Re:Ask HN: Bottom Up Programming Question
by DanielBMarkham on Sunday January 25, 2009 @05:41PM
(#449651)
You're always thinking top-down, even if "top" is just the next level up, as patio11's example shows.
I'd start with the "outside" of the program and work inwards. This forces you to categorize features as greatest to least important.
Refactoring can be significant -- much more than top-down. When used poorly, this can lead to the "design a 747 by building a wheel first" mentality, however. In other words, like everything else there's a place for it in the toolbelt.
You know, you can always model the problem domain first and still code bottom-up. The structure of the data is probably the most important factor anyhow, no matter how you code or what the qualities of the language are.
I'd start with the "outside" of the program and work inwards. This forces you to categorize features as greatest to least important.
Refactoring can be significant -- much more than top-down. When used poorly, this can lead to the "design a 747 by building a wheel first" mentality, however. In other words, like everything else there's a place for it in the toolbelt.
You know, you can always model the problem domain first and still code bottom-up. The structure of the data is probably the most important factor anyhow, no matter how you code or what the qualities of the language are.