- After you graduate as a
computer science major,
you will rarely
be asked in real life to
write computer programs to
solve simple problems
- Most real life problems are
very complex;
requiring
many processing steps
to complete.
- An essential skill for
a Computer Science professionals is:
- Break a complex problem into simpler problems where each simpler problem can be solved independently from each other.
Example:
- Suppose the original problem
reads some input and
will produce a certain
output:
- The common approach to solve a
complex problem is to
- identify a number of
simpler problems within the
original problem:
- Solve the
simpler problems
individually
- identify a number of
simpler problems within the
original problem:
- Properties of the
simpler problems:
- Each simpler problem will
has its own
input data and
will produce its own
output
- Each simpler problem will
- consume some data, and also
- produce some data
- In other words:
- Each simpler problem will transform the input data gradually into the solution of the original problem.
- Each simpler problem will
has its own
input data and
will produce its own
output
- The modular programming
methodology goes a step further
in specifying
how the simpler
problems should be designed.
- Further desirable properties:
- In modular programming,
the simpler problems
in which the original problem is
broken into
should be
independent.
- In other words:
- Each simpler problem can be solved, programmed and tested independently from each other.
- In modular programming,
the simpler problems
in which the original problem is
broken into
should be
independent.
- When we can
break a complex problem
into
a number of
simpler and
independent problems,
we can manage the complexity
easier
This approach is also known as
- divide and conquer....
- Unfortunately,
the skill to
break a complex problem
up into
simpler and independent
problem
cannot
be taught....
- I can only show you
some (one) example...
You must develop this skill on your own - with time and practice; (and by studying how good programmers do their programming).