This project is aimed at a comprehensive redesign cf the laboratory component of the three-course introductory undergraduate computer science course sequence at Temple University. The objective is to better address the fundamental and recurring concepts identified in the ACM/IEEE report Computing Curricula '91, such as, complexity of large programs, levels of abstraction, binding, abstract data types, information hiding and separation of concerns, evolution of requirements, and software reuse. It is planned to introduce these topics by integrating concepts and tools from current research and practice in software engineering and object- oriented programming into the three targeted courses.It is appropriate that the laboratory environment for this project provide extensive support for the practice of modern techniques in software development, graphical user interfaces, and adequate class libraries to enable student projects of moderate to high difficulty. A UNIX based workstation laboratory most closely meets the corresponding hardware and software requirements. The equipment provided under this project consists of a SUN SPARCserver and ten SPARCstations. The SPARC platform has available public domain object-oriented software such as InterViews, NIHCL class library, and ET++. Good software availability, excellent computing power, support for graphical interfaces, and potential for future expandability of the server, are all significant components of the system planned.
