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Does SDD suck or what? (2 Viewers)

Mitcho1989

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just a general thought:

SOFTWARE DESIGN SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!

at our subject expo in year 10, we were shown a program, and told we would be making programs like this. it was a decent one too. so i picked the class.

in the 2 years of doing this class, i have not learnt a thing. i can make programs, but that's because i learnt visual basic BEFORE i took software design. i mucked around with it and learnt the functions.

i think the subject has too much theory. we learn all the stuff behind making a program, like documentation and planning etc, but have we put it to practice by making a program? NO!

we have made like 2 simple programs in the whole course, and in one of those, we had to be given the code to put in because after a year and a half, still no-one knew how to use visual basic!

our teacher says if we revise our notes and stuff, we'd be able to use visual basic fine. thats bulls**t. we need to learn how to use it in the first place, to have notes to read over.

apparently, the way to learn all the coding for it is to read notes. we've tried that and it doesnt work. instead, i got visual basic and mucked around with the functions. whenever i was stuck, i looked at the help guide or somewhere on the net for the solution.

check out a program i have made in visual basic:

http://msn2csvconverter.googlepages.com

i developed it by doing what i just mentioned above, so i have not used anything i learnt from doing SDD to make it. not that i've learnt much from SDD anyway.

so overall, this course really frustrates me. anyone considering doing this course probably shouldnt. the name is too misleading.

SDD SUCKS!!!!!!!
 

Beege

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Yeah it kinda sucks but yeah I should do well in the HSC exam. Too much theory IMO and I hate algorithms.
 

undalay

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I did SDD for 2 weeks during year 11, the teacher gave us a course outline, i realised it was shithouse, then i transfered out of that subject.
 

sunny

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heh. This kind of thread comes up every year. The course is Software Design and Development, with the focus on the design, not the development.

If you're not being taught how to use VB, then its your school's/teacher's problem, not the course.

The course should take you through the entire design process, and implement that design as well in the form of the major project at the end of the year, with most of the time learning the design process.

If you didn't like SDD, then you probably don't want to be a software engineer.
 

Mitcho1989

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Optophobia said:
You should have a major project which you get to program.

Over all though, the theory side of things is much more relevant to real life. I've found applications of SDD theory in my police work, especially surrounding the implementation of systems such as digital radio, wireless names index checks, databases etc. especially around the viability side of things.

Also, they can't really examine you on programming.
yeah we had a major project. it sucked just as bad because we were expected to make a program when none of the others knew how to use visual basic.
 

Tomotron

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SDD fucking sucks..but i guess i'm just saying that because my teacher sucks

they shouldn't have this subject available in schools where there is noone qualified to teach this hard course its fucking bullshit. Our teacher has no freakin idea what the course is about, she cant even form basic algorithms, let alone teach them to the class without resorting to teachers aid books. We are expected to teach this shit ourselves and we suffer with pathetic results. Dont get me started on VB, no one in our school has any idea how to teach it. I had previously taught myself a bit of C++ which i found relatively easy to code and it also explained algorithms far more easily as part of the learning process. Take VB out of the syllabus and replace it with C++, so much more versatile.
 

sunny

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Tomotron said:
Take VB out of the syllabus and replace it with C++, so much more versatile.
I'm not sure teaching every SDD student about memory allocation, pointers, references and its endless list of quirks is the way to go.

VB is used at most schools because it is easy to learn, easy to teach, and anyone can pick it up without any prior programming experience or computing knowledge. The same can't be said for C++ as soon as you start developing more complex programs.
 

Mitcho1989

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i dont care what language we use. i just want to make a program! something that doesnt happen with us
 

Martyno1

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SDD is a good subject. It's interesting, relatively easy to score well in and is a high scaling subject. :)

That being said, my teacher is really good, she's pretty much an expert at anything computer(/geek) related.
 

Legham

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I disagree with OP. SDD is my favourite subject, it must just be your teacher's fault. I do it by correspondence on my own without a teacher, and i do about 50% theory and 50% practical. Both sides are hell easy and the practical is really enjoyable, so it's fairly awesome.
 

Beege

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SDD is awesome now cauz we get to play halo, we should be finishing the course tomorrow or thursday then it is revision and yeah some more halo!

same with IPT
 

LatK7

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Ehh....SDD aint' bad. Theory side (generally most of what we do) is pretty simple.
 

Tomotron

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Beege said:
SDD is awesome now cauz we get to play halo, we should be finishing the course tomorrow or thursday then it is revision and yeah some more halo!

same with IPT
yeah we play postal al lthe time its great
 

kiwi89

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Martyno1 said:
SDD is a good subject. It's interesting, relatively easy to score well in and is a high scaling subject. :)

That being said, my teacher is really good, she's pretty much an expert at anything computer(/geek) related.
i think you are about the only one lol, my teacher is pretty bad, she doesnt know much about what she is talking about.
 

Beege

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we started using pascal yesterday and it is pretty fun, it is to help us with our pseudocode in the HSC. I made a PC speaker tune with some code.
 

sync

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at least u ppl are learning VB... where doing turbo pascal?
 

Legham

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beege said:
we started using pascal yesterday and it is pretty fun, it is to help us with our pseudocode in the HSC. I made a PC speaker tune with some code.
You started yesterday? :S wtf? I started at the start of year 11..

sync said:
at least u ppl are learning VB... where doing turbo pascal?
im doing both ^__^
 

peter19

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I dropped Software Design as it was way too hard. If i had got stuck in and actually tried i think i would have found it usefull.

Imo stop whinging.
 

carke

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i agree SDD does suck and especially wen u gotta try n teach urself ay
 

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