Talk:Modularity (programming)

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Uttal, as far as I can tell, is not a staunch defender of domain-general processing, or at least not in The New Phrenology. The issue in TNP is whether using neuroimaging techniques to localize cognitive functions is a plausible line of inquiry. Whether you can localize cognitive functions and whether these functions are independent modules are not logical equivalants. This is a serious misrepresentation. A better source of domain general processing would be "Rethinking Innateness" by Jeff Elman, et al. MIT Press 1996.

[edit] Modularity (programming) vs Modular Programming

I believe it is a mistake to have the "Modular Programming" link to the "Modularity (programming)" page. The "Modularity (programming)" page is more of an abstraction whereas Modular Programming represents a set of practices that evolved in the 1960s. For a large segment of programmers the concept of Modular Programming was a paradigm shift that led away from procedural code that often took the form of "Spaghetti code" -- inline statements infested with "go to" operations that jumped forward and backward, into and out of loops, hither and yon.

Modular Programming and Structured Programming concepts evolved in the same time period, and some sources consider the topics synonymous; however, the difference is that structured programming absorbed the modular programming movement.

I'm not suggesting that is a mistake to identify the principle of modularity or even the use of the term of modular programming. My focus is on the history of Modular Programming. --YORD-the-unknown 18:59, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Follow-up: I think the best explanation for why "Modular Programming" should be restored as a subject begins with the generally acknowledged claim that Alan Kay became aware of the concept of modular programming when he observed an assembly language program written by an anonymous U.S. Air Force programmer prior to 1961. The program was a set of methods and concepts that were in use, and the concepts embodied in that program represented a new programming paradigm even if only one person in the world was using it. The program that Kay saw went forward with him and provided an inspiration that eventually led to Object-Oriented Programming.

The best information I have been able to find, so far, is that the subject of Modular Programming was be presented at the "Modular Programming Symposium" of 1968. There were other works and that preceded this event but those works are for computer historians to put into context.

Speaking from personal experience, I was introduced to Modular Programming by my own anonymous programmer (meaning I can't remember his name) in 1969. He implemented MP techniques into his IBM 1401 Autocoder program, and the minute he got his first compile and test he could not wait to explain the concepts to someone. These were revolutionary concepts in my mind and I began my own modular programming at once.

As I mentioned previously, the Modular Programming paradigm was rapidly absorbed into the Structured programming revolution that exploded into widespread use in 1974.

Here are some references for further consideration:

1) IEEE Annals of Software Engineering Volume 22 Number 2, pages 61-63, 66, April-June 2000 The Origins of JSP and JSD: a Personal Recollection by Michael Jackson (http://mcs.open.ac.uk/mj665/JSPDOrgn.pdf)

"Around this time, in the mid-1960s, larger Random Access Memories (as large as 256KBytes) were becoming commonplace and data processing program sizes increased dramatically. As programs grew larger, monolithic program texts became less and less practical. ‘Modular Programming' became a widely recognised concern, and the first shoots of the ‘Structured Revolution' began to appear. Larry Constantine ran a Modular Programming Symposium in 1968, with contributions from Constantine himself and from George Mealy, along with several others."

2) Dr.Dobbs's Portal, June 29, 2001, Management Forum: Hiring the Best, Larry Constantine (http://www.ddj.com/dept/architect/184415690)

"Structured design did not, however, suddenly spring from the ground, fully formed in 1974. The foundations had been laid much earlier. The basic methods, models, and concepts were already well developed when I presented a paper at the National Symposium on Modular Programming in 1968, the same year the ACM published Edsgar Dijkstra’s duly famed letter on the harmfulness of GoTos. In my archives are documents going back to 1966 describing notational innovations that have stood the test of time. Those little arrows indicating information flow in the newly minted Unified Modeling Language, for instance, come from structured design by way of the Uniform Object Notation developed by Meilir Page-Jones, Steven Weiss, and myself (see “Modeling Object-Oriented Systems,”Computer Language, Oct. 1990)."

Action: I hope my observations demonstrate why "Modular Programming" should not link to "Modularity (programming)". I would like to get some feedback from those concerned with this subject before making this change. --YORD-the-unknown 20:31, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Follow-up 2: In the past couple of days I’ve had an email exchange with Meilir Page-Jones, a well-know author, educator and authority on the Structured and Object-Oriented paradigms.

Mr. Page-Jones corrected my assumption that Modular Programming had been absorbed by Structured Programming. The truth is that Modular Programming and Structured Programming were on separate tracks. Structured Design (Constantine et al) actually absorbed Modular Programming. Structured Programming (Dikstra et al) and Structured Design continued on separate but compatible tracks.

He also confirmed, “Modularity is a principle. Modular programming/Structured Design represents a set of techniques for achieving modularity." --YORD-the-unknown 17:56, 4 August 2006 (UTC)