A design recipe guides a beginning programmer through the entire problem-solving process. With design recipes, a beginner almost never again stares at a blank piece of paper or a blank computer screen. We created the design recipes by identifying categories of problems. The identification of a problem category is based on the classes of data that are used to represent the relevant information. Starting from the structure of this class description students derive the programs with a checklist.
Figure shows the basic six steps of a design recipe checklist.
The major difference concerns the relationship of steps 1 and 4. Design recipes help beginners and teachers alike. Teachers can use the recipes to inspect a beginner's problem-solving skills, to diagnose weaknesses, and to suggest specific remedial steps. After all, each stage of the design recipe yields a well-defined, checkable product. If a beginner is stuck, a teacher can inspect the intermediate products and determine what the problem is.