Thursday, March 3, 2016

Software approach, Top down design

One way of coding is to simply have a rough idea of what you want to do and then start typing a way to produce one huge source file.

This is a very bad idea.

The resulting code is likely to have many issues with it that include

  • Poorly documented code, so very hard to maintain and update
  • 'Spaghetti code' - which means a tangled mess of jumps and loops all over the code, very hard for someone to understand. Even by the original coder a few days later!
  • Duplication of code, so wasting memory and running speed
  • Very hard to develop by more than one person as there is only one file
  • Very hard to debug - the file either works or it doesn't
Here are more issues, but hopefully the list shows that it is best to have a methodical, professional approach to coding which this mini-web will cover

Systems Thinking

What comes to your mind when you hear the word, system? What is a system? How does it work?

A system is multiple things working together to accomplish a goal. A small change in a subsystem can affect everything. It works by one thing helping another and then another or pieces from each thing coming together. Examples, a factory, a company, organization system, computer programming, school, kitchen