Programming techniques

local variable

has limited scope and can only be accessed by the block of code in which they were defined. They are useful as they ensure the subroutines are self-contained, so that the variables are not affected by the code outside of the subroutine

global variable

can be accessed across the whole program. Useful for when needing to access a certain variable by multiple parts of the progmra, but may be unintentionally overwritten and requires more memory

modular programming

a programming technique used to split large, complex programs into smaller, self-contained modules

advantages of modular programming

can divide tasks between a team, simplifies the process of testing and maintenance, each component can be dealt with individually, each modules can be reused

top-down approach/stepwise refinement

problem is continually broken down into sub-problems until each task is represented as an individual, self-contained code

Procedures

can return multiple values

function

only returns a value

stepping

executing a line of code at a time to monitor the effect

variable watch

observe how the contents of a variable change through the execution of a program

breakpoint

set a point in the program where it will stop executing

source code editor

autocompletion, indentation, syntax highlighting, automatic bracket completion

debugging tools

run-time detection of errors detects where in the code likely caused the error