Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!sce!object!kain
From: kain@object.UUCP (Kai Ng)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.eiffel
Subject: Re: Teaching object oriented programming
Keywords: Teaching, Problem Examples, Programming Examples
Message-ID: <6734@object.UUCP>
Date: 3 Aug 89 19:38:48 GMT
References: <1318@massormetrix.ida.liu.se> <6718@cognos.UUCP>
Reply-To: kain@cognos.UUCP (Kai Ng)
Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 36

In article <6718@cognos.UUCP> alanm@cognos.UUCP (Alan Myrvold) writes:
>In article <1318@massormetrix.ida.liu.se> mikpa@massormetrix.ida.liu.se (Mikael Patel) writes:

>>I am working on a course on Object Oriented Programming (OOP) for third and 
>>fourth year students on our civil engineer lines. I'd like some advice
>

>      1) Motivation for OOPs (re-use, information hiding, memory management)
>      2) The Smalltalk execution model
>      3) The Eiffel type system (including proposed checking in future
>         releases, to close the existing holes)
>      4) Hybrid languages ... C++, Objective C, misc. Pascal extensions
>      5) Two small projects - one in Eiffel, the other in Smalltalk
>

The above list looks like the outline of YALC (yet another language course)
which I believe is not an effective way to convey the idea of OOP to the
students. Stresses should be on what is the difference between OOP technique
and conventional structural programming technical; how to design object-
orientedly; specialization vs generalization up and down the inheritance
hierarchy; etc.

On the ACM OOPSLA'88 appendum to proceedings, there is a workshop on
"Teaching Object Oriented Programming". In there, a number of OOP pioneers
expressed their experiences and approaches. (Including Adele Goldberg, John
Pugh, etc). I hope that is a good place to start before delineating your
course.




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Kai Ng                 P.O. Box 9707         UUCP: uunet!mitel!sce!cognos!kain
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