Chapter 2. Class Design and Prototyping

In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Programming is a creative process. The heart of that process is the requirements analysis and design phase of the software development life cycle. There are several different versions or renditions of the software development life cycle. 2-1 is one depiction. The result of this creativity, your program, cannot exceed the quality of the design. For many, comparing a developer to van Gogh might be considered heresy, but parallels do exist. Programming is as much creative as it is analytical. An artist does not start with a paintbrush and a canvas. There is considerable preparation before painting can begin. For ...

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