Lecture 9 The Programming Process.ppt

Lecture 9: The Programming Process Yoni Fridman 7/11/01 Outline Designing a program Step 1: Understanding the problem Let’s try this step for a realistic poker game Step 2: Building the foundation Let’s try this step Step 3: Filling in the details Let’s try this step Step 4: Writing code Designing a Program So far, we’ve worked with short, simple programs. For such programs it’s fine to sit in front of the computer and start typing code. More significant programs can’t be done like this – they must be carefully designed first. 1: Understanding the Problem First, we must understand the problem – what exactly is our program supposed to accomplish? For example, assume we are told to write a program that plays a realistic game of poker. What are the specifications for our program? How many players should there be? What style of poker should it play? What are all the rules that our program should follow? Let’s write a set of specifications for a poker game. 2: Building the Foundation Once we have clear specifications, the next step is to “outline” our program. For example, the outline for our simple Black Jack game of HW3 might look as follows: Initialize hands Initialize player’s hand Initialize dealer’s hand Do player’s turn … Do dealer’s turn … Figure out who won … Let’s outline our poker game. 3: Filling in the Details After our program outline is written, we can fill in the details. We do this by writing pseudocode. Pseudocode is text that’s formatted like a program, but written in English. Example: Initialize player’s total to zero. Initialize dealer’s total to zero. While player keeps hitting … Deal the player a new card. Add the new card’s value to the player’s total. … Let’s write our poker game in pseudocode. 4: Writing Code If your pseudocode is good enough, you can almost translate each line of pseudocode into a Java statement. This will be your next programming assignment. Note: Make sure you follow the style sheet