Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!reed!psu-cs!warren
From: warren@psu-cs.UUCP (Warren Harrison)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Re: American Programmer
Message-ID: <563@psu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 25 Mar 88 03:35:41 GMT
References: <555@psu-cs.UUCP> <1434@ur-tut.UUCP> <3415@bunker.UUCP> <5359@utah-cs.UUCP> <36845UH2@PSUVM>
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Portland State University; Portland OR
Lines: 32

> 
> Sure, you might hate some of these techniques.  But the point is that we
> need to teach professional skills from day one, sort of like chemistry
> teaches basic lab skills in freshman chemistry.
> 
> Just a thought.  Flame away...

This is a very good suggestion.  However, here is my problem ... how do you
justify to a student that a program to compute the sum of a list of numbers
uses a procedure?  Or a Warnier Orr (or data flow) diagram?  I guess I'm saying
that my experience leads me to believe that the tools have to be motivated
by something other than saying "... it's good for you ...".  At the intro level
it gets really hard (for me) to motivate the use of such tools.  Even something
as simple as commenting is difficult to justify for a three or four line
program.  On the other hand, maybe my examples and assignments are overly]
simple compared to those of the rest of you. One approach that I have found
to work quite well however is in the COBOL programming course.  The first few
programs involve the (extensive) modification of a working program of several
hundred lines of code. The students really appreciate the existence of comments
and meaningful variable names then.  Also, the program tends to serve as an exa
example of the type of commenting and style I expect from the students' programs

I'd like to hear the approach others take to this problem ... do most people
simply mandate the use of tools like DFD's and modularity, or do you provide
motivation (besides saying you'll be glad you did it this way next semester)?
Also, does anyone address th eissue of program maintenance in their classes
by having students modify a non-trivial program?  It is ironic that so little
attention is paid to maintenance in school when the majority of graduates
start off in this activity.

Warren Harrison
The University of Portland