> Hi! I'm on Gauld's wonderful "Learning to Program" tutor. Aw shucks! :-)
> end of the chapter on "Error Handling" and I'm trying the sample ideas for > creating my own programs. My problem is getting started! Is there a "step > by step" method for creating programs or some basic guidelines for this? A very good question. > how are computer science students taught this? Thanks! Badly in the main... Basically they get lots of projects and by the end of 3 years have kind of stumbled on a way to do it. There are some books around on how to design programs which is really what you need, but the first step is to analyse what you want to do and either 1) Use OOP: break it into objects (if that feels natural to you) and decide what part of the problems solution each object is responsible for. Then code each object in turn(starting at the lowest level) building methods for each responsibility, testing as you go at the >>> prompt [ A quote from my old OOP mentor: Objects have responsibilities, methods implement responsibilities, attributes support methods, messages invoke methods] OR 2) Use functional decomposition decide on the top level functionality and break that into sub functions. Keep breaking the functions into smaller pieces until you find one that you think you know how to write in Python. Write it. Now try writing the one above that or some of the other sub functions at the same level. Gradually fill in the gaps till you get back to the top of the tree. Either way: Use the >>> prompt extensively to experiment. Test extensively Try to keep very clear in your mind what it is you are trying to do. Do the simplest thing first (usually not involving a GUI!) Evolve gradually Test extensively HTH, Alan G Author of the learn to program web tutor http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
