Information AboutPrototype |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PROTOTYPE | |
| industrial design | |
| production and manufacturing | |
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Prototypes or '''prototypical instances''' combine the most representative Attribute s of a Category . A prototype is the stage before the final design. They are the best examples among the members of a category and serve as benchmarks against which the surrounding "poorer" instances are categorized (see Prototype Theory ). See also: Categorization , Semantics In many fields, there is great uncertainty as to whether a new design will actually do what is desired. New designs often have unexpected problems. A prototype is built to test the function of the new design before starting production of a product. Building the full design is often expensive and can be time-consuming. Sometimes, rather than building the full design, figuring out what the problems are, then building another full design, "rapid-prototyping" or "rapid application development" techniques are used for the initial prototypes, which implement part, but not all, of the complete design. This allows manufacturers to rapidly and inexpensively test the parts of the design that are most likely to have problems, solve those problems, and then build the full design. This Counter-intuitive idea -- that the quickest way to build something is, first to build something else -- is shared by Scaffolding and the telescope rule . AUTOMOBILE RACING Automobiles from the premier tier of international Sports Car Racing are informally called 'Prototypes'. Unlike GT automobiles, which are based on road-legal production models which are modified for racing, the Prototypes are designed purely for track use—in order to expand the limits of high performance. The enormous expense of building and racing these automobiles is rewarded in status achieved by the builder, usually resulting in sales of expensive production automobiles implementing many of the elements developed for racing in prototypes—rather than production of the models raced—or, through name recognition alone (see Audi R8 ). The overall winners of multi-class events such as the Le Mans usually are or were Prototypes, like the Ferrari P series, the Porsche 908 or Alfa Romeo 33 (race Car) . In contrast, the famous Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512 S, as featured in the 1970/71 Le Mans (movie) , were actually entered in the "Sports car" class, for which 25 of each had to be built in advance. A contemporary example of a prototype is the Audi R10 Diesel. OTHER MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING The most common use of the word prototype is a functional, although experimental, version of a non-military machine (e.g., automobiles, domestic appliances, consumer electronics) whose designers would like to have built by Mass Production means, as opposed to a Mockup , which is an inert representation of a machine's appearance, often made of some non-durable substance. The Japanese use of the term differs from the American in that their prototypes have many features which are unlikely to be included in the finished product (this is how the word is used in Gundam ), while American prototypes would stand for development for marketing and practicability. Builders of military machines and aviation prefer the terms "experimental" and "service test". COMPUTER SCIENCE In Computer Science , a ''function prototype'' is the Declaration of a Subroutine or function. However, in Prototype-based Programming (in the context of Object-oriented Programming ), a prototype is an object that can be cloned in order to produce new objects. COMPUTER SOFTWARE ENGINEERING In Software Engineering , a prototype generally refers to software in a development stage, focusing on a subset of the total requirements for a product. Prototypes usually are intended to evolve into the final design. Project managers may formally identify a software component as ''prototype'' to communicate with stakeholders that the component may or may not comprise the techniques ultimately allocated to the product design, or to meet business objectives. It should not be assumed that the prototype is merely for testing concepts. (That would be an aspect of a "research" project.) Prototypes provide the software developers with a "working model" for demonstration or use by customers, quality-assurance, business analysts, and managers to confirm or make changes to requirements, help define interfaces, develop collaborating components, and to provide proof of incremental achievement of scheduled contractual agreements. Software Prototyping serves any and all of these purposes in practice. Extreme Programming uses Iterative Design to gradually add one feature at a time to the initial prototype, attempting to minimize " Irreducible Complexity ". MODEL RAILROADS Among Model Railroad enthusiasts, at least in North America , actual Railroad s are commonly spoken of as "prototypes". SCALE MODELING IN GENERAL In the field of scale modeling (which includes Model Railroad ing, vehicle modeling, airplane modeling, military modeling, etc.), a prototype is the real-world basis or source for a scale model—such as the real EMD GP38-2 locomotive—which is the prototype of Athearn 's (among other manufacturers) locomotive model. Technically, any non-living object can serve as a prototype for a model, including structures, equipment, and appliances, and so on, but generally prototypes have come to mean full-size real-world vehicles including automobiles (the prototype 1957 Chevy has spawned many models), military equipment (such as M4 Shermans, a favorite among US Military modelers), railroad equipment, motor trucks, motorcycles, airplanes, and space-ships (real-world such as Apollo/Saturn Vs, or the ISS). There is debate whether 'fictional' or imaginary items can be considered prototypes (such as Star Wars or Star Trek starships, since the feature ships themselves ''are'' models or CGI-artifacts); however, humans and other living items are never called prototypes, even when they are the basis for models and dolls (especially - Action Figures ). |
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