Skill-Building Exercises


Summary

The source of a student s difficulty with learning a programming language lies not with the language itself, but with the many other skills that must be mastered almost simultaneously along the way. You will find it helpful to know the development roles you must play and to have a project-approach strategy.

The three development roles you will play as a student are those of analyst, architect, and programmer. As the analyst, strive to understand the project s requirements and what must be done to satisfy those requirements. As the architect, you are responsible for the design of your project. As the programmer, you will implement your project s design in the Java programming language.

The project-approach strategy helps both novice and experienced students systematically formulate solutions to programming projects. The strategy deals with the following areas of concern: application requirements, problem domain, language features, and application design. By approaching projects in a systematic way, you can put yourself in control and can maintain a sense of forward momentum during the execution of your projects. The project-approach strategy can also be tailored to suit individual needs.

Programming is an art. Formulating solutions to complex projects requires lots of creativity. There are certain steps you can take to stimulate your creative energy. Sketch the project design before sitting at the computer. Reserve quiet space in which to work and, if possible, have a computer dedicated to school and programming projects.

There are five steps to the programming cycle: plan, code, test, integrate, and refactor.

Use method stubbing to test sections of source code without having to code the entire method.

There are two types of complexity: conceptual and physical. Object-oriented programming and design techniques help manage conceptual complexity. Physical complexity is managed with smart project file-management techniques, by splitting projects into multiple files, and using packages to organize source code.

Self-commenting source code is easy to read and debug. Adopt smart variable, constant, and method-naming conventions and stick with them.

Maximize cohesion minimize coupling!




Java For Artists(c) The Art, Philosophy, and Science of Object-Oriented Programming
Java For Artists: The Art, Philosophy, And Science Of Object-Oriented Programming
ISBN: 1932504052
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 452

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