PECAN: Program Development Systems that Support Multiple Views
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Schematic pseudocode for program constructs and its computer automation by SCHEMACODE
Communications of the ACM
Visual programming, programming by example, and program visualization: a taxonomy
CHI '86 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
SIGCSE '85 Proceedings of the sixteenth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
Communications of the ACM
Program development by stepwise refinement
Communications of the ACM
Views for tools in integrated environments
Views for tools in integrated environments
Parameter passing: the rules the students construct
SIGCSE '91 Proceedings of the twenty-second SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
The case for case studies of programming problems
Communications of the ACM
Necessity is the mother of language features
ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
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Top-down design, an accepted technique for program development in most teaching environments, is an integral part of the introductory computing courses taught at Carnegie Mellon University. Although this planning technique works well for experts, it's application among less experienced users is limited: many novices abandon this technique as soon as implementation begins, focusing their attention instead on low-level details. This paper proposes a solution to this problem: the Design Tree, a simple graphic tool used to represent the top-down decomposition of a problem. This tool can be used by instructors, as well as students, independent of the software used to build their programs. The Design Tree not only facilitates top-down decomposition of problems, but also help students decide what type of control structures and data flow to use in implementation.