1. Code as Communication Programming Studio Spring 2015

2. What’s the Purpose of Coding?

3. To give the computer instructions?

4. What’s the Purpose of Coding? To give the computer instructions

5. What’s the Purpose of Coding? To give the computer instructions To demonstrate your skill?

6. What’s the Purpose of Coding? To give the computer instructions To demonstrate your skill

7. What’s the Purpose of Coding? To give the computer instructions To demonstrate your skill To transmit ideas of what you want the computer to do

8. What’s the Purpose of Coding? To transmit ideas of what you want the computer to do Coding is about communication!

9. Communication to Who?

10. To the computer

11. Communication to Who? To the computer To future you

12. Communication to Who? To the computer To future you To others

13. The Life of Code Significant code will be used for a while –Debugged –Updated –Refactored Often, the people looking at it will not be the author

14. What about Documentation? External documentation is very useful, but has its own problems –Can be out of date/inconsistent with program –Maintained separately (multiple files) –Often for a different audience developer vs. user Clearly written code is more important than well-written documentation

15. Communicating in Code Choosing good names Including appropriate comments Following good layout and style These are all critical to documentation, and with good naming, commenting, and layout, other documentation may be unnecessary!