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Shotgun Surgery
Shotgun surgery is an anti-pattern in software development which occurs when a developer adds features to an application codebase which span a multiplicity of implementors or implementations in a single change. This is common practice in many programming scenarios, as a great amount of programming effort is usually expended on adding new features to increase the value of programming assets. As a consequence, these new features may require adding code in several places simultaneously where the code itself looks very similar and may only have slight variations. Owing to the fast-paced nature of commercial software development, there may not be sufficient time to remodel (or refactor) a system to support the new features trivially. As a consequence, the practice of copy-and-paste programming is prevalent; the code is written in a single place then simply copied to all other places where that implementation is required (with any required changes applied in-place). This practice is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boilerplate Code
In computer programming, boilerplate code, or simply boilerplate, are sections of code that are repeated in multiple places with little to no variation. When using languages that are considered ''verbose'', the programmer must write a lot of boilerplate code to accomplish only minor functionality. The need for boilerplate can be reduced through high-level mechanisms such as metaprogramming (which has the computer automatically write the needed boilerplate code or insert it at compile time), convention over configuration (which provides good default values, reducing the need to specify program details in every project) and model-driven engineering (which uses models and model-to-code generators, eliminating the need for manual boilerplate code). It is also possible to move boilerplate code to an '' abstract class'' so that it can be inherited by any number of '' concrete classes''. Another option would be to move it into a subroutine so that it can be called instead of being du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cognitive Dimensions Of Notations
Cognitive dimensions or cognitive dimensions of notations are design principles for notations, user interfaces and programming languages, described by researcher Thomas R.G. Green and further researched with Marian Petre. The dimensions can be used to evaluate the usability of an existing ''information artifact'', or as heuristics to guide the design of a new one, and are useful in Human-Computer Interaction design. Cognitive dimensions are designed to provide a lightweight approach to analyse the quality of a design, rather than an in-depth, detailed description. They provide a common vocabulary for discussing many factors in notation, UI or programming language design. Also, cognitive dimensions help in exploring the space of possible designs through ''design maneuvers'', changes intended to improve the design along one dimension. List of the cognitive dimensions Thomas Green originally defined 14 cognitive dimensions: ; Abstraction gradient : What are the minimum and maximu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Technical Debt
In software development and other information technology fields, technical debt (also known as design debt or code debt) refers to the implied cost of additional work in the future resulting from choosing an expedient solution over a more robust one. While technical debt can accelerate development in the short term, it may increase future costs and complexity if left unresolved. Analogous to monetary debt, technical debt can accumulate "interest" over time, making future changes more difficult and costly. Properly managing this debt is essential for maintaining software quality and long-term sustainability. In some cases, taking on technical debt can be a strategic choice to meet immediate goals, such as delivering a proof-of-concept or a quick release. However, failure to prioritize and address the debt can result in reduced maintainability, increased development costs, and risks to production systems. Technical debt encompasses various design and implementation decisions that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shotgun Debugging
Shotgun debugging can be defined as: *A process of making relatively un-directed changes to software in the hope that a bug will be perturbed out of existence. * Using the approach of trying several possible solutions of hardware or software problem at the same time, in the hope that one of the solutions (typically source code modifications) will work. ''Shotgun debugging'' has a relatively low success rate and can be very time-consuming, except when used as an attempt to work around programming language features that one may be using improperly. When combined with domain expertise and a strong intuition for the underlying codebase, it can be a good starting point to gut-solve a buggy piece of code a few times before formally researching the corresponding error message. When used in this way, it may be a valuable technique that is faster than browsing through the Internet searching a particular error message every time. Examples Shotgun debugging can occur when working with mult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Automatic Programming
In computer science, automatic programming is a type of computer programming in which some mechanism generates a computer program, to allow human programmers to write the code at a higher abstraction level. There has been little agreement on the precise definition of automatic programming, mostly because its meaning has changed over time. David Parnas, tracing the history of "automatic programming" in published research, noted that in the 1940s it described automation of the manual process of punching paper tape. Later it referred to translation of high-level programming languages like Fortran and ALGOL. In fact, one of the earliest programs identifiable as a compiler was called Autocode. David Parnas, Parnas concluded that "automatic programming has always been a euphemism for programming in a higher-level language than was then available to the programmer." Program synthesis is one type of automatic programming where a procedure is created from scratch, based on mathematical req ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compiler
