CS 410/510 Top: Code Reading & Review

Credit Hours:

4/3

Course Coordinator:

Katie Casamento

Course Description:

Hands-on study and discussion on the topic of code quality with a focus on the comprehension and constructive criticism of program source code. Assignments will generally involve reading code in an imperative object-oriented language and writing in English about the code.

Goals:

Upon the successful completion of this class, students will be able to:

1. Describe subjective and objective aspects of code quality and readability, especially the distinction between "idiomatic" and "unidiomatic" code in a given setting.
2. Apply the techniques of "skimming" and "close reading" in appropriate situations to quickly and accurately identify and comprehend a relevant part of a given large program.
3. Explain the meaning of a given piece of code in clear high-level terms suitable for another programmer to read and understand.
4. Produce concise and informative embedded documentation for a given piece of code.
5. Critique the subjective quality of a given piece of code with the goal of maintaining and improving code quality over time.
6. Participate productively in a standard multi-stage code review process.

Major Topics:

• Development environments
• Formatting and linters
• Source control and collaborative workflows
• Functional abstraction
• Encapsulation
• Naming and documentation
• The "expression problem"
• Errors and exceptions
• Testing
• Software lifecycles