For a project we have to write a Matlab simulation and would like to split the work over several persons. As there are some non-professional programmers involved and we are dealing with a short project we want to keep it simple and use Dropbox, so no version management system involved.
What are possibilities to do this? How do we best split the functions? How do you split the program into several files?
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I would use version control - it saves lots of problems in the long run.
Git is good in that there is no central repository - and so everyone owns their own version.
This, in my experience is liked by 'non-programmers' as they like to fiddle (and break) their version.
And git clone http://whatever, as a method of obtaining a distribution is probably as easy as it gets.
And you will need to know when changes were made. For example: you find a bug and are not sure if you need to rerun the previous simulations or not (when was the bug introduced? - does it affect such and such a simulation?). Without version control finding bugs is a major stress because you cannot be sure of the answers to these questions.
Use version control so that you can keep track of who broke what, and commit at regular intervals so that there is a point to version control.
Design the program such that different people can work on it at the same time. Split it into several files which you can independently test for correctness. Have a professional programmer be responsible for the backbone (main function, class definition). Require consistent interfaces and documentation, so it's easy to stick it all together.
Talk to one another frequently. It doesn't have to be large formal meetings in many cases, just turning around and saying "hey, can you look at this?" is often enough. You all need to know who works on what, and where they stand, so that you know who to talk to in case there are questions. It's just so much faster to solve an issue by talking to the person involved rather than by trying to understand their code.