IT 6403 Windows Application Development
Summer 2002
8:15PM until 10:10 PM Monday Room H320

Rich Halstead-Nussloch
is solely responsible for this page.

Text | Class Notices | Objectives | Projects and Assignments | Lecture Notes | Documents/Handouts/Zip Files |
Class Schedule | Journal | Class Attendance | Graded Work | Policies | Hyperlinks
Disabilities (ADA) | Schedule Questions and Registration Problems |

Lomax, P. VB and VBA in a Nutshell . O'Reilly Publishing, 1998. ISBN 1565923588
Called here VB or the red book.

Class Notices:

• Have a great term!

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Objectives

Upon successful completion of the course, each student will be able to:

• Define and discuss major concepts and processes of windowing applications.
• Utilize modern tools, techniques, methods, and development environments for developing windowing applications, including those for analysis, design, development, testing and implementation.
• Plan, design, and implement a significant windows application development project.

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Disabilities--Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance

Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the counselor working with disabilities at (770) 528-7226 as soon as possible to better ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.

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Schedule and Registration

If you are majoring in Computer Science and have questions about your schedule or you are having registration problems, please contact the CSE Student Services office located at J 393 or call (770)528-7406 and ask for an appointment.

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Projects Assignments and Graded Work

• Weekly exercises
• Two or three concept papers (only the top two grades count)
• A final project (requiring submission of both
  • a proposal and
  • a project report
• Participation in and contribution to class discussion and activity is required. This might take place in person-to-person meetings or through electronic discussions.

Weights for graded components

• Final Windowing Application Development Project Proposal 5%
• Weekly Exercises 10%
• Concept Paper with Highest Grade 20%
• Concept Paper with Second Highest Grade 15%
• Final Project (Windowing Application, Presentation and Report) 30%
• Class Participation and Contribution, 20%, Ongoing

Note: All written work must be typed, preferable using a wordprocessor and spell-checker. Deductions will be taken for persistent misspellings, etc.

Note: A final project proposal handed in on time that is evaluated as a B+ or lower might be re-written for potential grade improvement. If this assignment is handed in after the due date, it may not be re-written for potential grade improvement.

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Lecture Notes Available

• Lecture slides on Windows Application Development

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Useful Zip Files, Documents, and Handouts

• Our modification of Bill Venners' Design Process
• Final Project Requirements and Specifications
• Final Project Proposal with Examples
• Final Report Outline
• A quick guide to presentations
• Ethics: Hints and Tips for Research and Testing
• Timer Project in VB--Zip File
• Web Project files using VB Script--Zip File

We will have lectures, labs, workshops, discussions, and recitations. During recitations, we will have a round-robin allowing everyone to contribute to class through a planned exercise. Some recitation exercises will be announced at the beginning of the class. Some will be announced at a prior class. Although participation in the round-robin will be optional, it is highly encouraged with the incentive of adding to a higher class contribution grade. For full credit, all students are expected to state their name clearly at the beginning of each day's first turn taken at recitation. Some recitation will take place electronically.

