Understanding Application Development

Dec 18
11:33

2010

Erica Robinson

Erica Robinson

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

Ever find yourself questioning exactly how application development works? It's quite a process, but it's not actually all that hard to understand. Like everything else, though, there are two competing schools of thought, but neither is very hard to follow.

mediaimage

Ever find yourself wondering exactly how application development works? It's quite a process,Understanding Application Development Articles but it's not actually all that hard to understand. Like everything else, though, there are two competing schools of thought, but neither is very hard to follow.

With older languages like C++ that combine object oriented design with more traditional programming methods, first an end goal is decided. Something like "I want a piece of software that does X while not Y." Next, a design document that covers every single little intended detail is produced. Afterward, the design document is handed off to the programmers for coding. Basic debugging follows coding, and the application is then passed off for testing. Once all the kinks are worked out, it's time to ship the final product, basically, anyway.

It gets interesting when you look at the new school of thought. Newer languages like Java allow for a methodology that still works to an overall goal, but technicalities in the language allow for a more exploratory approach that doesn't require quite an extensive design document and nothing is set in stone. Pieces of the program are built separately with a sort of "promise" to fulfill a role - even though the pieces and programmers thereof may have no idea how the others will do it. It works because each piece is far more optimal, and can be debugged, streamlined, or expanded independently to meet newly discovered needs. What follows is just like the above: debug, test, fix, and ship... and that's it in a nutshell.