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John DeRiggi
Assignment 12
Monday March 4
- How many programming languages have I used ?
I have used Java, C and C++ quite a bit through my academic career. Other languages that I've experimented with are perl, lisp, scheme, python, assembly :Intel x86 and risc. So that is a total of 8 languages.
- The most difficult part about learning a new language
In my opinion, the most difficult part about learning a new language is learning the environment in which you are programming. Often times this is a problem even if the language is not new to you. After programming in java for a while, learning JBuilder took as significant amount of time to get used to it. This was the same for me when I began programming a large application for the palm os. While this application was in C, it took a long time for me to become proficient with Code Warrior.
- Have I ever implememnted a function already in the library?
I cannot remember ever implementing a function that was already in the library. Usually when Im writing a program, I make sure to comb thnrough the libraries thoroughly to see if there is anything that I can use. If not, then I begin writing some code.
- What was interesting about the article
I liked the section describing the cognitive difficulties involved with the software reuse process. I remember when I was trying to get comfortable with the Java language and I discovered the large amount of online documentation available on the web. After I discovered the web page for the API, I found myself visiting the site more and more regularly. When comparing the man pages for c libraries on Unix machines with the html format for the java language documentation, it is clear why the java documentation would be used more regularly. It is easier to navigate, understand, and it is welll organized.
Additionally, I thought the description of the code broker system was also intriguing. I think that a system like this would be tremendously useful in everyday software engineering process.
- Not as interesting about the article
I found the article thorougly interesting. I think it would have been more interesting if there were further studies on how codebroker helps novice programmers as compared to experienced programmers.
- How could this research be extended.
While reading this article I could not help but think of the tool that JBuilder has that when a programmer types an open parenthesis on a method already in the library, then a window pops up that tells you what the parameters are for that method or class. It would be nice if codebroker could be incorporated into this tool aswell so the window could tell you if your method already exists somewhere else.
          
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