Freecell: Instructor Guide
At the College of William and Mary, this assignment is used
in our CS 2.5 course (our third course in programming)
entitled Software Development.
It was presented as part of the
Nifty Assignments Panel
aat SIGCSE 2007. It is also discussed by
Noonan and Hott in a paper at SIGCSE 2007.
It could also be used as a GUI assignment in CS 2.
As a stand-alone assignment, I would allow about 2-3 weeks.
Implementing one of these Solitaire games can be done in
about 300 NCSS. Students can easily use 2-3 times that number
if they are not careful. Making group or super moves
optional simplifies the game significantly.
Assignment Niche
Freecell (or other Solitaire game) could be used as a CS2 assignment
or in a later course. It is larger than the typical CS2 assignment.
It is more about object-oriented design and analysis and
about design patterns, than it is about algorithms (which is more
typcial in CS2). It also requires a knowledge of GUI programming,
including event-handling.
Freecell is a fun and appealing visual game. It is non threatening.
The students seem o genuinely enjo working on it.
At our school, this is the first non-throw-away program they
ever write.
The project can be done in about 300 NCSS; so it can be done
in 2-3 weeks depending on the students background.
Our Use of the Assignment
At our school the students build 3 different solitaire games
over the lenght of a semester. Three assignments are used to
build the first game, namely: a test driven development test
of basic moves, the model (game) only with no input or output,
and finally, the GUI version of the game.
In the 4th and 5th projects the students build two more solitaire
games. In the final project, features, such as a toolbar, an undo,
a redo, a timer, etc., are added to all three games.
The entire project can be done in about 600 NCSS.
The students are amazed at how quickly they can build the 2nd
and 3rd games after taking half a semester to build the first game.
Extra Credit
- Dragging cards from one pile to another.
- Implementing safe, automatic moves to the Home piles.
- Inspection: have the main driver discover what games
there are available.
Robert Noonan
Mar 6, 2007