2.1.3 Thinking Procedurally

Question 1

What is meant by thinking procedurally?

Answer 1

Identifying the individual parts of a bigger problem

Question 2

What is a top down modular design (structure diagram)?

Answer 2

Breaking down a problem into smaller subproblems until each subproblem can be represented as a single task (ideally a self-contained subroutine)

Question 3

What is decomposition?

Answer 3

Breaking down a complex problem into smaller more manageable parts

Question 4

MDP

What are the advantages of decomposition?

Answer 4

• Makes problems easier to solve
• Different people can work on different parts of the problem at the same time (reducing development time)
• Program components developed in one program can easily be used in other programs

Question 5

What is the first stage of thinking procedurally?

Answer 5

Taking the problem defined by the user and breaking it down into constituent parts

Question 6

What is the second stage of thinking procedurally?

Answer 6

Identifying components of a solution

Question 7

How can the lowest level of subproblems in a structure diagram be coded as?

Answer 7

Self contained modules or sub routines

Question 8

What do software developers need to consider when recombining components of a solution?

Answer 8

The order in which the subroutines are executed and how they interact with each other based on their role in solving the problem

Question 9

RT

State two advantages of utilising reusable components

Answer 9

• More reliable than newly coded components as they have already been tested
• Saves time, money and resources

Question 10

TRM

What are the advantages of procedural programming?

Answer 10

• Easier to test and debug code
• Subroutines can be called many times, reducing the amount of repeated code
• Subroutines can manipulate shared data