McConnell_2004_CH07_High_Quality_Routines

Question 1

1. What are some other words which mean the same as ‘routine’?

Answer 1

A routine is an individual method or procedure invocable for a single purpose. Examples include a function in C++, a method in Java, a function or sub procedure in Microsoft Visual Basic. For some uses, macros in C and C++ can also be thought of as routines.You can apply many of the techniques for creating a high-quality routine to these variants.

Question 2

2. List 10 good reasons for creating a routine?

Answer 2

• Reduce Complexity
• Introduce an intermediate, understandable abstraction
• Avoid duplicate code
• Support subclassing
• Hide Sequences
• Hide pointer operations
• Improve portability
• Simplify complicated boolean tests.
• Improve performance
• To ensure all routines are small?

Question 3

3. What does ‘cohesion’ mean when used a heuristic for designing a routine? p168

Answer 3

For routines, cohesion refers to how closely the operations in a routine are related.

Question 4

4. What are bad kinds of cohesion for a routine?

Answer 4

• Sequential Cohesion
• Communicational cohesion
• Temporal Cohesion

Question 5

5. State guidelines for creating a good routine name?

Answer 5

(Page 171 to 172)

Question 6

6. How long should a routine be?

Answer 6

(Page 173 to 174)

Question 7

7. What is one of the most error prone areas of a programme

Answer 7

A study at IBM found that the most error-prone routines where those that were larger than 500 Lines of code. Beyond 500 lines, the error rate tended to be proportional to the size of the routine.