CPSC 110-08: Computing with Mobile Phones
Reading: App Inventor, Create Your Own Apps, Chapters 14-15
Due: Wednesday 10/5 (before class)
CS Principles
This reading and homework activity focuses on computer architecture
and programming. Ch 14 introduces on the main architectural features of
an App Inventor program considered as a digital artifact. It
focuses on the following learning objective:
- IA2: The student will see how an App Inventor program functions in terms of its
basic event-driven programming architecture.
Chapter 15 focuses on programming, in particular some of the
software engineering principles and best practices that go into creating a correct program.
If focuses on the following learning objectives:
- VC21: Students will see how to features of App Inventor's development environment
to locate and correct errors in the programs, understand better how the program functions.
- VC22: Students will be introduced to an iterative, step-wise approach to
building a program and to the importance of documentation and debugging.
Textbook
You can purchase a copy of the text book
Wolber,
Abelson, Spertus, and Looney, App Inventor: Create Your Own Android
Apps. It costs around $25. We will be having reading assignments
from this text throughout the semester.
There is a
pre-publication version
of this book available for free download. However, it is not as complete
as the published version.
Reading Assignment
Principles addressed:
Algorithms: if/else, event-driven programming, loops
Programming: Software engineering, debugging
Read Chapters 14-15, App
Architecture and Software Engineering. We have discussed, in passing,
many of the points made in these chapters. But it will be good to
go over them more carefully as you are about to begin your first
creative project.
Reading Questions. Provide answers to the following
two questions on a Portfolio page for this reading assignment.
- (Ch 14) An App Inventor app is a set of event handlers.
This model is sometimes called event-driven programming. Describe in
your own words how the event-driven model works. How do
the "recipes" (i.e., algorithms) that characterize the traditional
model of programming fit into the event-driven model?
- (Ch 15) Choose one of the following software development
principles and describe briefly how it works and why it is important
in software development:
- Involve prospective users in app development.
- Build a simple prototype.
- Code and test your app in small increments.
- Design the app's logic before writing the code.
- Divide, Layer, and Conquer
- Comment your blocks.
- Learn to trace your app by hand.
In Class on Wednesday
We will go over the key points in these two chapters.