1 Seed Questions

Every Prototype and CS 411W Project is different. This precludes a cookie cutter set of instructions. You (and your team as a whole) need to keep two things in mind:

1. This is your project. You get to decide (with a fair amount of latitude) what tools to use.
2. Take ownership of this project. If you find a new tool show it to your team, write up a set of instructions, and share it with other teams.

As we start setting up Virtual Machines (VMs), Docker, and Git Repos, we need to discuss:

• What goes on your VM?
  • Does your team need multiple VMs?
• Why Docker?
• What is Docker Compose?
• Ubuntu Server vs Windows?
• One Git Repo? Or Multiple Git Repos?

Depending on the nature of your team’s project, we may need to consider:

• Web App, or Android App, or both?
• Does your team need to use REST API?

2 Web App or Smartphone Application

In CS 410 many teams design a software system with both a smartphone application and a web application. For the prototype… one almost always gets eliminated.

Teams are usually directed to focus on a web application, for two reasons:

1. Less time is needed to learn the ropes (i.e., set up the tools and learn the platform/APIs).

2. Web applications can be built mobile-first (i.e., designed to run on smartphones).

Modern web browsers (i.e., Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox) support a few lesser know features, including: