CompSci 6
Summer 2003

Course meetings will be every weekday from 11:00am-12:15pm in room 229 of the Social Sciences Building.

Staff

Text Books

Computing

This course will be taught in a workshop format in an Interactive Computer Classroom, ICC, that contains twenty HP workstations running Windows. If some of the software and descriptions do not include other computing platforms, like Macintosh or Linux, it is not meant to show a bias, simply the reality of the working environment.

In general, students will be expected to be active participants in group exercises involving the computers available during class time. This makes it vital that you prepare before coming to class. In fact, most of the graded work for the course will be done during the class meeting time.

You should expect to work with another student during class. This process is often referred to as pair programming, which is defined as follows:

Two programmers working side-by-side, collaborating on the same design, algorithm, code or test. One programmer, the driver, has control of the keyboard/mouse and actively implements the program. The other programmer, the navigator, continuously observes the work of the driver to identify tactical (syntactic, spelling, etc.) defects and also thinks strategically about the direction of the work. On demand, the two programmers can brainstorm any challenging problem. Because the two programmers periodically switch roles, they work together as equals to develop software.

-- Laurie Williams, North Carolina State University

In other words, it is essential that all students in the group are active participants. Done right, this can be a very positive experience for all involved. Here are some students enthusiastic responses to pair programming.

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