http://www.developerdotstar.com/mag/articles/reeves_design.html
Came accross this interesting article which says that "programming is not about building software, but about designing software". The author compares the software development process with a manufacturing process saying that the programmers are not the manufacture workers. That work is done by the compilers and linkers, and we rightly call it a "build" in a typical software development. The build in a software project, unlike a manufacturing process is pretty inexpensive. Most of the software project is "Design", and the ultimate design is the software code that we write. Testing as well as debugging is a part of design.
The idea is pretty controversial, but I tend to agree with him. What we typically call a "Design" in a software development process always seemed to me unsatisfying, incomplete, and the continuous pester of so called good software engineers to freeze it before coding, very unrealistic. The Software engineering Gurus seem to take pride in making the "Coding" the most unimportant and short part of the whole project.
I guess many have now realized that it is inconvenient and inefficient to make a design independent of a pogramming language. Languages like C++, Java etc support this trend. And, probably that is why we see the software development process moving from waterfall to spiral etc all evidences of slowaly making coding a part of design.
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At the end of the article, he writes "C++ is a step in the right direction, but
still more advances are needed."
He is so right. Java, Python etc have gone ahead in somewhat right directions.
A bit unrelated but still:
I just started learning LISP a couple of weeks back and used it to solve a probl
em. Only later did I realize how naturally I had used functions like "mapcar".
"mapcar" takes a function as an argument and applies it to all the elements of a
list. There's something similar in C++ using STL containers; but the point is h
ow many C++ novices use it in their second program? (Things like "mapcar" appear
in the initial 1/6th of the LISP book which I am reading.)
we think and build in terms of levels of abstraction. we can then focus on the level of abstraction we are working with and disregard the rest for the time being. try writing or thinking an operating system all at once. try writing a program in assembly. we use the language syntax, compiler, linker, assembler. then again the linker/loader, the OS process loader and the hardware abstractions.
design is about dividing ur problem into the right levels of abstractions. ur method of choice of design process would depend on the level of success u can generate with it. I have seen both upfron design and iterative development at close quarters and neither guarantees success.
Though I have not attempted counting it but the number of ways a computer program can deviate is faily large. Design is also about managing this at the right level of granularity.
I guess the original author is trying to impress that all the trade-offs made in code can best be illustrated their. The analogy with assembly line manufacturing is flawed because of the aforementioned counting problem.
Software will probably be engineered when we can tackle the problem of the number of ways software can fail. or maybe something else for if i knew i would have solved it :)
I understand why some progammers resist the notion of "Software Design" and go right for the jugular by coding. But this does not often create feasible solutions that demonstrate all of the advantages of good object-orientated systems (maintainability, scalability,ease-of-use, etc.).
Design is not only important, but essential before the coding. That a design does not take in a specific programming language is immaterial. What if the language or specific technology becomes infeasible as the software project progresses? What recourse does a software engineer have, but to redesign, because their original design assumed a language that was not used.
Technically, there are three main project designs:
1) Conceptual
2) Logical
3) Physical
All but the last assume no target language, so that a project can continue even when technologies or languages change.
I don't think the point here is "should you jump the design phase?". Ofcourse not! Rather the point is: "Is there a design in the code also?" What I understood from the article is - the author is trying to emphasise the importance of design in code. That the coding in software is not equivalent to the mnufacturing phase in say a mechanical industry. Coding also involves design. The code speaks the ultimate complete design.
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