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Teaching OOP in C++ using an artificial life framework

Published:01 March 1997Publication History
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Abstract

This paper explores the framework method for teaching object-oriented programming. Specifically, it describes a hierarchy of C++ classes that implement the framework for an Artificial Life simulator. Students learn how to read these classes and extend them via inheritance: they design and implement subclasses that encapsulate the behavior and state of environments and the entities that inhabit them. The simulator constructs an artificial world from objects of these subclasses; then, it animates these objects as they interact during the simulation. This paper includes one sample project and both subclasses that implement its solution.

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                  cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
                  ACM SIGCSE Bulletin  Volume 29, Issue 1
                  March 1997
                  388 pages
                  ISSN:0097-8418
                  DOI:10.1145/268085
                  Issue’s Table of Contents
                  • cover image ACM Conferences
                    SIGCSE '97: Proceedings of the twenty-eighth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
                    March 1997
                    410 pages
                    ISBN:0897918894
                    DOI:10.1145/268084

                  Copyright © 1997 ACM

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                  Association for Computing Machinery

                  New York, NY, United States

                  Publication History

                  • Published: 1 March 1997

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