Patterns in Model-based Design of User-Interfaces. Towards an Integrated User-Interface Development Approach

The designers might say that this section implements a fractal compression algorithm, that section is a basic accounting ledger, the user interface follows the model-observer design pattern, and so on. A few good drawings of the major components and their interactions with some descriptive text about each one's purpose will take the next team a long way. One major purpose of the source code is to communicate some coherent theory to the next programmer - who might be the original programmer four months later. Simple and consistent naming conventions contribute to this theory building. When people talk about "clean code," a large part of what they are referring to is how easily the reader can build a coherent theory of the system. The point is, the documentation (prose, pictures and code) cannot (and so need not) say everything. It's purpose is to help the next programmer build an accurate theory about the system. Pelle Ehn, Wittgenstein's Language Game In Work-Oriented Devlopment of Software Artifacts, Pelle Ehn describes his experiences on a series of projects that explored making software easier to use, more appropriate to its final use, and made by both programmers and end users ...»