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Fri Nov 30

  • planned visit to school
  • discussed Sustainability Expo
  • looked at Jeff's stuff and Justin's stuff

Wed Nov 28

  • class evaluation
  • discussed next spring

Mon Nov 26

Wed Nov 21

read two papers from the 11th IASTED International Conference on Software Engineering and Applications:

  • “Model-Based Component Framework for Developing Domain Applications,” Jiang et al.
  • “(U)CML—A Modeling Language for Modeling and Testing Compatibility,” Koss and Brandstatter

Mon Nov 19

  • read chapter 12, Interface Segregation Principle from Martin
  • looked at code from Jeff's applet
  • viewed Jonah's new prototype

Fri Nov 16

Thu Nov 15

  • read chapter 11, Dependency Inversion Principle, from Robert C. Martin, Agile Software Development.

Wed Nov 14

  • Double Buffering stuff -- Changed by Will b/c old link was broken.
  • read “Dog Food” chapter from G. Pascal Zachary's Show Stopper.

Wed Nov 7

We discussed Scott Ambler's article "Defining Success" (Dr. Dobb's Journal, December 2007):

  • Why would his survey have such different success rates than the Chaos report?
  • Have you personally been involved with a failed IT project?

Mon Nov 5

We discussed the "No Silver Bullet" essay from the Mythical Man Month.

Mon Oct 29

Fri Oct 26

Mon Oct 22

  • planned game work; see notes

Fri Oct 19

  • telecom with Bonnie to go over ideas; see notes in Game Concepts.

Wed Oct 17

  • Joel class -- discussing dependencies and other SW Eng issues

Mon Oct 15

Fri Oct 12

Wed Oct 10

  • Jim/Matt's game -- will kids be able to handle power/angle settings? Will pop up large when they're being adjusted. 1-button game, hold button down to sweep across selections; release button to move to next phase.
  • Justin's game -- use 1-button dwell to make selections. particle explosion is not necessarily part of game. OK, it will be. (Selection will be made via dwell principle - object skins / interactions will be possible to build upon with later development).
  • Ryan -- 1-button game.
  • Jonah -- can kids read? use 1-button dwell to make selections. Jonah can narrate screens so that kids can listen for choices too.
  • Dan's game - will use 1-button dwell. background will shift from green to red if they're not pressing, indicating the match is approaching.
  • Tor -- what are screen resolutions

Mon Oct 1

Fri Sep 28

  • we looked at everyone's sample code from Assignments 6.

Wed Sep 26

  1. we discussed people's Game Concepts
  2. we looked at software from http://rjcooper.com

Mon Sep 24

  • unpacked tasks in getting up to speed with Java; gave implementation assignments to individuals (due Fri)
  • discussed architects vs. implementers (ch 4 of Brooks) and 2nd system effect (ch 5)

Mon Sep 17

Looked at 4 games from the Game Links page.

Fri Sep 14

Discussed a Game Taxonomy.

Wed Sep 12

Bonnie Paulino visited from the Kennedy Day School at the St. Franciscan's hospital in Brighton, MA, and we discussed Creating games for disabled children.

Consider:

  • speed
  • collaborative control of game character
  • vision skills
  • finding the essential piece of information
  • make goals clear
  • less stuff on the screen, simple goals and objects
  • moving progress bar
  • time to react
  • NO FLASHING
  • something they can handle.
  • GO FOR FUN!!!!
  • adaptive/adjustable difficulty
  • one or two switches
  • exciting positive reinforcement
  • multiple stages, have a part 2
  • competitive or cooperative
  • multiple kinds of interfaces
  • clear objectives

(Thanks to Jeff for sending his notes.)

Mon Sep 10

  • join Google Group for the class. See the main page near the bottom for a link.
  • Register for Software Design Best Practices by September 12!! Please use UMass Lowell Computer Science as the company name. There is an option for a free expo pass -- choose it :-)

Fri Sep 7

  • talked about our own experiences developing software, in reflecting on first two chaps of TMMM
  • in general, thumbs-up to iJava

Wed Sep 5

  • first class