[comp.sw.components] why not complex assignments?

karam@sce.carleton.ca (Gerald Karam) (11/09/89)

In article <78584@linus.UUCP> mitchell@community-chest.UUCP (George Mitchell) writes:
>In article <11064@cbnews.ATT.COM> kww@cbnews.ATT.COM
>(Kevin W. Wall,55212,cb,1B329,6148604775) writes:       `Just once I'd
>`like to see a homework assignment in some CS course be something like
>`
>`	"add features X and Y to this 60,000 software system (which the
>`	students have never seen before) and turn it in next week".
>
>Would someone (or more) please address why this is not done.
>--

its very simple. the time required to learn 60K lines of code in
sufficient detail to be able to modify it would take considerable time.
assuming that you believe that this could be *responsibly done*
in a week in "the real world" then i guess the situation would 
involve assigning someone (who has this kind of experience) to 
the task for a week. (of course this all depends on the application,
language used, coding style etc. etc. etc.)

students do not have the option of ignoring their classes, other
assignments and projects, labs and sanity time to do solve such
a problem.

i'd love to give a problem like that; and i love to illustrate the
difference between dumping 60K lines of code in someones lap VS.
60K lines, plus the original requirements spec (properly done :-)
the original design (traceable to the req. :-) and the original test
plan and test cases (sure..... :-).

there is no substitute for work in an operating environment; an
academic setting cannot hope to realistically produce one unless you
expect us to take 10 years to educate a CS/CE student.  Industry *has* 
to pick up the ball on this one---- this summer hire a student!

generally, just getting students to use *existing* code in a small
project or assignment is enough to give them a taste of what its like
to use someone elses code, and to perhaps modify it.  i have found this
to be a very successful exercise (many students complain that they 
would have preferred to write their own, which is a classic response.)

i have given them 2-3k line simulations and 2 weeks to modify it and
that has been difficult within their workload.

a student's life ain't easy...

gerald karam
asst. professor

karam@sce.carleton.ca
karam@sce.uucp