Can anybody help me with this?
Here’s the problem…
When I have to code let’s say, a registration form, I add the new form and start coding it. But sometimes the form is a bit complex and I find myself duplicating code and making the same verifications over and over again making the code messy.
I was wondering is there is some sort of tool that allows me to create a flow of this form before coding it, like a flow chart… where I can find such places where I’m duplicating code and then avoid that.
thanks!
Well real tool/language designed for this is UML. You can read up on it.
But its very strict. Altough you don’t have to follow all specs and conventions. There are several types of diagram that cover pretty much everything. But AFAIK only 4 are practically in use.
Most people I know tend to draw Control flow diagrams
Google Docs drawing is perfectly fine for that.
But it depends on the type of application. I pesonally think more in data and like data flow diagrams.
I also like to design top-down. Other people do it differently. I mostly start with a sheet of paper and a pen and draw some stuff i could not tell what it means half an hour later. But I start very basic with application/database/user or something and when a picture arises i go into specifics using modeling tools.
I cannot design anything without knowing the greater picture, altough i know it is a software developers quality to just that.
ps: designing a form sounds very trivial at first, altough it might be not. but a great help
I think a great help is sticking to some programming patterns and paradigms you like. A good base is the MVC concept. I like to extend it with a “resource model” that does all the database stuff.