MacInsiders Logo

Similar Threads
Review Review Starter Category Comments Last Post
Is Engineering Software Provided? AlyK First-Year / Prospective Student Questions 6 08-08-2014 11:17 PM
So how was software 3SH3 before it became garbage? MrPlinkett Academics 16 02-07-2014 08:46 PM
Software Engineering Club Confused Gaming 0 09-16-2011 11:32 AM
Minor in Software Engineering? Jeger First-Year / Prospective Student Questions 19 06-11-2010 02:25 AM
Software Engineering Courses... EngLufLuf Academics 1 02-21-2010 11:59 PM

Software Engineering 3SH3

 
Software Engineering 3SH3
Published by GeorgeLucas
03-08-2015
Published by
GeorgeLucas's Avatar
Elite Member
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 738

Author review
Overall Rating
10%10%10%
1
Professor Rating
10%10%10%
1
Interest
10%10%10%
1
Easiness
10%10%10%
1
Average 10%
Software Engineering 3SH3

Summary:
Operating Systems course for Comp Eng, Elec Eng and Tron students.

The course is supposed to teach you the basic parts that go into operating systems.

Marking Scheme:

10% - Assignments
20% - Midterm
25% - Final Exam (not required to pass the course)
45% - Projects
10% - Bonus Project

Prof:
Dreadful, one of the most unenthusiastic profs in the program. She used to work in University of Houston or something like that, and probably has the lowest RateMyProf rating in history of humanity.

... and now she's teaching us. Isn't that swell?

Midterms:
Pretty straight forward if you have good memory on textbook terms and such.

Assignments:
Basic questions from the textbook and the lectures. Assignments are part of Avenue2Learn homework, so it's pretty easy to succeed in those.

Projects:
Oh man, this part defines the course. Effectively the projects require you to complete a simulator OS. Some fancy shmancy piece of software that was first designed in the 90s, then transferred to Java in 2005. From what I know now, very few universities actually use it, wonder why....

Unfortunately this is where the course falls flat on its ass. The course is taken by Comp Eng, Elect Eng and Tron students. So basically programs that don't deal with complex high abstraction programming concepts that are used in Nachos. Essentially you end up learning the bloody thing more 90% of the time, and then trying to do the actual assignment within whatever time you have left.

There's no reason to take this course for students who deal with low level programming and hardware. Nachos simply doesn't teach you anything. If the course was dealing with low level implementation of the basic operating systems, like programming an efficient multitasking algorithm using a microcontroller while implementing the ideas that we learned from the book, that'd be awesome. It might be because of the fact that the prof came from the university that actually designed the thing, but as far as I know those guys are the only ones that use it and it's not used outside of the Software Department like it is in McMaster (Tron is part of Software, but whatever, you get the point).

Because of this, the only few people who succeed in the course are people from the Embedded Systems program (that are the only Software Students in class), and a few software buffs that just crack the code in no time. Make sure you get them in your team for the projects, otherwise you will be living in the world of pain.

Essentially, whoever designed the course knows nothing about the programs that take it. This seems to be a theme in McMaster's software department.

Conclusion:
This course is a pointless waste of time.
Deleted Post
Edit/Delete Message
Click here to add your own review for Software Engineering 3SH3!




Review Tools Search this Review
Search this Review:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new reviews
You may not post comments
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



McMaster University News and Information, Student-run Community, with topics ranging from Student Life, Advice, News, Events, and General Help.
Notice: The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the student(s) who authored the content. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by McMaster University or the MSU (McMaster Students Union). Being a student-run community, all articles and discussion posts on MacInsiders are unofficial and it is therefore always recommended that you visit the official McMaster website for the most accurate up-to-date information.

Copyright © MacInsiders.com All Rights Reserved. No content can be re-used or re-published without permission. MacInsiders is a service of Fullerton Media Inc. | Created by Chad
Originally Powered by vBulletin®, Copyright © 2019 MH Sub I, LLC dba vBulletin. All rights reserved. | Privacy | Terms