RANT - teachers that don't pay attention the their own assignments.
03-11-2003 | 05:36 PM
#1
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RANT - teachers that don't pay attention the their own assignments.
Okay... this drives me nuts. I'm taking a Java class and am doing my homework assignments.
One of the assignments floats around creating vehicle classes and subclasses. In a previous assignment we've created a Vehicle base class. Now he says to "add a static variable for Vehicle Identification Number and another variable for Car ID".
This is where is starts, who the hell would ever use a STATIC variable for a value that needed to be UNIQUE FOR EVERY INSTANTIATED OBJECT? I emailed him on it and he said it was for the "country code" and that the "country code" and the car ID make up the VIN. Well then call it that (actually the ISO spec for VIN's states that they start with a WMI or world manufacturers code).
Okay, so even if "country code" is what he wanted that still makes this a completely useless design from an object oriented point of view. What if Hertz buys our software. Having a static country code means that ALL of the cars in their fleet have to be from the same country.
It gets worse... a few assignments later he says to create subclasses of PassengerVehicle (which is a sub class of vehicle which has that STUPID static variable in it). The subclasses he wants are Acura, Ford, and Volvo. Okay great, how the hell do we represent them with our static VIN? Acuras are Japanese, Fords are American, and Volvos are German. WTF???
In addition there's an assignment that's dealing with the Fibonacci series. One of the examples says to modify the output formatting to do something specific but in his example he's half displaying the Fibonacci series and in the other half he's displaying a loop counter that's been squared. Last time I looked that didn't have anything to do with the Fibonacci series.
If you're an experienced C++ programmer DO NOT take any Java programming courses from UCSC Extension. The class I signed up for had C++ and object oriented programming experience as a prerequisite. The class was supposed to outline the differences between C++ and Java. Instead it was an intro to object oriented programming and a total waste of time. I didn't learn anything from this class.
GGRRRRRrrrrrrrrr.
The Object Oriented Analysis and Object Oriented Design courses on the other hand are EXCELLENT!!! The teacher really knows his stuff, the material is outstanding and quite refined.
Okay, I'm done venting.
Joe
One of the assignments floats around creating vehicle classes and subclasses. In a previous assignment we've created a Vehicle base class. Now he says to "add a static variable for Vehicle Identification Number and another variable for Car ID".
This is where is starts, who the hell would ever use a STATIC variable for a value that needed to be UNIQUE FOR EVERY INSTANTIATED OBJECT? I emailed him on it and he said it was for the "country code" and that the "country code" and the car ID make up the VIN. Well then call it that (actually the ISO spec for VIN's states that they start with a WMI or world manufacturers code).
Okay, so even if "country code" is what he wanted that still makes this a completely useless design from an object oriented point of view. What if Hertz buys our software. Having a static country code means that ALL of the cars in their fleet have to be from the same country.
It gets worse... a few assignments later he says to create subclasses of PassengerVehicle (which is a sub class of vehicle which has that STUPID static variable in it). The subclasses he wants are Acura, Ford, and Volvo. Okay great, how the hell do we represent them with our static VIN? Acuras are Japanese, Fords are American, and Volvos are German. WTF???
In addition there's an assignment that's dealing with the Fibonacci series. One of the examples says to modify the output formatting to do something specific but in his example he's half displaying the Fibonacci series and in the other half he's displaying a loop counter that's been squared. Last time I looked that didn't have anything to do with the Fibonacci series.
If you're an experienced C++ programmer DO NOT take any Java programming courses from UCSC Extension. The class I signed up for had C++ and object oriented programming experience as a prerequisite. The class was supposed to outline the differences between C++ and Java. Instead it was an intro to object oriented programming and a total waste of time. I didn't learn anything from this class.
GGRRRRRrrrrrrrrr.
The Object Oriented Analysis and Object Oriented Design courses on the other hand are EXCELLENT!!! The teacher really knows his stuff, the material is outstanding and quite refined.
Okay, I'm done venting.
Joe
03-11-2003 | 06:04 PM
#3
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Originally posted by iBlueVirus
Hey Joe! Sorry to hear about your class. Where is this UCSC extension course held at? Who is your professor? Just wondering...
Leo
Hey Joe! Sorry to hear about your class. Where is this UCSC extension course held at? Who is your professor? Just wondering...
Leo
I will say that Bill Fairfield who teaches the OOA and OOD classes at the Sunnyvale UCSC location is top notch. This guy has been doing object oriented development forever and using UML since WAY before it was UML (since 1984 I think... almost 20 years of experience).
Cheers, Joe
03-11-2003 | 06:17 PM
#4
NP, I was just wondering because I am attending UCSC right now. But I am done after this quarter so it doens't matter to me. 
I thought it was one of those live video course or something....
I thought it was one of those live video course or something....
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