Do a poster presentation on a language of an alternative language of your choice and review other's posters

If you believe this assignment is not fully specified, please tell me ASAP, so that it can be fixed in a timely manner.

Goals of this assignment

It is important in this class that we not only learn the basics of a couple of languages in PLC, but also analyze and look at a variety of languages outside of PLC. This poster presentation should enable you to look at an alternative language yourself as well as to see and talk with a variety of people about other alternative languages.

Assignment Requirements

  1. By the end of the second week you must have chosen the alternative language you want to present with your poster. Your language may be any language outside of those used for the CS1-4 sequence. Obfuscated languages and intermediate languages may be used. You may not use languages that are being discussed in PLC this quarter. No more than 2 people may use the same language and who gets to use the language will be determined on a first come, first served basis.
  2. All students must work individually on this assignment.
  3. The date you will have to present your poster will be determined randomly and will be in the last week of classes.
  4. All students must meet with me individually to discuss what will be in their poster before their poster presentation so that I can comment on material and weaknesses in the poster before it is given. You should bring notes or other materials for me to comment on. You may use a laptop in your poster presentation, but you need to tell me ahead of time to help in setup. You need to have seen me about your poster presentation before the end of week 9.
  5. With your language analysis you must discuss the following:
    Your poster does not have to be on posterboard, but can be a series of printed out sheets of paper (we'll have tape that you can use to stick them to the wall). Please keep your poster to something that can fit in a 4'x4' area.

    As an example, with the Perl language some of the strengths are file i/o and the ease of using Perl as a glue language, a big weakness is its complicated syntax and difficulty of reading the programs. Perl was specially designed to mimic the natural way that programmers write code (hack?) and we've gone over several good/bad uses of Perl in class. An example misc. item might include one-liners from Larry Wall that relate to the spirit of the Perl language.

  6. You are required to attend the poster sessions whether or not you're presenting so that you can critique the posters of other people. Critique sheets will be handed out and collected. Part of your grade will be based on your critiques.

Grading Criteria

This assignment will be graded out of 100 points and will have the following breakdown:

  1. 10% - The appointment with me before your presentation. Do you have materials that you could discuss with me?
  2. 10% - Emailing me your language choice by the correct date.
  3. 30% - Analytical critiques of other posters. Your ability to analyze what others have done is an important part of this assignment. Your comments on the posters of others will not be used as a primary grading tool, but will be used to grade your analytical skills.
  4. 50% - You fixed any problems noted when you met with me beforehand, the poster was interesting, and you relaxed and enjoyed yourself rather than locking your knees and fainting so that I had to call for medical help.