Prof. Dr. Armin B. Cremers, Daniel Speicher

Campus Entry

How do you construct your software? Our lecture “Object-Oriented Software Construction” teaches how to build software as a system of “software objects” interacting with each other just like “things in reality” interact with each other. But there are other styles (procedural, functional, relational, callback-based, restful, …) that all have their specific advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, they are independent of the programming language at hand. Knowing a variety of styles gives you more options to build your system. Furthermore, the styles prove as well useful on the higher level of system design as principles for structuring your system.

But how is it possible to get familiar with such a variety of styles? The recently published book "Exercises in Programming Style" by Cristina Videira Lopes offers a simple and unprecedented approach. It presents 33 different programs solving the simple problem of presenting the 25 most frequent words in a given text. Each of the short programs (1-2 pages) exhibits the characteristics of another style. As each program solves the same task, the differences in style become evident.

In the seminar you will approach two to four styles starting from the book, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the style, revisiting classical sources for the styles and presenting a few current academic publications on the topic. The presentations from your fellow students will familiarize you with the remaining styles.

Course format: Block seminar for the final presentations plus introductory sessions, written seminar paper.

Contact: Daniel Speicher (dsp@cs.uni-bonn.de), Please send a short application¹⁾ email till 31.07.14.

More information about the book

• The examples: https://github.com/crista/exercises-in-programming-style
• Interview at GOTO 2013: http://www.infoq.com/interviews/lopes-programming-styles
• Talk at strangeloop 2013: http://www.infoq.com/presentations/style-methodology

More examples of “one content - many styles”

• The experiment is inspired by a small book of the French novelist Raymond Queneau.
• You might enjoy a similar experiment based on a minimal graphical novel.
• … or variations of the same little image in differentstyles.
• With respect to web pages, CSS allow for adding the visual design style “from the outside” as demonstrated in the CSS Zen Garden.
• There is a long list of different versions of the song "Popcorn". Many interpretations are quite similar, but some expose the differences of a specific style.
• Check out the different interpretations of Modest Mussorgsky's “Pictures at an exhibition” by classical orchestras, solo piano, Emerson Lake & Palmer (Rock), Mekong Delta (Trash Metal), solo guitar players, Isao Tomita (Analog Synthesizer), Melodica Men (Melodica), …

Further literature

• Each style has a list of one to four classical references.
• Students should review as well a few current academical references.
  (See the list of search engines on our tools page.)
• If you want to learn more about a specific programming language, you may find a something in this huge list of free resources.
• Implementations of the algorithm in Java: