Re: Teaching OO

Re: Teaching OO

[Jacob Sparre Andersen]

Please note that followup is set to comp.object and comp.edu only.

Martin Ameskamp (ma@informatik.uni-kiel.de) wrote:
|^^^^^^^^^^
| 	Right, this is exactly my question. I'm currently teaching a basic
| 	course for 2nd year computing students that's mainly C++ and OOP
| 	(with a few odd bits like make, lex & yacc thrown in).
| 	Any hints for a good motivation would be greatly appreciated
| 	(if none come, it's back to toy examples...)
 ^^^^^^^^^^
I don't know if this is considered a toy example.

Last year, one of my friends asked me to teach him OOP. At that time we 
were following a course on laser physics, so I decided to use this as a
basis for my explanations.
When you are working with a laser beam, you can model the optical elements 
with 2*2 matrices and the beam at a certain position with a 1*2 matrix. 
When the beam propagates through an optical element, you multiply the beam 
column by the relevant matrix.
We decided to implement a program that modelled a optical setup, using OOP.
This was quite nice, because after we had designed our base class for 
optical elements, we could implement the optical elements independent of 
each other.

Well, at least it's a working toy.

Greetings,
                     Jacob Sparre Andersen.
--
URL's: "mailto:sparre@nbi.dk", "http://meyer.fys.ku.dk/~sparre", 
       "mailto:sparre+@pitt.edu" & "http://www.pitt.edu/~sparre".
--
"We need a plan to diverge from", Fesser

Re: Teaching OO

[Jacob Sparre Andersen]

Eyal Alaluf (eyala@applicom.co.il) wrote:
|^^^^^^^^^^
| It is about teaching OO, right?
 ^^^^^^^^^^
:-)

|^^^^^^^^^^
| I believe that one of the difficulties of teaching OOD/OOA is that it is hard
| to demonstrate. People have to have some programming experience in order to
| appreciate the benefits of OOA and OOD.
 ^^^^^^^^^^
Hard to demonstrate? I don't agree!
Is it nessessary to appreciate the benefits? I don't think so? How many has 
tried to do math in 1700-style? I certainly appreciate modern math notation, 
but I would be just as good at math, without knowing how hard it once was to 
write it.

[...]
|^^^^^^^^^^
| The problem is that when you give a programming exercise, the problem is to
| solve it, and usually it is quite simple, i.e. some hash table, and the
| top/down structural design seems natural and will yield a reasonable result.
| So what I have in mind is to give an exercise which is closer to reality.
| Give the students some (not too complicated) exercise and let them work on 
| it, and after they have just finished, change some of the requirements!
| The better the student designed his application and put an effort to create 
| some infrastructure and such, the better chance the student has of changing 
| the application in time.
 ^^^^^^^^^^
I think this is a good idea. Some extensions:
  - Let the students taking a project management course manage the exercise.
  - Make some 'real' software.
(please don't take these last lines too seriously)

|^^^^^^^^^^
| I don't study computers anymore, so I feel quite free to suggest such ideas...
 ^^^^^^^^^^
Haven't taken any CS courses :-) - I do have an opinion of the subject though.

Greetings,
                Jacob Sparre Andersen
--
A good movie? - What about three? - Kieslowskis 'White', 'Blue' and 'Red'!
--
URL's: "mailto:sparre@nbi.dk", "http://meyer.fys.ku.dk/~sparre", 
       "mailto:sparre+@pitt.edu" & "http://www.pitt.edu/~sparre".
--
"We need a plan to diverge from", Fesser