2. Philosophical Context

More often than not, the first question programmers ask when embarking upon a new development project is, “What language will be used for implementation?” There is usually no need to ask about method because some variation of a formal structured approach is assumed. This is a very unfortunate situation.

The rising popularity of extreme programming (XP) and agile development makes the method question an open one—again. I say again because in terms of observable actions, XP and agile approaches are just the latest incarnation of iterative development. Some form of iterative development has been practiced in software since the 1960s and has usually been held to be superior to the structured “waterfall” approach that is officially ...

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