[cap0]

Hello everyone,

I am in my final year of high school and my final programming "project" you could say is too create a program, following specific "task guidelines". Here is a task description:

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT TASK
Programming Project
The programming project represents the development cycle of a product. The purpose
is to give the learner a meaningful experience of a larger project and development
cycle than is usually possible in a classroom situation.
Scope
This project should be more complex and include more features that those of a
practical examination paper. It should not be something that the learners can produce
in as little as a week. Inappropriate examples might include a calculator or a currency
converter.
20/14
IEB Copyright © 2010 NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS HANDBOOK:
IMPLEMENTATION DATE: JANUARY 2010
Topic & Content
The task that the program must accomplish can be defined by the Feasibility Study.
The learners are required to find a sample selection of future users of the software and
research what their requirements are.
The program must be written in one of the programming languages approved by the
IEB. (See the relevant IEB circulars with regard to the languages currently approved
by the IEB for use with practical work and this programming project.)
The program needs to meet the following criteria:
• User friendly –
− Interface - the interface must be user friendly (preferably a GUI), easy to use
and task appropriate. If the program does not use a GUI there has to be a very
good, task appropriate reason for this (which is adequately explained in the
design document). If a command line utility is envisaged then the 'engine'
must be accessible either through a command line or a GUI interface. In short,
there is virtually NO application design that should not include a GUI element.
This GUI should satisfy the criteria listed the following Assessment Standards:
11.4.4, 12.4.4, 11.4.5, 11.4.6, 12.4.6, and 12.4.21.
− Data Flow/ program operation – the learner must ensure that the sequence of
steps required to use the program and complete a task are clear, easy to follow
and logical.
• Storage/ Data persistence – data must be stored and retrieved from session to
session (this can be in the form of conventional files OR a database OR both).
Database work is to be encouraged, as is the use of SQL. The storage is
appropriate to the program (a game should have the ability to save & load a
game & have high scores, etc.)
• Separation of interface & engine – the 'working code' must not be
embedded in the interface (i.e. it must be in separate classes/ units).
Communication between the interface & the working code is in the form of
parameters & typed methods (functions). A limited amount of code in the
interface is acceptable only if suitably justified in the planning.
• Good data internal structures – There has to be some form of internal
representation of data (i.e. classes/ records/ arrays – or any combination of
these). Data structures must be logical and task appropriate. Classes are to be
encouraged.

We require various theoretical pieces of work before we actually begin the programming (the programming might only be around 100 marks out of 600) and so I was wondering if I could please get some help regarding this.

These include;

• a problem summary [done]
  
• program specifications
  
• specs of the help
  
• specs of data storage
  
• hardware and software requirements
  
• a UML diagram
  
• user interface design
  
• sequencing - what happens when
  
• class design
  
• persistant storage design

After this we begin programming, my general idea for the program was to create a private practice managing software. Similar to the one found here, definitely not as advanced (mine would generally only be for the consulationa and accounting side) but I'm a little bit lost as too how far in depth I should actually go. I have included my project summary for those who want to know a little bit more about the problem.

http://www.rushcliff.com/

Anyways, what I am really asking I suppose, is some help on the theory components and possibly any ideas/tips/suggestions, and maybe what you think of my idea. I am programming in JAVA.

Thank you very much.

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This post has been edited by GunnerInc: 18 June 2012 - 06:45 PM
Reason for edit:: Fixed list tags

[macosxnerd101]

For content-code separation, check out GregBrannon's MVC tutorial if you go that route. I also have a tutorial on Separating the GUI and Logic with a StateManager.

[cap0]

Thanks, I'll look into those tutorials when I begin working with my GUI.
Do you have any ideas/tutorials on the theory components?

[macosxnerd101]

What theory component in particular? We have the Java tutorials section which you are welcome to take advantage of.

[Ryano121]

To be honest reading through tutorials on how to do everything from the GUI to the theory parts kind of you are kind of missing the point a performance task. They want to see what you can do, not what you can read on the internet.