Cutting Hacking: Breaking from Tradition

Student memories of introductory programming units regularly centre on seemingly interminable cycles of coding and debugging and the WIMP syndrome perpetuates this horror in the software development industry. Code construction is the one inescapable phase of the software development cycle yet educators seem unable to escape the mind-set which equates programming with syntax and semantics, condemning succeeding generations of students to this painful experience. Accumulated coding wisdom of more than four decades, now being codified in the SWEBOK, should smooth the process of learning to develop software if presented early in the student’s career. Typically, however, it continues to be presented in advanced programming units (or in other, specialised, units) rather than as fundamental understanding. As a consequence, code hacking is the norm in undergraduate years despite being antithetical to the Software Engineering ethos. This paper examines current practice and presents the view that what is needed is not a return to basics but rather an advance to basics — that syntax and semantics should be seen as a means of expression of formulated ideas and that student software engineers should be exposed immediately to the notion of code construction as the application of basic concepts rather than fluency in a language — thereby potentially bringing together programming practice and Software