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alphaPlan · Data Structures, Algorithms & the Web · Cheat-sheet 07

Capstone

Tie the course together in one small project, an object-oriented program and a simple web page, and present it clearly and honestly.

Ideas to remember

  1. 01A small project that works and that you understand fully is worth far more than an ambitious one left half-built.
  2. 02Good ideas are a collection of similar items with a few clear attributes, which maps cleanly onto a class.
  3. 03Start with the program: a class with attributes and a method or two, and a list holding several objects.
  4. 04The web page does not need to talk to the Python program; it is enough to present the same information as a styled page.
  5. 05Build in ordered milestones and finish each before the next; stop at whatever milestone leaves you something complete.
  6. 06A presentation has four steps: say what it does in one sentence, show it working, explain one interesting decision, say what you would do next.

Words

milestone
A step you can complete and check off before starting the next one.
mark_read()
The one method in the Book skeleton; it sets the read attribute to True.
one-sentence summary
What the project does, said before any detail and returned to at the close.
honest presentation
Say plainly what is unfinished, what you adapted and where it came from, and which part you are not sure why it works.

Do this

  • Write down in one sentence what the project does before you write any code.
  • Run the class with a few objects and confirm they hold the right data before adding methods or a page.
  • Build the plain HTML list of items, then a CSS file, then one small piece of JavaScript if time allows.
  • Run through the presentation out loud once or twice and have the project already open before you start.
  • If something breaks live, stay calm and say what you expected to happen and where it goes wrong.

Watch out

  • Projects fail by being attempted all at once; a project stuck between five half-done ideas cannot be presented.
  • Pretending a feature works is easy to see through and hard to recover from.
  • Most people go faster in the room than in practice, and searching for files while everyone waits costs you.

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