PROGRAM SOLVING PROPOSAL

Program Solving Proposal

Program Solving Proposal

Introduction

The more traditional view of programming environments as implementation facilitating devices assumes that a problem is sufficiently well understood such that the process of programming is a mapping of this problem understanding onto a programming mechanism. However, adopting the “programming as problem solving” perception leads to a programming substrate of a different nature that focuses on facilitating the problem solving process rather than an “implementation as mapping” process. The process of problem solving includes creating and changing representations until the solution becomes visible. Several studies show the important role visually inspect-able models play in problem-solving processes. In these studies, problem-solving proceeded by creating an external representation of the solution, visually inspecting this solution and noticing problematic aspects, and repairing the problematic areas by altering the proposed solution. In many cases, representations become transparent when they express information in ways analogous to familiar situations. In other words, representations can serve as physical manifestations of metaphors. Metaphors help us to learn about things we do not yet understand by creating analogies to things we do understand (Negroponte, 1991).

Discussion

However, many aspects of a problem cannot be represented in a static visual representation. In some domains, such as ecosystem simulation, the important aspects of the problem are how the system changes over time. Expressing such problems requires temporal metaphors in addition to spatial metaphors. Computers and programming languages enable the creation of temporal metaphors. We define a program to be a collection of actions or behaviors arranged in a temporal metaphor. Programming can enable users to express aspects of the problem that cannot be represented in static visual representations (Minsky, 1985). Opportunistic design processes are important for problem solving and can be viewed as a design strategy supporting dialectic between problem framing and problem solving. The evolving solution serves as an inspect-able model of the partial solution and guides the designers in the problem-solving process..

Modular Approach Programming

No one is surprised anymore that operating systems and distributions are designed in a modular way. The final product is assembled from independently developed components. Modularity is a mechanism to coordinate the work of many people around the world, managing interdependencies between parts of the project, and assemble complex systems in a reasonably reliable. The value of this approach is finally filtering down to the level of individual applications. Applications are getting more and more complicated, and they are increasingly assembled ...