Software Design & Development Marathon [2012] (5 Viewers)

[ahdil33]

heres a question for all the programming paradigm peeps
state and briefly describe what programmers need to consider when choosing certain programming paradigms? (4 marks)

sorry if its not worded nicely, tried my best to input aha

There's a syllabus dotpoint on this which covers:
-nature of the problem
-available resources
-efficiency of solution
-programmer productivity (learning curve, use of reusable modules, speed of code generation, approach to testing)

Mix with a bit of bullshit and it's an easy 4 marks.

 

[ahdil33]

Late night guys lol I wanna be a teacher to help disadvantaged kids someday.

Anyway with regards to software I agree with you the content is a bit dry sometimes but hey we got Richard Buckland to fix that.

The 'computer science' side of it isn't that bad. I mean like repeatedly learning about like ethics and past legal cases etc

 

[GoldyOrNugget]

Just talking logic, I would input all the data into an array. Search for the person's name, if not, create a new record. Then just go through the algorithm and find the maximum, and output the corresponding name. Is there a faster way to do it?

Yeah this is pretty much the expected solution. Try to actually implement it though in pseudocode. There are faster ways, but as usual they're not within the scope of the course.

 

[SpiralFlex]

All the sorts are O(n²). Linear search is O(n). Binary search is O(log n). The lower-bound for comparison sorts is provably O(n log n).

EDIT: this means that binary search will try at most comparisons. This was tested in last year's HSC multiple choice.

Surely they didn't bring Big O Notation into it. Student's will need to have knowledge of functions to understand it...which require mathematics...which not all SDDers do maths.

 

[GoldyOrNugget]

Surely they didn't bring Big O Notation into it. Student's will need to have knowledge of functions to understand it...which require mathematics...which not all SDDers do maths.

I was just correcting JaySimmo's post on page 3. It's not required in the course.

 

[SpiralFlex]

Ah alright.

So, how we feeling for the exam? Advantageous or disadvantageous that it is so close to the end?

 

[ArguablyMitch]

Ah alright.

So, how we feeling for the exam? Advantageous or disadvantageous that it is so close to the end?

My motivation for the HSC has decreased over time. I cannot focus for such a long time on topics and subjects that I don't give a rat's ass about.

 

[LlamaBoi]

My motivation for the HSC has decreased over time. I cannot focus for such a long time on topics and subjects that I don't give a rat's ass about.

+1

 

[LlamaBoi]

Describe the fetch-execute cycle.

 

[tranformer]

Describe the fetch-execute cycle.

The instruction is fetched from a memory location, then the instruction must be decoded, once the instruction is decoded it is then executed in the arithmetic logic unit, once the instruction is finished it places the result in the RAM and this cycle is repeated.

I think this is it. I don't have a question can't think of one atm

 

[Cyberbully]

Describe one national and one international legal case in regards to software. (6)

 

[sddmoustache]

Describe one national and one international legal case in regards to software. (6)

Wait...Do we actually need to know that?? Omg, notsureifsrs. I don't know anything about that! My teacher never mentioned that omg D: Someone plz tell me!

 

[tranformer]

Wait...Do we actually need to know that?? Omg, notsureifsrs. I don't know anything about that! My teacher never mentioned that omg D: Someone plz tell me!

EDIT: My bad, I was thinking of something else D:

 

[Cyberbully]

I believe there are cases that you should know or at least know a bit about I think, there are cases such as the Y2K bug, major viruses such as the Jerusalem Virus (Friday 13th) there are many more, it is under the Social and Ethical Issues chapter, in the Excel book there are some cases including the ones I just said.

none of those are from the specifications document!

 

[sddmoustache]

none of those are from the specifications document!

what's this specifications document?? our teacher never gave it to us..

 

[Gigacube]

I believe there are cases that you should know or at least know a bit about I think, there are cases such as the Y2K bug, major viruses such as the Jerusalem Virus (Friday 13th) there are many more, it is under the Social and Ethical Issues chapter, in the Excel book there are some cases including the ones I just said.

That may have been for the previous syllabus as I don't think there is an Excel text for our current syllabus.

The legal cases you need to be aware about can be found in the Course Specifications document, and are the following:

National

• RACV vs Unisys
• Microsoft vs Netscape
• NSW T Card system

International

• Search engines (eg Google vs national censorship laws)
• Metallica vs Napster

If you are unfamiliar with them then I would suggest reading about it in the Sam Davis SDD book. Chapter 1 is online.


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Also, the point of the SDD marathon is to answer and ask questions and learn from it. There's no point posting new questions if you aren't going to answer existing ones. Don't be afraid if you don't think your answer is correct, just give it a go anyway and you'll get help if you need it. It also helps if you give others feedback on their answers.

 

[GoldyOrNugget]

The instruction is fetched from a memory location, then the instruction must be decoded, once the instruction is decoded it is then executed in the arithmetic logic unit, once the instruction is finished it places the result in the RAM and this cycle is repeated.

I think this is it. I don't have a question can't think of one atm

You forgot to increment the program counter so it points to the next instruction.

 

[GoldyOrNugget]

The legal cases you need to be aware about can be found in the Course Specifications document, and are the following:

National

• RACV vs Unisys
• Microsoft vs Netscape
• NSW T Card system

International

• Search engines (eg Google vs national censorship laws)
• Metallica vs Napster

Do we need to know all of these or just one from each category?

 

[tranformer]

That may have been for the previous syllabus as I don't think there is an Excel text for our current syllabus.

Yeah, I think the one I borrowed from the library is a really old version, though it does have some of the ones you listed, thankfully I have the Sam Davis book which has a few more

Q. What is the difference between alpha testing and beta testing? (All I could think of atm )

 

[Cyberbully]

Do we need to know all of these or just one from each category?

I believe it's one from each category, but it can't hurt learning them all!