Fortunately, most programming tasks do not require exponential complexity. With a good design, you can split the project into pieces which interact with each other in a fairly simple way. These pieces are often called modules which is why this practice is termed modular programming. (It is interesting to note, however, that all such schemes to avoid exponentially complex code ultimately fail. They only move the exponential growth to a higher level--from individual statements to procedures to objects and on and on. It may be true that complexity will always win out in the end and that every project undergoing perpetual growth must periodically be redesigned from scratch in order to remain comprehensible. Or perhaps this tendency is merely the result of a periodic increase in wisdom to offset the inevitable decline in intelligence. In my own case, I know this to be a prominent factor.)--> | Fortunately, most programming tasks do not require exponential complexity. With a good design, you can split the project into pieces which interact with each other in a fairly simple way. These pieces are often called modules which is why this practice is termed modular programming. (It is interesting to note, however, that all such schemes to avoid exponentially complex code ultimately fail. They only move the exponential growth to a higher level--from individual statements to procedures to objects and on and on. It may be true that complexity will always win out in the end and that every project undergoing perpetual growth must periodically be redesigned from scratch in order to remain comprehensible. Or perhaps this tendency is merely the result of a periodic increase in wisdom to offset the inevitable decline in intelligence. In my own case, I know this to be a prominent factor.)--> |