Skeleton programming is a style of computer programming based on simple high-level program structures and so called dummy code. Program skeletons resemble pseudocode, but allow parsing, compilation and testing of the code.
Dummy code is inserted in a program skeleton to simulate processing and avoid compilation error messages. It may involve empty function declarations, or functions that return a correct result only for a simple test case where the expected response of the code is known.
Skeleton programming facilitates a top-down design approach, where a partially functional system with complete high-level structures is designed and coded, and this system is then progressively expanded to fulfill the requirements of the project.
Program skeletons are sometimes used for high-level descriptions of algorithms.
A program skeleton may also be utilized as a template that reflects syntax and structures commonly used in a wide class of problems.
Skeleton programs are utilized in the template method design pattern used in object-oriented programming. See that article for examples of skeleton programs.
In object-oriented programming, dummy code corresponds to an abstract method, a method stub or a mock object. In RMI nomenclature, a skeleton communicates on the client-side with a stub on the server-side.
Famous quotes containing the word skeleton:
“The bone-frame was made for
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yet the skeleton stood up to it:
the flesh? it was melted away,
the heart burnt out, dead ember,
tendons, muscles shattered, outer husk dismembered....”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)