The role for framework libraries in CS2

Abstract

The recent emergence of object-oriented framework libraries of classic data structures and algorithms such as the Standard Template Library and Java's Collection classes provides a set of general and efficient data structure components for use by practicing software developers. A number of textbook writers are beginning to incorporate the use of these frameworks into the traditional first course in data structures at the university level.There has scarcely been a discussion of how these frameworks should best be incorporated into CS2, if they should be used at all. The proposed panel will examine the role of standardized framework libraries in the first data structures course at the university level. Panelists will focus on the following questions. What are the fundamental objectives of CS2, and what role might frameworks have in meeting these objectives? How does an instructor balance student needs for additional instruction in programming basics (e.g. arrays and pointers) versus practice in larger scale design and code reuse? What would be given up to incorporate frameworks into CS2? And to what extent is it important for students to construct elementary data structures from first principles? What assumptions about student cognition and learning does a pro- or con-frameworks approach imply.By trying to articulate answers to some of the above questions, we hope to raise the level of discussion concerning the evolution of the introductory computer science curriculum. This panel will thus try to make explicit, and hence available for critical examination, some of the arguments and assumptions that inform this debate.