Introduction to Software Development COMP 1320

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

• Implement problem-solving strategies that employ the four pillars of computational thinking: decomposition, pattern matching and data representation, abstraction and generalization, algorithms and automation.
• Design, implement, test, and debug simple programs in a modern high-level programming language.
• Write programs using good software development processes including design before implementation, iterative development, responsibility-driven design, and encapsulation/information hiding.
• Apply the techniques of abstraction and functional decomposition to implement a program using small modules with well-defined interfaces.
• Use variables, IO, and fundamental control structures including sequence, selection, repetition, and indirection to write code that is modular and re-usable.
• Use error handling to manage exceptional circumstances.
• Write unit tests to verify the correctness of their code.
• Explain the representation and use of primitive data types and built-in data structures such as strings, lists (arrays), and associative arrays (maps/dictionaries).
• Analyze and explain the behaviour of simple programs that employ fundamental programming idioms and constructs.
• Explain the value of using existing application programming interfaces (APIs) in software development.
• Generate API documentation for their code.
• Gain experience using code quality and style checkers, build scripts.

Effective as of Fall 2021