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    Stepwise Refinement

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    juggle333
    Stepwise Refinement is a technique for solving complex problems by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable subproblems. It involves first describing the overall functions at a high level, then decomposing each function into more detailed sub-steps until the full problem is defined. This allows programmers to focus on one part of the problem at a time and avoid being overwhelmed by complexity.

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    Stepwise Refinement

    Uploaded by

    juggle333
    403 views8 pages
    Stepwise Refinement is a technique for solving complex problems by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable subproblems. It involves first describing the overall functions at a high level, then decomposing each function into more detailed sub-steps until the full problem is defined. This allows programmers to focus on one part of the problem at a time and avoid being overwhelmed by complexity.

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    Introducing Stepwise Refinement

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    Stepwise Refinement is a technique for solving complex problems by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable subproblems. It involves first describing the overall functions at a high level, then decomposing each function into more detailed sub-steps until the full problem is defined. This allows programmers to focus on one part of the problem at a time and avoid being overwhelmed by complexity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as ODP, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as odp, pdf, or txt
    403 views8 pages

    Stepwise Refinement

    Uploaded by

    juggle333
    Stepwise Refinement is a technique for solving complex problems by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable subproblems. It involves first describing the overall functions at a high level, then decomposing each function into more detailed sub-steps until the full problem is defined. This allows programmers to focus on one part of the problem at a time and avoid being overwhelmed by complexity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as ODP, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as odp, pdf, or txt
    of 8
    At a glance
    Powered by AI
    The key takeaways are that stepwise refinement is a technique to break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable pieces by focusing on one part at a time. It allows problems to be solved in a top-down, hierarchical manner.

    Stepwise refinement is a technique where an overall problem or program is described at a high level first, then each part is broken down into more detailed steps or subproblems until a full solution is defined. It helps solve complex problems by allowing them to be examined and solved piece by piece in a structured manner.

    Some principles discussed are the theory of easy problems, Miller's Law about human cognitive limits, and the KISS principle of keeping things simple. Abstraction is also mentioned as a way to organize a system hierarchically from general to specific.

    Introducing Stepwise Refinement

    Stepwise Refinement is a way of working on big or


    complicated problems by splitting them into smaller,
    more manageable pieces.
    In software development, Stepwise Refinement is a
    technique in which a program's overall functions are
    described first; each function is then broken down into
    details which are refined in successive steps until the
    whole program is fully defined.
    It is also known as Functional Decomposition,
    Top-Down Design or Divide and Conquer.

    Introducing Stepwise Refinement

    Introducing Stepwise Refinement


    Theory of easy problems
    Stepwise refinement allows you to focus attention on one part of a big problem at a
    time, rather like you might shine a torch beam or focus a magnifying glass to examine
    small parts of a large object.
    Miller's Law

    Psychologist George Miller discovered that there are limits to the amount of
    information that humans are able to receive, process, and remember.
    At any time a human being can concentrate on 7 2 chunks of information

    KISS principle

    KISS stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid!"


    The KISS principle states that (most) systems can be best understood - and will
    work most reliably - if they are kept simple rather than made complex. Simplicity
    should be a key goal in system design and unnecessary complexity should be
    avoided.

    Introducing Stepwise Refinement


    More theory of easy problems...

    Abstraction

    A grouping principle which organises a system as an upside-down


    tree or hierarchy of parts
    Biggest / most complicated parts at the top, simpler parts arranged
    underneath in increasing levels of detail (layers of abstraction)
    To design and understand a program at one level, you don't need to
    understand anything about the levels underneath
    Focus on what not how.
    Gives the human mind a much better chance of understanding the
    problem and getting the solution right.

    Introducing Stepwise Refinement


    Example - making a cup of soup
    To start, we first write down, in English, a simple statement of what
    the software has to do:
    make a cup of soup
    Then we break this down into a sequence of simpler actions:
    boil water
    get a cup
    get sachet of soup powder
    put soup powder in cup
    add water
    stir

    Introducing Stepwise Refinement


    Next we take each of these statements and write down what
    it does in greater detail. For example, the statement boil
    water can be refined to:
    boil water
    switch on kettle
    while water not boiling
    watch tv
    switch off kettle
    We carry on with this process of refinement until the steps
    are detailed enough to correspond to statements provided by
    the programming language to be used.

    Introducing Stepwise Refinement


    Now it's your turn: have a go at refining the remaining
    steps for make a cup of soup:-

    get a cup

    get sachet of soup powder

    put soup powder in cup

    add water

    stir

    Introducing Stepwise Refinement


    How did you do?

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