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A comment on What I Wish I Knew When Starting Out as a Software Developer: Slow the Fuck Down. Parent comment

Re:What I Wish I Knew When Starting Out as a Software Develo... by sanderjd on Monday January 26, 2015 @12:54PM (#8948407)
A really great addition to any CS curriculum would be a long-running projects course that runs the full four years so that you get experience in managing architecture, growth, and maintenance, instead of just building. Lots of students do that by attaching themselves to open source projects or working internships, which is great, but it's not (as far as I know) an official major part of any curriculum I've heard about.
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Re:What I Wish I Knew When Starting Out as a Software Develo... by kalid on Monday January 26, 2015 @01:27PM (#8948604)
For Prof. Larry Peterson's networking class, we had to build up a web server over the course of a semester. You built IP, and used that library to build TCP, and then served files over your TCP connection.

It was the first time I realized that bugs in earlier assignments don't magically disappear, and changed my thinking dramatically.

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Re:What I Wish I Knew When Starting Out as a Software Develo... by cle on Monday January 26, 2015 @03:10PM (#8949261)
I had the same experience in my compilers class at USF. Each assignment added layers on top of old assignments (lexer -> parser -> type checker -> codegen). I think it's an excellent strategy for helping students understand the importance of maintainability. Also, forcing you to revisit past assignments will help implant the concepts.
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Re:What I Wish I Knew When Starting Out as a Software Develo... by V-2 on Monday January 26, 2015 @01:24PM (#8948578)
A single four year project would be a little harsh... once you realize what you've done wrong, you'd be to too deep in it to amend your ways anymore. Give them a chance to start from scratch a few times...
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Re:What I Wish I Knew When Starting Out as a Software Develo... by sanderjd on Monday January 26, 2015 @04:52PM (#8949826)
Realizing what you've done wrong and feeling the pain of figuring out how to amend it is the whole point of the exercise. Maybe the right way to amend it is to rewrite the whole thing, but that may or may not be the best choice, depending on what else you want to get done. Just like the real world!
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Re:What I Wish I Knew When Starting Out as a Software Develo... by Linell on Monday January 26, 2015 @01:27PM (#8948601)
A rewrite could always be an option, if it's finished on time.

Setting a reasonable pace with the project could be tricky, but I think it would be very beneficial.

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Re:What I Wish I Knew When Starting Out as a Software Develo... by mattgreenrocks on Monday January 26, 2015 @04:00PM (#8949534)
Most of the time, you should be building an initial version and throwing it away anyway.

Internet time does not justify poor program design.

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