Code Base Understanding

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__NOTOC__
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{| border="1"
 
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|'''Title''' || Code Base understanding
 
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|'''Overview''' || High level description of what the student will do
 
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|'''Prerequisite Knowledge''' || What topics and tools does the student need to know prior to beginning this activity?
 
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|'''Learning Objectives''' || What should the student be able to do after completing this activity?
 
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|}
 
  
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=== Background: ===
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{{Learning Activity Overview
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Is there background reading material?
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|title=
 +
Code Base Understanding
 +
|overview=
 +
Students will navigate a complex Java code base using a number of different techniques or strategies to understand the design and architecture.
 +
|prerequisites=
 +
CS 2 - Data structures in Java
 +
|objectives=
 +
* Follow specific strategies to understand the code
 +
* Analyze the critical components of the code base
 +
* Understand the importance of dependencies and coupling/decoupling
 +
* Understand the importance of technical documentation in understanding the code
 +
* Utilize visualization tools to navigate and understand complex codebase
 +
|process skills=
 +
}}
 +
 
 +
=== Background ===
 +
 
 +
''Is there background reading material?''
 +
*Josh will add*
  
−
Are there other activities the student should have done first?
+
''Are there other activities the student should have done first?''
 +
* Read technical documentation specific to the project (project installation, tools needed, APIs) - assumption is that the environment is already installed
 +
* Run the program, understand the behavior of it
 +
Come up with an enhancement - provides the motivation for this activity
  
−
What is the rationale for this activity?
+
 
 +
''What is the rationale for this activity?''
 +
* Students cannot become contributors to HFOSS projects until they understand the code base. This activity provides a number of strategies to help students approach a new code base and make sense of it. It has starting points (such as looking at unit testing) and more advanced techniques (such as using visualization tools to understand dependencies).
  
 
Include helpful hints to faculty here.
 
Include helpful hints to faculty here.
 +
Visualization tools for Java:
 +
* Code City: https://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/codecity
 +
* X-Ray: https://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/x-ray-software-visualization
 +
* JDeodorant: https://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/jdeodorant
  
 +
This activity is designed for Eclipse.
 +
Suggestion: have students work in groups
  
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=== Directions: ===
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=== Directions ===
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What should the student do?
+
  
 +
* Look for unit tests, data model, high level classes, find something familiar, look at imports - are there packages the code is dependent upon?
 +
* Run unit tests
 +
* Look for superclasses
 +
* From package dependencies figure out classes and package structure
  
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=== Deliverables: ===
+
Ordering where to look:
−
What will the student hand in?
+
* Find any technical documentation (like JavaDoc) - keep it open to refer back to
 +
* Look for a folder called testing and look for unit tests - if none exists then search junit in imports
 +
* What are the methods that are tested (hopefully there is documentation)? This identifies the core clases - these are classes of high interest
 +
* Run the unit tests
 +
* Find the high level classes in the data model and the interfaces (in a game, the sprites, weapons, actors, etc. put another example here)
 +
* Use CodeCity and then X-Ray to visualize the code - what is most of the code dependent upon? Students should look at the code at the same time as they explore the visualization. This will help understand the class dependencies. (Ruby can expand on the criteria that can be used to visualize)
 +
* Look at the import list to see if it is dependent upon other libraries
 +
* Find the data model, how is the data saved, what data structures are used?
 +
* JDeodorant could be used to help understand potential refactoring because it looks at bad part of the code
  
  
−
=== Assessment: ===
+
=== Deliverables ===
−
How will the activity be graded?
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−
+
−
How will learning will be measured?
+
  
−
Include sample assessment questions/rubrics.
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Submit answers to questions and screen captures
 +
Give instances of each of the bad smells from JDeodorant
 +
Ultimate Goal: Make a code contribution back to the project with the enhancement.
  
−
{| border="1" class="wikitable"
+
=== Assessment ===
 +
* ''How will the activity be graded?''
 +
* ''How will learning will be measured?''
 +
* ''Include sample assessment questions/rubrics.''
 +
 
 +
{| class="wikitable"
 
! Criteria
 
! Criteria
 
! Level 1 (fail)
 
! Level 1 (fail)
Line 58: Line 92:
 
|}
 
|}
  
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=== Comments: ===
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=== Comments ===
−
What should the instructor know before using this activity?
+
* ''What should the instructor know before using this activity?''
−
 
+
* ''What are some likely difficulties that an instructor may encounter using this activity?''
−
What are some likely difficulties that an instructor may encounter using this activity?
+
  
 +
Potential problems in this activity may be if the underlying code base changes and/or that the student may not find what they are looking for (e.g., the project may not contain unit tests, etc.).
  
 
=== Additional Information: ===
 
=== Additional Information: ===
−
{| border="1"
 
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|-
 
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|'''ACM Knowledge Area/Knowledge Unit''' || What ACM Computing Curricula 2013 knowledge area and units does this activity cover? [[ACM_Body_of_Knowledge]]
 
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|-
 
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|'''ACM Topic''' || What specific topics are addressed? The Computing Curriucula 2013 provides a list of topics - https://www.acm.org/education/CS2013-final-report.pdf
 
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|-
 
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|'''Level of Difficulty''' || Is this activity easy, medium or challenging?
 