Tab Stops at Class Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Week Beginning	What is to be covered
27 May	No Class--Memorial Day Holiday.
3 June Introduction	Introduction to IT6403 (See above for objectives, requirements, assignments, grading, and policies) Final Project Requirements and Specifications Final Project Proposal with Examples Introduction to each other Round Robin Discussion: Turn to page 7 in your book. Reviewing your objective, "At the end of the course...," which of those tasks pertain to your goal, and why? What windows application would you like to develop for your final project? Exercise one--looking for VB Read Chapter 1 of VB Book
10 June Development	Development Cycles & Processes Our modification of Bill Venners' Design Process Round Robin Discussion: Turn to your exercise from last week where did you find VB, VBA, and VBScript? What is the most important phase in Venners' design process? Briefly describe another design process that you have used. What windows application would you like to develop for your final project? Project Team "shopping" discussion and chat. Final Project Problem Domain Analysis--How should it be done? Do we need a form? Exercise two--looking for events and programming a handler Read Chapter 2 of VB Book
17 June Application	Applications: Terms & Concepts Round Robin Discussion: Turn to your exercise from last week what was your result in programming an event handler? Did you use VB, VBA, or VBScript? What is the most important phase in Venners' design process? Briefly describe the characteristics of another person with whom you'd like to work on the final project. Final Project Problem Domain Analysis--Form Development. Exercise three-- programming a simple windows application for a timer Read Chapter 3 of VB Book Concept Paper number 1 is due
24 June Application Development	The Fundamental IT Question for Application Development: "Make or Buy?" Round Robin Discussion: Turn to your exercise from last week what was your result in programming a simple timer using event handlers? Did you use VB, VBA, or VBScript? What role did variables and data types (as discussed in Chapter 3 of the Red Book) play in your program? What is the most important determiners of application development quality? What role does developer understanding of the following factors play? The human users, their problems, requirements, and tasks. Computing systems' capabilities to meet users' needs. Development environment support of design and implementation to needs Name some characteristics of windows application development environments, e.g., integrated environments, open-source, etc. Final Project Objectives/Requirements identification concludes. Exercise four-- Make or buy decisions Read Chapter 4 of VB Book First draft Final Project Proposal due.
1 July Windows Application	Windowing application versus Microsoft (tm) Windows Application Round Robin Discussion: Turn to your exercise from last week what was your answer to the Fundamental IT Question for Application Development: "Make or Buy?" What is the structure of any windowing application as illustrated by Microsoft Windows applications? What role do the following factors play? Objects; Class and Component Libraries, e.g., MFC; Applications; Threads; Windows; Devices; Handles; Classes; (Member) Functions; Virtual Functions; ActiveX; Controls; Events; Event Handlers; Messaging. What (representative) role do VB Class Modules (Red Book Chapter 4) play in windows application development? Final Project Solution Space Construction--How should we approach? Exercise five-- Data Access Read Chapter 5 of VB Book
8 July Windows Application Development	Windowing application development and visual programming Round Robin Discussion: Turn to your exercise from last week what was your result in connecting a windows application to a data source using VB, VBA, or VBScript? What is involved in "visual programming" for windows application development as illustrated by Microsoft Visual Studio Suites? Compare and contrast: Microsoft Visual Studio versus the Java Developer Kit Microsoft Visual C++ versus VB versus Visual InterDev Microsoft .Net versus everything else What role does the Object Model play in windows application development? Final Project Solution Space Construction--Continued Exercise six-- ActiveX Read Chapter 6 of VB Book Second Concept Paper due.
15 July Windows Application Development in Practice	Windowing application development and robust programming Round Robin Discussion: Turn to your exercise from last week what was your result in developing an ActiveX component for a windows application using VB, VBA, or VBScript? What is involved in (from the Red Book Chapter 6) error handling and robust programming for windows application development using VB and ActiveX? Final Project Solution Space Construction--Continued Exercise seven-- Collections Review Chapter 7 and Appendixes of VB Book Final Revision of the Final Project Proposal is due.
22 July Windows Application Development in Practice	Windowing application development -- The Home Stretch Round Robin Discussion: Turn to your exercise from last week what was your result in using a collection for a windows application using VB, VBA, or VBScript? Any questions or comments on the Red or VB book? Was it useful for learning programming for windows application development using VB? Project Workshop--Continued
29 July The Last Class	The Last Class -- Project Presentations - Mandatory Third (optional) Concept Paper due. Course evaluation Book evaluation.
5 August Final Exam Day	The Final Exam Day -- Final Project Reports (and all oustanding work) Due 8:15 PM on Monday 5 August 2002.

NOTE: The professor reserves the right to adjust the schedule to meet the needs of the class.

Keeping a journal is highly recommended for this course. Include in it descriptions of your readings, your reviews of your readings and activities, tips and techniques for doing windows application development, the results of your research, testing, and trials, logs of, e.g., Internet activity, etc.

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Class Attendance

Class participation and contribution will account for a significant portion of your grade. Since one cannot contribute to and participate in the class without attending, attendance is recommended. Regardless of attendance, each student is responsible for keeping up with materials and information from each class period. This means it is up to the student to arrange with another class member, obtaining notes, handouts, etc., from any class meeting, or portion thereof, missed.

NOTE: All students are expected to attend the final presentation session(s) in their entirety. Any un-excused absences during this period will result in the loss of a whole letter grade from your final course grade. If you're going to miss mandatory class(es), let me know ahead of time!!!

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Policies

1. No late submissions for full grade credit except for documented emergencies.
2. All work assigned to be turned in is due at the beginning of the class.
3. Assignments turned in late will be accepted, but at a grade discount. Multiple late assignments will result in additional discount applied to your final course grade.
4. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated.

Note that you will be leaving the Southern Polytechnic website by taking these links, and neither Southern Polytechnic nor Richard Halstead-Nussloch has control over what you will encounter.

• O'Reilly's VB Page
• Microsoft Visual Basic Page
• Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Page
• ACM Home Page
• IEEE Home Page
• Galileo Home Page
• The largest freely accessible literature database in computer science
• Bill Vernners' Introduction to "Design Techniques" from 1998 JavaWorld