Assignment: Basic Alice Programming: Loops and Logic

This assignment will take your knowledge of programming and progress it to a new level. Along with creating worlds, objects, and people, you will develop higher levels of motion by creating loops. You also begin using logic, such as Boolean logic.

Submit an Alice A2W file and either a flowchart or a pseudo-code for each of the following projects:

Discussion Questions

Find a website that explains the use of a selection structure or an iteration structure in programming. Provide the link and explain why the site is helpful.

How are logical comparison operations used to create Boolean conditions? Provide an example.

Based on the Mund, Fabiano, & Cassola (2007) article, discuss lessons that beginning or experienced computer programmers can learn. In what way can you apply these lessons to your current position or a future position?

Explain a software internationalization challenge from Mlers (2007) article. Suggest another challenge not discussed and how a software company might address it.

Leibs (2008) reports on a novel form of outsourcing software development. Describe the approach and share your opinions about this approach to software development.

Week 4

Individual Assignment: Basic Alice Programming: Lists and Arrays

This assignment will develop your programming skills and introduce simple lists and array data structures.

Submit an Alice A2W file and either a flowchart or pseudo-code for each of the following projects:

Leaving on a Jet Plane: Create a world with an array containing three Grayjumpjets (Web Gallery). You may have to resize the objects. Have each jet lift off the ground, one at a time. Together, all three should turn and fly off together. Reference the objects by its array name.

Helicopter Squadron: Create a world with a list containing four Helicopters (Local Gallery). Again, you may have to resize them to fit in the worlds view. One at a time, each helicopter should have its propeller turn, and rise to the same height, still in the cameras view. A message should appear from each windshield, indicating its readiness for the mission. At that point, all four helicopters should move off the cameras view in the same direction. Once started, each helicopters propeller should turn throughout the story. Reference the objects by its list name.

Discussion Questions

Based on Wirfs-Brocks (2007) article, discuss whether there is more to good design than beautiful code.

The use of open source products and solutions is popular. What is open source? Identify open source languages. What is their intent? How should open source products be used or not used? How do open source products relate to functions in a programming language? What are some pros and cons of its use?

What are application programming interfaces (APIs)? Identify several APIs that could or do exist in the software developed and maintained by a company for which you work or want to work. What is the basic limitation of APIs? Are they useful as opposed to object-oriented programming? Explain your answer.

Based on Bookers (2007) article, explain widgets in terms of programming functions. What are the advantages to a company in developing and using widgets? Are there any disadvantages from a business or technical perspective? Explain your answer.

Based on the Cherbakov, Bravery, Goodman, Pandya, & Baggett article (2007), discuss how grassroots computing changes the way software is designed, developed, tested, and maintained in a typical organization. What are the advantages and disadvantages of grassroots computing?

Week 5

Individual Assignment: Basic Alice Programming: Recursion

This assignment will help you develop your programming skills in Alice by introducing recursion.

Submit an Alice a2w file and either a flowchart or pseudo-code for Exercise 2 in Ch. 8 of Starting Out with Alice.

Learning Team Assignment: Learning Team Project

Complete your Learning Team Project.

Submit the Alice a2w file and either a flowchart or a pseudo-code matching your Alice world deliverable.

Deliver the 5- to 7-slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

Discussion Questions

How are recursion and iteration used in programming? Provide examples of the various types of recursion and iteration, and explain why each is used.

Based on Sokolovs (2007) article, discuss techniques for reducing array and other programming errors. Which technique is most beneficial? Explain.

Based on McCabes (2007) article, discuss issues related to the backup of various data types. How can these issues be minimized?

Based on Tratt and Wuyts (2007) article, explain why dynamically typed programming languages are superior to statically typed languages. Why do you think statically typed languages are used today?

Amblers (2008) article discusses requirements development in an agile environment. Pick an issue and explain its significance from a software development perspective.