Discuss at length the "people aspect" of the practical considerations for the development of algorithms. Include the concepts of program maintenance and ease of understanding in your response.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The practical considerations for computer science arise because the algorithms developed are executed in the form of computer programs running on real computers to solve problems of interest to real people. With regard to the "people aspect," a computer program is seldom written to be used only once to solve a single instance of a problem. It is written to solve many instances of that problem with many different input values, just as the sequential search algorithm would be used many times with different lists of names and different target NAME values. Furthermore, the problem itself does not usually "stand still." If the program is successful, people will want to use it for slightly different versions of the problem, which means they will want the program slightly enhanced to do more things. Therefore, after a program is written, it needs to be maintained, both to fix any errors that are uncovered through repeated usage with different input values and to extend the program to meet new requirements. A great deal of time and money are devoted to program maintenance. The person who has to modify a program, either to correct errors or to expand its functionality, often is not the person who wrote the original program. To make program maintenance as easy as possible, the algorithm the program uses should be easy to understand. Ease of understanding, clarity, "ease of handling"-whatever you want to call it-is a highly desirable characteristic of an algorithm.