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|-
 
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|'''Estimated Time to Completion''' ||  How long should it take for the student to complete the activity?
 
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|-
 
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|'''Materials/Environment''' || What does the student need?  Internet access, IRC client, Git Hub account, LINUX machine, etc.?
 
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|-
 
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|'''Author''' || Who wrote this activity?
 
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|-
 
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|'''Source''' || Is there another activity on which this activity is based?  If so, please provide a link to the original resource.
 
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|-
 
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|'''License''' || Under which license is this material made available? (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/)
 
−
|}
 
  
−
=== Suggestions for Open Source Community: ===
+
{{Learning Activity Info
−
Suggestions for an open source community member who is working in conjunction with the instructor.
+
|acm unit=
 +
|acm topic=
 +
|difficulty=
 +
|time=
 +
|environment=
 +
|author=
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Ruby ElKharboutly, Josh Dehlinger, Ed Gehringer, Moshen Doroodchi, Lori Postner
 +
|source=
 +
|license=
 +
{{License CC BY SA}}
 +
}}
  
 +
=== Suggestions for Open Source Community ===
  
−
--------------------
+
Suggestions for an open source community member who is working in conjunction with the instructor.
−
This work is licensed under a
+
−
[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License]
+
  
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[[File:CC_license.png]]
 
  
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[[Category: Learning_Activity]]
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[[Category:Learning Activity]]
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[[Category: LEARNING_ACTIVITY_SUBCATEGORY]]
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[[Category:Coding and Style]]
 +
[[Category:Minimal Sketch]]
 +
[[Category:CS2]]

Latest revision as of 13:19, 8 September 2018


Title

Code Base Understanding

Overview

Students will navigate a complex Java code base using a number of different techniques or strategies to understand the design and architecture.

Prerequisites

CS 2 - Data structures in Java

Learning
Objectives 		After successfully completing this activity, the learner should be able to:
  • Follow specific strategies to understand the code
  • Analyze the critical components of the code base
  • Understand the importance of dependencies and coupling/decoupling
  • Understand the importance of technical documentation in understanding the code
  • Utilize visualization tools to navigate and understand complex codebase
Process Skills
Practiced


Background

Is there background reading material?

  • Josh will add*

Are there other activities the student should have done first?

  • Read technical documentation specific to the project (project installation, tools needed, APIs) - assumption is that the environment is already installed
  • Run the program, understand the behavior of it

Come up with an enhancement - provides the motivation for this activity


What is the rationale for this activity?

  • Students cannot become contributors to HFOSS projects until they understand the code base. This activity provides a number of strategies to help students approach a new code base and make sense of it. It has starting points (such as looking at unit testing) and more advanced techniques (such as using visualization tools to understand dependencies).

Include helpful hints to faculty here. Visualization tools for Java:

This activity is designed for Eclipse. Suggestion: have students work in groups

Directions

  • Look for unit tests, data model, high level classes, find something familiar, look at imports - are there packages the code is dependent upon?
  • Run unit tests
  • Look for superclasses
  • From package dependencies figure out classes and package structure

Ordering where to look:

  • Find any technical documentation (like JavaDoc) - keep it open to refer back to
  • Look for a folder called testing and look for unit tests - if none exists then search junit in imports
  • What are the methods that are tested (hopefully there is documentation)? This identifies the core clases - these are classes of high interest
  • Run the unit tests
  • Find the high level classes in the data model and the interfaces (in a game, the sprites, weapons, actors, etc. put another example here)
  • Use CodeCity and then X-Ray to visualize the code - what is most of the code dependent upon? Students should look at the code at the same time as they explore the visualization. This will help understand the class dependencies. (Ruby can expand on the criteria that can be used to visualize)
  • Look at the import list to see if it is dependent upon other libraries
  • Find the data model, how is the data saved, what data structures are used?
  • JDeodorant could be used to help understand potential refactoring because it looks at bad part of the code


Deliverables

Submit answers to questions and screen captures Give instances of each of the bad smells from JDeodorant Ultimate Goal: Make a code contribution back to the project with the enhancement.

Assessment

  • How will the activity be graded?
  • How will learning will be measured?
  • Include sample assessment questions/rubrics.
Criteria Level 1 (fail) Level 2 (pass) Level 3 (good) Level 4 (exceptional)
The purpose of the project
Why the project is open source

Comments

  • What should the instructor know before using this activity?
  • What are some likely difficulties that an instructor may encounter using this activity?

Potential problems in this activity may be if the underlying code base changes and/or that the student may not find what they are looking for (e.g., the project may not contain unit tests, etc.).

Additional Information:

ACM BoK
Area & Unit(s)
ACM BoK
Topic(s)
Difficulty
Estimated Time
to Complete
Environment /
Materials
Author(s)

Ruby ElKharboutly, Josh Dehlinger, Ed Gehringer, Moshen Doroodchi, Lori Postner

Source
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

CC license.png


Suggestions for Open Source Community

Suggestions for an open source community member who is working in conjunction with the instructor.

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