Constraints on Design: Language, Environment and Code Representation

Abstract

This chapter will address the issue of interaction between code manipulation processes and design processes. We will first present some characteristics of the coding process considered as following the design phase. Although programming is now considered as opportunistically organized, it may consist nonetheless of a succession of planning processes and code generation processes at a microlevel. Second, we will present constraints (knowledge characteristics and language/environment characteristics) which lead the programmer to work at the code level although the worked out solution has not yet been evaluated or has been erroneously evaluated at higher levels of abstraction. Whereas this should lead to solution reconstruction and revision, we will argue that instead of going from a detailed level to higher levels of abstraction the programmers may use strategies to solve abstract-level-related problems at the code level, avoiding (as much as possible) changing the level of abstraction or, if the level of abstraction is changed, the programmers may employ strategies in order to do so in an economical way.