computer system
Definition
A system of interconnected computers that share a central storage system and various peripheral devices such as a printers, scanners, or routers. Each computer connected to the system can operate independently, but has the ability to communicate with other external devices and computers.Debugging
Debugging
is a very important task in the software development process, because
an incorrect program can have significant consequences for its users.
Some languages are more prone to some kinds of faults because their
specification does not require compilers to perform as much checking as other languages. Use of a static code analysis tool can help detect some possible problems.
Debugging is often done with IDEs like Eclipse, Kdevelop, NetBeans, Code::Blocks, and Visual Studio. Standalone debuggers like gdb are also used, and these often provide less of a visual environment, usually using a command line.
Measuring language usage
It is very difficult to determine what are the most popular of modern
programming languages. Some languages are very popular for particular
kinds of applications (e.g., COBOL is still strong in the corporate data center[citation needed], often on large mainframes, FORTRAN in engineering applications, scripting languages in web development, and C in embedded applications),
while some languages are regularly used to write many different kinds
of applications. Also many applications use a mix of several languages
in their construction and use. New languages are generally designed
around the syntax of a previous language with new functionality added
(for example C++ adds object-orientedness to C, and Java adds memory
management and bytecode to C++).
Methods of measuring programming language popularity include: counting the number of job advertisements that mention the language,[13]
the number of books teaching the language that are sold (this
overestimates the importance of newer languages), and estimates of the
number of existing lines of code written in the language (this
underestimates the number of users of business languages such as COBOL).
Methodologies
The first step in most formal software development processes is
requirements analysis, followed by testing to determine value modeling,
implementation, and failure elimination (debugging). There exist a lot of differing approaches for each of those tasks. One approach popular for requirements analysis is Use Case analysis. Nowadays many programmers use forms of Agile software development
where the various stages of formal software development are more
integrated together into short cycles that take a few weeks rather than
years. There are many approaches to the Software development process.
Popular modeling techniques include Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) and Model-Driven Architecture (MDA). The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a notation used for both the OOAD and MDA.
A similar technique used for database design is Entity-Relationship Modeling (ER Modeling).
Implementation techniques include imperative languages (object-oriented or procedural), functional languages, and logic languages.
Algorithmic complexity
The academic field and the engineering practice of computer programming are both largely concerned with discovering and implementing the most efficient algorithms for a given class of problem. For this purpose, algorithms are classified into orders using so-called Big O notation, which expresses resource use, such as execution time or memory consumption, in terms of the size of an input. Expert programmers are familiar with a variety of well-established algorithms and their respective complexities and use this knowledge to choose algorithms that are best suited to the circumstances.
Readability of source code
In computer programming, readability refers to the ease with which a human reader can comprehend the purpose, control flow, and operation of source code. It affects the aspects of quality above, including portability, usability and most importantly maintainability.
Readability is important because programmers spend the majority of
their time reading, trying to understand and modifying existing source
code, rather than writing new source code. Unreadable code often leads
to bugs, inefficiencies, and duplicated code. A study[11] found that a few simple readability transformations made code shorter and drastically reduced the time to understand it.
Following a consistent programming style
often helps readability. However, readability is more than just
programming style. Many factors, having little or nothing to do with the
ability of the computer to efficiently compile and execute the code,
contribute to readability.[12] Some of these factors include:
- Different indentation styles (whitespace)
- Comments
- Decomposition
- Naming conventions for objects (such as variables, classes, procedures, etc.)