Special Interest Group for Software Development

by Alan Braverman

Last month I announced that the Special Interest Group for Software Development has a new mission this semester: the exploration of new and better programming environments (in lieu of cryptic Unix editors, compilers, and makefiles). We took a brief look at VisualWorks Smalltalk and Objective C under NeXTSTEP. We were also planning to purchase Plan 9, the new operating system and development environment from AT&T Bell Labs, but SORF denied our request for funds, as usual.

Meanwhile, many SigSoft programmers were itching to try their hands at advanced Unix programming topics like networking and graphical user interfaces under the X Window System. For the remainder of the semester, we will probably be tackling these efforts using C or C++, along with the aforementioned cryptic Unix editors, compilers, and makefiles. For some implementation practice, Chon Yi (cs-yi@uiuc.edu) suggested a great programming project: a networked version of the Monopoly board game. Jay Kreibich (jak@uiuc.edu) suggested something with a little less game logic but the same basic programming constructs: networked Candyland. I'm guessing that we can start with Candyland and eventually turn it into Monopoly.

In other October news, we held one SigSoft meeting at Murphy's Pub on Green Street, where our esteemed chairperson treated everyone to drinks in a fit of generosity. The last meeting in October was devoted to a crash course introduction to programming in the X Window System. We'll do more of that in the near future, so don't worry if you missed it. SigSoft meets every Wednesday at 6pm in 1102 DCL. New members are always welcome. See our home page for more details: http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/sigsoft/. <--! placed online 12-4-95 Wendy Van Wazer !-->