Object Identification Training Support System for Object-Oriented Design with Cooking Recipes

Abstract

In object-oriented programming (OOP), each process is accomplished by the interaction of objects. In the first step of designing a system using OOP, programmers need to decompose a given use case into smaller sub-processes and identify objects. However, for novice programmers, it can be difficult to imagine things that are not explicitly stated in the use case, and some may not understand that the process is achieved by the interaction of objects. We have therefore developed a training method that identifies objects by connecting them with things that novice programmers can more easily imagine, such as recipes. Similar to use cases, recipes are a set of processes whose subjects are not clearly mentioned. When we decompose a recipe into smaller sub-processes made up of kitchenware items, it is possible to recognize these items when imagining the cooking scene. We also developed a system that helps novice programmers to extract the appropriate kitchenware from recipes. Through the experience of rewriting a recipe utilizing the process of cooking, novice programmers are able to recognize that there are subjects hiding in a process description whose subjects are not mentioned, which helps them understand how to identify the hiding objects.