1. Software Construction
SCMP Special Topic: Software Development
Spring 2017
James Skon

2. Software Development
Syllabus on line: cs.kenyon.edu
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. C. A. R. Hoare (1980 Turing Award Lecture)

3. About Course - Goals
This course gives students experience designing, implementing, testing and debugging moderately complex systems of software components that collectively form a multilayer application. There will be an emphasis on crafting quality code, designing and implementing effective user interfaces, and building multicomponent architectures using a mix of off-the-self and custom code.

4. About Course - Topics direct file I/O inner-process communication
inter-system
synchronization of shared resources
web interfaces
data visualization
working with large data sets.

5. About Course - Languages
HTML
CSS
JavaScript
Jquery

6. About Course – Team work
Two projects will be done as small collaborative teams.
Pair-programming
Peer Review
All team members must contribute.

7. What Is Software Construction?
Problem definition
Requirements development
Construction planning
Software architecture, or high-level design
Detailed design
Coding and debugging
Unit testing
Integration testing
Integration
System testing
Corrective maintenance

8. Construction activities

9. Construction activities
Focus of this course.

10. Software Construction Tasks
Verifying that the groundwork has been laid so that construction can proceed successfully
Determining how your code will be tested
Designing and writing classes and routines
Creating and naming variables and named constants
Selecting control structures and organizing blocks of statements
Unit testing, integration testing, and debugging your own code

11. Software Construction Tasks
Reviewing other team members' low-level designs and code and having them review yours
Polishing code by carefully formatting and commenting it
Integrating software components that were created separately
Tuning code to make it faster and use fewer resources

12. Why Study Software Construction?
Construction is a large part of software development.
30% - 80% of effort on typical projects!
Central activity in software development
Programmer productivity varies greatly. (10-20x!)
Source code is often the only accurate description of the software
The one certain activity in Software Development.

13. Summary
Software construction is the central activity in software development.
The main activities in construction are detailed design, coding, debugging, integration, and developer testing
Other common terms for construction are "coding" and "programming.”
The quality of the construction substantially affects the quality of the software.