Year 10 - Computing
Good programming practices
Programming: selection
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit pupils will explore the benefits of good programing practices and why subroutines are used in programs. They will create conditions in programs which use arithmetic, relational and logical expressions. They will develop their understanding of selection and explore nested selection.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to explain what is meant by good programming practices and adopt these practices when writing your own code.
Key Notes
- Good programming practice involves taking steps to make your code easier to read and understand.
- Variables should always have meaningful identifiers so that the reader of the code understands how they are used.
- Comments are used in programs to help make it easier for a programmer to understand what it does.
Vocabulary To Learn
- comment: text within source code that is ignored by the compiler or interpreter, used to help programmers understand the code
- identifier: the name that a programmer gives to a variable, constant, or subroutine
- maintainability: refers to the ease with which maintenance activities can be performed on code, such as correcting errors
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Comments are added to code to help you understand your program.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Describe the system or process from this lesson in clear steps.
Good programming practice involves taking steps to make your code easier to read and understand. Variables should always have meaningful identifiers so that the reader of the code understands how they are used.
2. Define this computing term and give one practical example. 'comment'
text within source code that is ignored by the compiler or interpreter, used to help programmers understand the code. Add one real device or system example to prove understanding.
3. Correct this common computing misconception.
Mistake: Comments are added to code to help you understand your program. Correction: Comments are used to make the code more readable to a programmer who seeks to understand it. The comments should be written in a style that would help them make sense of the program.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 10 Computing guide library.