What is Programming?
In the most basic sense, programming means
creating a set of instructions for completing some
specific task. In this sense, many of our daily
activities can be described as programmatic—they
involve specific steps that often follow a set order.
This approach was introduced in 2001 by
Christophe de Dinechin with the XL Programming
Language.
Pseudo-metrics
Concept programming uses pseudo-metrics to
evaluate the quality of code. They are called
pseudo-metrics because they relate the concept
space and the code space, with a clear
understanding that the concept space cannot be
formalized strictly enough for a real metric to be
defined. Concept programming pseudo-metrics
include:
Syntactic noise measures discrepancies
between the concept and the syntax used to
represent it. For instance, the semi-colon at the
end of statements in C can be considered as
syntactic noise, because it has no equivalent in
the concept space.
Semantic noise measures discrepancies
between the expected meaning or behavior of
the concept and its actual meaning or behavior
in the code. For instance, the fact that integer
data types overflow (when mathematical
integers do not) is a form of semantic noise.
Bandwidth measures how much of the
concept space a given code construct can
represent. For instance, the overloaded addition
operator in C has higher bandwidth than the
Add instruction in assembly language, because
the C operator can represent addition on
floating-point numbers and not just integer
numbers.
Signal/noise ratio measures what fraction of
the code space is used for representing actual
concepts, as opposed to implementation
information.
Methodology......
To write code, concept programming
recommends the following steps:
1. Identify and define the relevant concepts in
the concept space.
2. Identify traditional notations for the concepts,
or invent usable notations.
3. Identify a combination of programming
constructs that allows the concepts to be
represented comfortably in code - That includes
finding a code notation that matches the notation
identified in the previous step as closely as
possible.
4. Write code that preserves, as much as
possible, the expected behavior and semantics
of the relevant aspects of the original concept.
The Programming Process
Developing a program involves steps similar to any
problem-solving task. There are five main
ingredients in the programming process:
1. Defining the problem
2. Planning the solution
3. Coding the program
4. Testing the program
5. Documenting the program
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