Abstract:
Despite the lingering stereotype, computer science and programming has long abandoned the development model consisting of a lone programmer writing code into the early hours of the morning. There may be aspects of this heroism in a product development cycle, particularly when close to a release date, however to bring a software product to market requires collaboration within a team of programmers. Developing software products, as opposed to simply programming, is a social process. We believe that learners gain a greater understanding of the software development process through social interaction with other developers. Such beliefs are consistent with the General Genetic Law of Cultural Development proposed by Lev S. Vygotsky. We consider Free and Open Source software development to be a readily available repository of differing development processes to use in introducing learners to the social side of software development. The contribution of this paper is to introduce and expand upon a vocabulary for discussing Source and Configuration Management tools in a Vygotskyian context.
PPIG 2006 - 18th Annual Workshop
Towards understanding Source and Configuration Management tools as a method of introducing learners to the culture of software development