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that Translator (computing), translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that translate source code from a high-level programming language to a lower level language, low-level programming language (e.g. assembly language, object code, or machine code) to create an executable program.Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools by Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, Jeffrey D. Ullman - Second Edition, 2007 There are many different types of compilers which produce output in different useful forms. A ''cross-compiler'' produces code for a different Central processing unit, CPU or operating system than the one on which the cross-compiler itself runs. A ''bootstrap compiler'' is often a temporary compiler, used for compiling a more permanent or better optimised compiler for a language. Related software ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Domain-specific Language
A domain-specific language (DSL) is a computer language specialized to a particular application domain. This is in contrast to a general-purpose language (GPL), which is broadly applicable across domains. There are a wide variety of DSLs, ranging from widely used languages for common domains, such as HTML for web pages, down to languages used by only one or a few pieces of software, such as MUSH soft code. DSLs can be further subdivided by the kind of language, and include domain-specific ''markup'' languages, domain-specific ''modeling'' languages (more generally, specification languages), and domain-specific ''programming'' languages. Special-purpose computer languages have always existed in the computer age, but the term "domain-specific language" has become more popular due to the rise of domain-specific modeling. Simpler DSLs, particularly ones used by a single application, are sometimes informally called mini-languages. The line between general-purpose languages and doma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Program Transformation
A program transformation is any operation that takes a computer program and generates another program. In many cases the transformed program is required to be semantically equivalent to the original, relative to a particular Formal semantics of programming languages, formal semantics and in fewer cases the transformations result in programs that semantically differ from the original in predictable ways. While the transformations can be performed manually, it is often more practical to use a List of Program Transformation Systems, program transformation system that applies specifications of the required transformations. Program transformations may be specified as automated procedures that modify compiler data structures (e.g. abstract syntax trees) representing the program text, or may be specified more conveniently using patterns or templates representing parameterized source code fragments. A practical requirement for source code transformation systems is that they be able to ef ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aspect-oriented Programming
In computing, aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is a programming paradigm that aims to increase modularity by allowing the separation of cross-cutting concerns. It does so by adding behavior to existing code (an advice) ''without'' modifying the code, instead separately specifying which code is modified via a " pointcut" specification, such as "log all function calls when the function's name begins with 'set. This allows behaviors that are not central to the business logic (such as logging) to be added to a program without cluttering the code of core functions. AOP includes programming methods and tools that support the modularization of concerns at the level of the source code, while aspect-oriented software development refers to a whole engineering discipline. Aspect-oriented programming entails breaking down program logic into cohesive areas of functionality (so-called ''concerns''). Nearly all programming paradigms support some level of grouping and encapsulation of conce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-pattern
An anti-pattern in software engineering, project management, and business processes is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive. The term, coined in 1995 by computer programmer Andrew Koenig (programmer), Andrew Koenig, was inspired by the book ''Design Patterns'' (which highlights a number of design patterns in software development that its authors considered to be highly reliable and effective) and first published in his article in the ''Journal of Object-Oriented Programming''. A further paper in 1996 presented by Michael Ackroyd at the Object World West Conference also documented anti-patterns. It was, however, the 1998 book ''AntiPatterns'' that both popularized the idea and extended its scope beyond the field of software design to include software architecture and project management. Other authors have extended it further since to encompass environmental, organizational, and cultural anti-patterns. Definiti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Software Rot
Software rot (bit rot, code rot, software erosion, software decay, or software entropy) is the degradation, deterioration, or loss of the use or performance of software over time. The ''Jargon File'', a compendium of hacker lore, defines "bit rot" as a jocular explanation for the degradation of a software program over time even if "nothing has changed"; the idea behind this is almost as if the bits that make up the program were subject to radioactive decay. Causes Several factors are responsible for software rot, including changes to the environment in which the software operates, degradation of compatibility between parts of the software itself, and the emergence of bugs in unused or rarely used code. Environment change When changes occur in the program's environment, particularly changes which the designer of the program did not anticipate, the software may no longer operate as originally intended. For example, many early computer game designers used the CPU clock speed a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
