Ideas for assignments

[Geoff Berrow]

I've been asked to run an introductory course in PHP for absolute
beginners (quit laughing you lot...). I intend to cover programming
basics, variables, control structures, loops, simple functions but
stopping short of working with files or databases (that will be course
2). Not sure if mail() will be enabled yet.

Has anyone any ideas on end of course assignments for the students that
will use a range of programming skills? Straightforward , yet
sufficiently challenging?

One idea was to have a list of items with checkboxes/qty. boxes. On
submission the items would be shown in list form, with prices, tax,
volume discounts all worked out.
--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

[Chung Leong]

Re: Ideas for assignments


"Geoff Berrow" <blthecat@ckdog .co.uk> wrote in message
news:2sftf0p1tt 29soult7ickkui7 blkrdg130@4ax.c om...[color=blue]
> I've been asked to run an introductory course in PHP for absolute
> beginners (quit laughing you lot...). I intend to cover programming
> basics, variables, control structures, loops, simple functions but
> stopping short of working with files or databases (that will be course
> 2). Not sure if mail() will be enabled yet.
>
> Has anyone any ideas on end of course assignments for the students that
> will use a range of programming skills? Straightforward , yet
> sufficiently challenging?
>
> One idea was to have a list of items with checkboxes/qty. boxes. On
> submission the items would be shown in list form, with prices, tax,
> volume discounts all worked out.
> --
> Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
> It's only Usenet, no one dies.
> My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
> Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/[/color]

mail() is simple enough, I would say, for a beginner course. How about
customer support page, where a question would get sent to the appropriate
mailbox depending on what the user selects?

[Geoff Berrow]

Re: Ideas for assignments

I noticed that Message-ID: <R6GdnaFjRLrLlG LdRVn-pg@comcast.com> from
Chung Leong contained the following:
[color=blue]
>
>mail() is simple enough, I would say, for a beginner course. How about
>customer support page, where a question would get sent to the appropriate
>mailbox depending on what the user selects?[/color]

Good one, I like it. However, as this is a college situation running on
Windoze (I'm guessing) I'm not sure they will enable this function yet.
It's a cool assignment if it is.

--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

[CJ Llewellyn]

Re: Ideas for assignments

"Geoff Berrow" <blthecat@ckdog .co.uk> wrote in message
news:2sftf0p1tt 29soult7ickkui7 blkrdg130@4ax.c om...[color=blue]
> I've been asked to run an introductory course in PHP for absolute
> beginners (quit laughing you lot...). I intend to cover programming
> basics, variables, control structures, loops, simple functions but
> stopping short of working with files or databases (that will be course
> 2). Not sure if mail() will be enabled yet.
>
> Has anyone any ideas on end of course assignments for the students that
> will use a range of programming skills? Straightforward , yet
> sufficiently challenging?
>
> One idea was to have a list of items with checkboxes/qty. boxes. On
> submission the items would be shown in list form, with prices, tax,
> volume discounts all worked out.[/color]

The classic hello world

The classic temp converter, adapt to convert other metric/imperial
measurements

A simple questbook, add pagination.

[Elliot Ali]

Re: Ideas for assignments


"CJ Llewellyn" <satest@tmslife line.com> wrote in message
news:cdnsdh$vov $1@slavica.ukpo st.com...[color=blue]
> "Geoff Berrow" <blthecat@ckdog .co.uk> wrote in message
> news:2sftf0p1tt 29soult7ickkui7 blkrdg130@4ax.c om...[color=green]
> > I've been asked to run an introductory course in PHP for absolute
> > beginners (quit laughing you lot...). I intend to cover programming
> > basics, variables, control structures, loops, simple functions but
> > stopping short of working with files or databases (that will be course
> > 2). Not sure if mail() will be enabled yet.
> >
> > Has anyone any ideas on end of course assignments for the students that
> > will use a range of programming skills? Straightforward , yet
> > sufficiently challenging?
> >
> > One idea was to have a list of items with checkboxes/qty. boxes. On
> > submission the items would be shown in list form, with prices, tax,
> > volume discounts all worked out.[/color]
>
> The classic hello world
>
> The classic temp converter, adapt to convert other metric/imperial
> measurements
>
> A simple questbook, add pagination.
>
>[/color]

In my first year at uni, I had to write a small C program that pulled
information from a data file on students, and then to sort it on certain
criteria...

This could easily be adapted to be a simple select from a database (perhaps
one you'd already created), to show the user simple information on a student
they had selected, or the students in a course. The grades achieved....
Another C mini-project asked us to pull back simple enrollment information,
name address, course code, and so on.

This would be something they can relate to, something that would need
varying levels of professionalism etc. It gives you enough variety to work
with, and to mark. I think it would be at an appropriate level of difficulty
too, depending on what you ask of them.