D. Christopher Durbin

Graduate, Dept. of Computer Science, University Of Tennessee, Knoxville
Address:    838 W. Hill Avenue, Apartment 15
                  Knoxville, TN 37902-3022
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: (423) 637-5043
This Page:    http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com/liz/720/chris.html
My Home Page: http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com/liz/720/
My Resume: http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com/liz/720/resume.html

My Background:

I am a graduate the Computer Science department, which I decided on after many years of trial-and-error education in the humanities. As a result of this, I probably have the most diverse education in sociology, psychology, literature and western history of anyone with my degree. I am now trying find employment in my field, without the benefit of any practical working experience. This is a much harder prospect than I would have believed.

Words to the Wise:

Object-Oriented Programming: This stuff isn't going away any time soon, so better to learn it now than to suffer the consequences later. C++ is by far the most commonly used OO language, I have a few notes about C++ and OOP online here.Java is also used pretty extensively in the field, especially as it is refined by its developers at Sun.
Code Re-use and Notation: Learn a method of shorthand notation for design and modelling of larger software projects. I recommend that you learn something about Grady Booch's Universal Modelling Language. I also suggest you pick up a copy of Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Design (Gamma, et al). This book explains many things regarding the necessity of creating reusable code, and gives great suggestions on how to produce this sort of code, and the benefits this reusable will have in the short and long term.
Software Analysis & Development: Learn as much as you can about the process of designing larger scale software projects. The basic steps are:

Analysis Phase - Determine needs and requirements and use to produce an analytical model. This is important, the shape of the whole project is determined here. A little thought now can save hours of heartache later.
Design Phase - Take the analytical model and produce a more robust design model. What sort of objects would be required by the analytical model? What sort of algorithms will I use to make the analytical model a useful peice of code?
Implementation Phase - Take design model and use it as a template to create the necessary code to turn the model into reality. Most of my focus and time was spent on this for the projects I did while in school, but actually, this is the least important phase of the development process.
Testing Phase - Take the code and test, test, test. This is probably the most ignored phase of the design cycle, much to your detriment. There is a tendency to make sure that the code works for those conditions under which it will be graded, and then not worry about any other conditions. This will produce code that is extremely limited and unrobust.

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