Client-Server Web Apps with JavaScript and Java

Chapter 8. API Design

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

—Author Unknown

There are two basic ways to solve problems: start with a comprehensive theory and work out the details, or start with particular facts and develop a theory that ties them together. “Detail people” derive solutions by studying the minutiae of a particular problem. “Big-picture people” fit problems into categories that relate to their overarching theories. Each approach has value, and much problem-solving involves adeptly switching between them.

Waxing Philosophical

In philosophy, Plato describes “universals” as abstracted to the highest and most fundamental “realm of ideas.” His student Aristotle instead finds them in specific, particular, real-world things. These starting points are more than an intellectual curiosity. In design analysis, starting points affect the ultimate outcome of the process. The best solutions are often the result of both approaches being applied in a complementary manner. These ancient starting points are related to modern data science techniques by the authors of The Handbook of Statistical Analysis and Data Mining Applications (Elsevier):

Traditional statistical analysis follows the deductive method in the search for relationships in data sets. Artificial intelligence (e.g., expert systems) and machine learning techniques (e.g., neural nets and decision trees) follow the inductive method to find faint patterns of relationship in data ...