[Year 12 SofDev] Pondering SD U3O2

[gordonp at horsham-college.vic.edu.au]

David, 
of course a browser is not a CLI, but the first language criteria is "develop a graphical user interface (GUI), for use in portable computing devices, such as laptops, personal digital assistants, gaming consoles, mobile phones"

So my interpretation (unweighed by any baggage of course!) is that we need to 'develop' a gui. There is no network requirement there or suchlike. I do think the world of PHP but let's be honest, it's strength is in the back end mysql processing. 

My idea is for students to become conversant with basic programming concepts, with an emphasis on game development, within the confines of the study design. 
cheers    gordon

"David Dawson" <dgdawson at mgs.vic.edu.au> on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 11:07:54 +1100 wrote:
> That is an interesting POV, Gordon, because I actually have the opposite
> view.
> I think we need to get away from the old "thick" clients like Applets.
> (just my view)
> IMHO for an application to be truly useful for a "portable device" it
> should link to a server somehow and be available to run on many of the
> devices simultaneously - however I do not think we should be doing DB
> work in unit 3 either.
> I think that there is nothing in the formal definition of GUI that
> cannot be run inside a browser, so why do you think that a browser
> interface is not a GUI when we use form widgets and graphics? 
> David D
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au
> [mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of
> gordonp at horsham-college.vic.edu.au
> Sent: Wednesday, 14 February 2007 10:38 AM
> To: sofdev at edulists.com.au
> Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] Pondering SD U3O2
> 
> Thanks for that Robert - well put. The language used is not that
> relevant except where it satisifies the criteria for the 'approved
> languages list'.
>  And we all bring a certain amount of baggage to language decisions
> surely. While PHP is fresh for jaded teachers and elegant, i don't think
> it really meets the first criteria 'developing a GUI' as well as C++ or
> Java, VB etc. I'm not convinced the good old browser interface is in the
> spirit here ...
> 
> The kids just have to model a module for a handheld (or laptop!!). I'll
> be re-writing my old Maths Quiz (+,-,*,/ questions) program, with
> interface specs to simulate a handheld. VB will probably be the language
> of choice because it will do the job well. 
> 
> But for my own interest, it'll be PHP for unit 2...
> cheers             gordon
> 
> "Timmer-Arends" <timmer at melbpc.org.au> on Tue, 13 Feb 2007 18:14:38
> +1100 wrote:
> > Hello Mark
> > 
> > I think Adrain and Claudia have the right interpretation. The 
> > constraint of producing a software module suitable for implementation 
> > on a portable computing device is intended as a constraint on the user
> 
> > interface (and perhaps other bits as listed by Claudia and Adrian) NOT
> 
> > on the type of program to be written or on the programming language 
> > used. And it is this latter point that I think Adrian is trying to 
> > make when he writes "The program does not have to be implemented - 
> > just modeled."  - students might be required to write a game program
> that can be used on, say, a Palm Pilot.
> > Instead of trying to come to grips with something like C as well as 
> > adapting it to PalmOS, they might write the program using VB; it 
> > would/should have the 'look and feel' of the Palm version but under 
> > the covers its just plain old VB - hence it is a 'model'.
> > 
> > Possibly a little dated,
> > http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au/~winikoff/palm/dev.html contains a list 
> > of PalmPilot SDKs (Software Development Kits) and some discussion 
> > which could be of interest.
> > 
> > Regards
> > Robert T-A
> > Brighton SC
> > 
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> 
> ---
> Gordon Poultney
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---
Gordon Poultney