Appli peinture : Rétroconcpetion et documentation
Durée estimée: 45 minutes
Présentation
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In this lesson we won’t add new functionality to the Paint Pot app. Instead,
we will revise the code, leaving the app’s behavior unchanged. This process
is called refactoring and programmers do this to improve the quality of
their code in various ways -- e.g., to simplify its design, make it easier to read and
easier to maintain.
In this case we will introduce the concept of a programmer-defined procedure that will help reduce the complexity of our code and make it easier to read and maintain. This is an example of procedural abstraction, a very important concept and practice in programming. Objectives: The objectives of this lesson are:
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Refactoring to Improve Code
Open App Inventor with the Paint Pot Refactor template in a separate tab and follow
along with the video tutorial. After the project opens, use the Save As option to rename
your project PaintPotWithProcedure.
Documenting Code by Adding Comments
An important feature of every programming language, including App Inventor, is the ability to add comments to the code. A comment is a non-executable block of text that can be added to a program to provide clarification and documentation of the code. Adding comments to one’s code is a standard practice that programmers employ to help others (and themselves) understand their code.
In App Inventor, each non-collapsed block comes with the capability of having a comment
added to it. To access this capability you must right-click on the
block and choose the
Add Comment option.
This will add a small comment-icon, a blue circle with a question mark,
to block (as shown here).
To add or edit the comment, simply click on the comment-icon and type in your comment, as shown here:
Good Commenting Practice
A good practice to follow is to provide comments in the following situations:
- To document every procedure that you define, as shown in this example here.
- To clarify a complex algorithm that isn’t clearly obvious.
Auto-contrôle
Reflection: For Your Portfolio
Create a page named Paint Pot Refactor under the Creative Projects category of your portfolio and give brief answer to the following question:
- This Wikipedia article on refactoring talks about code smell as one motivation for engaging in refactoring. What is code smell? Describe briefly two examples of 'code smell' and how refactoring would eliminate them.