Author Topic: Programming design stuff?  (Read 822 times)

Maybe this is an awkward time to post this as I think I saw a topic talking about how somebody hates programmers or something earlier today... Oh well, screw that, I've got a question, and if that topic managed to generate some replies there must be programmers here.

Anyway, I'm looking for good reference, articles... anything really, about the design aspects of programming. Not specific tasks like how to do such-and-such a thing in some certain language ("Hello World" type stuff). I mean stuff about software architecture; thinking out and planning bigger systems. I don't have any trouble with sitting down and writing code (provided I can look up reference stuff to help me through things I haven't learned yet), but I do need to learn more about planning a whole project out so it doesn't turn into a jumbled and rather unorganized mess (which is the problem I'm running into in my projects).

The simplest thing you can do is make written / drawn concepts for your ideas. For example, if you were looking to make a video game with a story and such, you might write a storyboard for the opening sequence, make a list of possible game mechanics, draw out levels on paper, etc.

Maybe this is an awkward time to post this as I think I saw a topic talking about how somebody hates programmers or something earlier today...

Half the people here can program at least a little bit.



Do what Kingdaro said, put things on paper.

Here are some resources I found quickly:
http://www.reddit.com/r/SWArchitecture/
http://www.reddit.com/subreddits/search?q=programming
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/
http://www.reddit.com/r/compsci/search?q=software+architecture&restrict_sr=on
(sorry for the reddit links, it's just good for finding lots of things.)


I personally just construct my stuff based on modularity and piece it together as a bunch of modules that can be enabled or disabled without breaking the rest of the program (aside from the main module, of course).

I usually use the whiteboards in my lab or the student lounges which always end up in 10% project design and 90% richard drawings.