APS 105S - Computer Fundamentals

Project Requirements

Winter 1998

(Done During weeks of March 23 and 30, but prepared well before)
(Final Report Due April 3)

 

Objective:   To do some interesting programming on your own

1 Requirements

1. You must invent an idea for an interesting program that you would like to write. The program should be of reasonable size, at least 300 lines of code, and not more than 2000 lines, including comments. The intent is for you to write something that is significantly longer than the exercises you have been doing.
2. You may work in groups of up to three people, in which case the program should be proportionally larger. If you choose to work in a group, then you must partition the problem so that the contribution of each member can be identified. The best way to do this is for each person to be responsible for a number of procedures.
3. You should fill out the proposal form attached and discuss it with a TA. The project should be approved by the end of the March 16/17 lab.
4. It is recommended that you use the Turing language, but you may use C if you wish. If you want to use a language other than Turing/OOT, C, or C++, you must get the approval of the instructor.

   You must be able to show detailed plans, in the form of things like diagrams and pseudo code, that show you have done significant planning and design. Having some pieces working would be good.

5. You should be prepared to demonstrate your completed project by the start of the March 30/April 1 lab period. If your program will not run on the ECF machines, you must provide the means to do the demonstration. Note: It is better to demonstrate a small part that works than a large program that doesn't.
6. You will be required to submit a final report describing your project on Friday April 3rd. The report should have the outline given below, and include a hardcopy of your program. Your final mark will be based on the demonstration, the code, and the writing of the report.

2 Topic Choice and Negotiation with TA

The choice of topic is up to you; however you must negotiate the scope of the project with your supervising TA or the instructor. The purpose of the negotiation is to ensure that the project is not too much work, nor too little work. It is often very difficult to judge the amount of work required for any idea; to do so you should create an initial "block diagram" design and try to think about the various parts that your program must have. This block diagram will be useful in in your discussion/negotation with the TA or instructor.

Note that you must have a signed approval for your project by the end of your lab period on March 16/17.

Please note that we will not allow for more than 2 projects that are the same in the entire class. You are required to come up with something that is original. This can be some kind of game, calculation related to a real world simulation, or some version of the many things computers are currently used to do or may be used for in the future. Use your imagination!

The approval form is part of the postscript version.