From Problem to Program

Some useful tips from examples we worked so far....

• Understand what program is supposed to do. (declarative specificatoins of ``correct'' answer)
• Make input and output clear. (hidden assumptions?)
• Have a clear design for the method to be used. (work examples fully by hand!)
• Translate ``algorithm'' to Fortran code
  • Use descriptive variable names.
  • Be liberal with comments.
  • Error check all input. (remember $size > 500$?)
  • Include useful ``debugging'' output statements at right places.
  • Instrument the code (cputime, nswap, ...) to understand algorithm working even better.
• Test exhaustively and revise code if necessary