1988 Reports

A Practical Course in Software Design

Smith, Jonathan M.

In practical disciplines, "Those who can, do. Those who can‘t, teach." and you "Learn by doing". Our presentation of an undergraduate semester course in Software Design, "Software Design Laboratory", has the spirit of the second adage and attempts to refute the first. In our description of the course, we focus on the relationship between the different programming assignments, and the role of these assignments in developing the student's capabilities, rather than on management, group structure, or formal techniques. We argue that a laboratory course is as essential to Computer Science as it is lo Physics or Chemistry.