Description
Eat the Frog.
This lab will serve as time for you to work on your assignment. As such I expect you to hit some
milestones and start writing code for the F.A.M.
If you haven’t already go and read the assignment brief on D2L.
Seriously, don’t read any more of this document until you have done that.
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Finished? Good!
The best-selling (apparently) self-help book “Eat the Frog” (If you’re interested, read it and let
me know if it’s any good, I haven’t read it) mentions the following:
Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go
through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is
going to happen to you all day long.
Now, my research online (read: google and open the first link) mentions that Mark Twain
probably never said anything about eating frogs. Despite that I wholeheartedly agree with this
statement.
Your “frog” is the biggest and most important task of the day. If you can get that done and out
of the way first, then the rest of the day will be a lot less stressful. In line with this philosophy we
are going to eat the frog in the assignment. The frog here consists of implementing the
foundation upon which we can complete the rest of the assignment. This involves creating a
generic user, and recording transactions.
Step 1: Plan ‘just enough’ before you code.
For this first task you must sketch out a preliminary UML Class Diagram that will represent the
complete intended solution to the assignment. Include this UML diagram as an image (.png,
.jpg) in the root directory of this lab
To do this you must:
• Identify all the classes in your system
• Be able to explicitly state the responsibility of each class.
• Identify any and all important methods and attributes for each class
• Map out the relationships between each of the classes.
You will have to read through the assignment a few times while you do this. Ask if any of the
requirements are unclear.
Now I use the word preliminary very intentionally. It has been bolded after all. You may:
• Sketch out your UML diagrams on paper.
• It does not need to specify everything the class will have, just the important methods and
attributes as per the class’s responsibility.
That being said it should still be legible and you should still include a scan of the sketch in your
assignment folder.
This does not change the fact that your final UML diagram that will accompany the assignment
submission will need to be made digitally and specify everything (Attributes and methods) that
the class can do.
It is important to plan your code before you start. But it is also important you do not go too far
with the planning and spend a lot of time here. Plan just enough so that you have an idea of how
all the classes will interact with each other in your system. As you write your code, the design
will change and you will get other ideas. This is OK and a good sign.
Recording Transactions for a generic user.
For the rest of the lab you must start working on the assignment. For this lab you will work in the
Lab 4 folder of your repo. When you begin working on Assignment 1, copy your code from Lab
4 into your Assignment 1 folder on your repo.
For this lab you must meet the following requirements
• Model the class that represents your users (the child who’s account is being monitored).
This can be a generalized class that doesn’t deal with User Types (yet).
• Implement the load_test_user() method/function that initializes and returns an object
representing your test user with pre-set hardcoded budgets. You should use this method
when working on parts of your system that don’t deal with user registration to speed up
development.
• Implement the Record Transaction Menu and allow the user interacting with your
application to enter and save multiple transaction details. Print the recorded transactions.
That’s It!
That’s all for this lab. I hope this helps you get started on your assignment. Don’t hesitate to ask
any questions as they come up.
