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Paper (refereed) Information Systems Curriculum

Recommended Citation: Maris, J M B, C A VanLengen, and R Lucy. A Design Tool for Novice Programmers. In The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2000, v 17 (Philadelphia): §127.

A Design Tool for Novice Programmers

Refereed

Jo-Mae B. Maris    [a1] [a2]
College of Business Administration
Northern Arizona University    [u1] [u2]
Flagstaff, Arizona, USA    [c1] [c2]

Craig A. VanLengen    [a1] [a2]
College of Business Administration
Northern Arizona University    [u1] [u2]
Flagstaff, Arizona, USA    [c1] [c2]

Rick Lucy    [a1] [a2]
College of Business Administration
Northern Arizona University    [u1] [u2]
Flagstaff, Arizona, USA    [c1] [c2]

Most program design methods are intended for experienced programmers. Beginner friendly program design methods date back to procedural languages, such as Pascal and Basic. These methods lack connections to objects and events since the languages contained neither objects nor events. This paper presents a summary table and a sketch to get novice programmers started in the process of designing a program. The table organizes information about the program requirements and aides in creating a design for a program that may contain events and objects. The sketch represents the calling relationships among the modules in the program. The table and the sketch can be use with an existing method, such as pseudocode. The tools enhance existing methods of design. A new method is not proposed. The most important philosophies in developing the tools were simplicity and guidance. The table guides the student's design efforts and is simple. The columns collect data about what the program does, when it does its tasks, and what data it uses. The rows relate tasks, events, and objects. The table prompts identification of objects and events and makes high-level functionality stand out. The high-level functional design captured by the table is made explicit in the relations sketch.

Keywords: program design, design tool, novice programmers, teaching programming

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