4 ms·

Should I plan ahead, or figure out programs as I'm writing them?

• mindcrime 15y ago
  Well, who am I to dispute what pg says, but... I think the best approach probably varies by individual, and that - to the extent that there might be an objective truth to this point - the truth probably lies in the middle somewhere. At the very least, I think making a dichotomy between "no planning ahead at all" and "figure everything out in advance" is a false dichotomy. It's a continuum, in my experience. I personally lean more towards the exploratory programming style, and the "figure it out as I go," but at the same time, two of my favorite programming tools are an artists sketchpad and a set of colored pencils. There's definitely a time and place to sit down and sketch out high level relationships and visualize things to help yourself understand how things will fit together. Well, there is for me. Again, I think this depends a lot on the individual... and also on the problem domain and the inherent complexity of the program. That is, a simple command-line calculator program (think, "poor man's bc) would probably require less up-front planning than an ERP system for a 30,000 employee company.