COMP 310 Spring 2010	Lec34:  Final Project Brainstorming

Today, the entire class will brainstorm on ideas for a final project that combines the technologies developed in the Ballworld and Chat App systems.

Students will be allowed to work in pairs for this assignment whose final product will be due on the last day of exams, though we will probably have a "game day" prior to that.   At least one intermediate milestone will be due.

Minimum requirements:

• Must involve the interaction between independently implemented applications across internet-connected machines.
• Must be able to handle an arbitrary number systems connected at once, not just two or three.
• Must involve remote dynamic class loading.
• Must be fundamentally extensible for new features/capabilities.

For inspiration, you can look at the "GalaxyBall" project from the 2007 Comp202 final project:  http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~comp202/07-fall/assignments/finalproject/index.shtml

Goals for today's discussion:

1. Basic agreement on what the final project will be, at the level of detail of the fundamentals of what the program will do.
   1. Create a list of basic features and capabilities.
   2. Don't get too detailed yet or stray into implementation-specific issues.
   3. Concentrate on what you want the program to do, not on how you will do it.
2. A design assignment for each group, where each group is responsible for bring to class on Monday their detailed proposal (e.g. UML diagram and API specifications) for a part of the shared API to be used in the final project.  
   1. You can have different groups work on different aspects of the shared API or you can set up a "competing proposals" situation for all or parts of the API.
   2. Do NOT address implementation-specific aspects, i.e. anything that is not directly involved in the computer-computer interactions.
   3. The assignments and requirements for Monday need to be clearly documented in the Owlspace wiki by a designated person(s).

© 2010 by Stephen Wong