A project approach to structure and correctness in Pitt's second computer science course

  • Authors:

  • Lawrence Yelowitz

  • Affiliations:

  • Computer Science Department, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

  • Venue:
  • SIGCSE '78 Proceedings of the ninth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
  • Year:
  • 1978

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Abstract

The introduction of software methodological issues, including correctness and structure, into the undergraduate curriculum is aided by the availability of software projects which are not overwhelming, but nonetheless, are sufficiently complex to warrant a disciplined approach. A project covering a “commercial” application is described here. The use and instantiation of abstract program schemas to a variety of contexts is illustrated, as is a sequence of incremental additions which preserve correctness at each stage. Fuller details and a more formal description of this project, as well as of a project implementing a propositional logic theorem prover, are found in [1]. As a first step in appreciating the general applicability of these software methodological issues, students should realize that these methodologies were used in fundamental ways in developing both projects.