Fundamentals of Computer Programming

1. An Overview of Computers and Programming

Objectives

● Computer systems
● Simple program logic
● The program development cycle
● Pseudocode statements and flowchart symbols
● Programming and user environments
● The evolution of programming models

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1.1 Understanding Computer Systems

● Computer system
– Combination of all the components required to process and store
data using a computer
● Hardware
– Equipment associated with a computer
● Software
– Computer instructions
– Tells the hardware what to do
– Programs
●
Instructions written by programmers
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Understanding Computer Systems

– Application software such as word processing, spreadsheets,

payroll and inventory, even games
– System software such as operating systems like Windows, Linux, or
UNIX
● Computer hardware and software accomplish three major
operations
– Input
● Data items such as text, numbers, images, and sound
– Processing
●
Calculations and comparisons performed by the central processing unit
(CPU)
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Understanding Computer Systems

– Output
● Resulting information that is sent to a printer, a monitor, or
storage devices after processing
● Programming language
– Used to write computer instructions
– Examples
● Visual Basic, C#, C++, or Java
● Syntax
– Rules governing word usage and punctuation
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Understanding Computer Systems

●
Computer memory
– Computer’s temporary, internal storage – random access
memory (RAM)
– Volatile memory – lost when the power is of
●
Permanent storage devices
– Nonvolatile memory
●
Compiler or interpreter
– Translates source code into machine language (binary language)
statements called object code
– Checks for syntax errors
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1.2 Understanding Simple Program Logic

●
Program executes or runs
– Input will be accepted, some processing will occur, and results will be
output
●
Programs with syntax errors cannot execute
●
Logical errors
– Errors in program logic produce incorrect output
●
Logic of the computer program
– Sequence of specific instructions in specific order
●
Variable
– Named memory location whose value can vary
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Understanding Simple Program Logic

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1.3 The Program Development Cycle

●
Understand the problem
●
Plan the logic
●
Code the program
●
Use software (a compiler or interpreter) to translate the
program into machine language
●
Test the program
●
Put the program into production
●
Maintain the program
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The Program Development Cycle

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Understanding the Problem

● One of the most dificult aspects of programming

● Users or end users
– People for whom a program is written
● Documentation
– Supporting paperwork for a program

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Planning the Logic

● Developing an algorithm
● Heart of the programming process
●
Most common planning tools
– Flowcharts
– Pseudocode
● Desk-checking
– Walking through a program’s logic on paper before you
actually write the program
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Coding the Program

● Hundreds of programming languages available

– Choose based on features
– Similar in their basic capabilities
● Easier than the planning step

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Using Software to Translate the Program
into Machine Language

●
Translator program
– Compiler or interpreter
– Changes the programmer’s English-like high-level
programming language into the low-level machine
language
●
Syntax error
– Misuse of a language’s grammar rules
– Programmer corrects listed syntax errors
– Might need to recompile the code several times
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Creating an Executable Program

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Testing the Program

●
Logical error
– Results when a syntactically correct statement, but the
wrong one for the current context, is used
●
Test
– Execute the program with some sample data to see
whether the results are logically correct
●
Debugging is the process of finding and correcting
program errors
●
Programs should be tested with many sets of data
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Putting the Program into Production

● Process depends on program’s purpose

– May take several months
● Conversion
– The entire set of actions an organization must take to
switch over to using a new program or set of programs

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Maintaining the Program

● Maintenance
– Making changes after the program is put into production
● Common first programming job
– Maintaining previously written programs
● Make changes to existing programs
– Repeat the development cycle

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1.4 Using Pseudocode Statements and
Flowchart Symbols

● Pseudocode
– English-like representation of the logical steps it takes to
solve a problem
● Flowchart
– Pictorial representation of the logical steps it takes to
solve a problem

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Flowchart and Pseudocode of Program that
Doubles a Number

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Writing Pseudocode

● Programmers preface their pseudocode with a

beginning statement like start and end it with a
terminating statement like stop
● Flexible planning tool

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Drawing Flowcharts

●
Create a flowchart
– Draw geometric shapes that contain the individual statements
– Connect shapes with arrows
●
Input symbol
– Indicates input operation
– Parallelogram
●
Processing symbol
– Contains processing statements such as arithmetic
– Rectangle
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Drawing Flowcharts

●
Output symbol
– Represents output statements
– Parallelogram
●
Flowlines
– Arrows that connect steps
●
Terminal symbols
– Start/stop symbols
– Shaped like a racetrack
– Also called lozenges
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Repeating Instructions

● Program above only works for one number

● Not feasible to run the program over and over 10,000
times
● Not feasible to add 10,000 lines of code to a program
● Create a loop (repetition of a series of steps) instead
● Avoid an infinite loop (repeating flow of logic that
never ends)

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Flowchart of iInfinite Number-Doubling
Program

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Using a Sentinel Value to End a Program

●
Making a decision
– Testing a value
– Decision symbol
●
Diamond shape
●
Dummy value
– Data-entry value that the user will never need
– Sentinel value
●
eof (“end of file”)
– Marker at the end of a file that automatically acts as a sentinel
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Flowchart of Number-Doubling Program with
Sentinel Value of 0

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Flowchart Using eof

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1.5 Understanding Programming and User
Environments

●
Many options for programming and user environments
– Planning
●
Flowchart
●
Pseudocode
– Coding
●
Text editors
– Executing
●
Input from keyboard, mouse, microphone
– Outputting
●
Text, images, sound
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Understanding Programming Environments

● Use a keyboard to type program statements into an

editor
– Plain text editor
● Similar to a word processor but without as many features
– Text editor that is part of an integrated development
environment (IDE)
● Software package that provides an editor, a compiler, and other
programming tools

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A C# Number-Doubling Program in Visual
Studio

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Understanding User Environments

● Command line
– Location on your computer screen where you type text
entries to communicate with the computer’s operating
system
● Graphical user interface (GUI)
– Allows users to interact with a program in a graphical
environment

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Executing a Number-Doubling Program
in a Command-Line Environment

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Executing a Number-Doubling Program
in a GUI Environment

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1.6 Understanding the Evolution of
Programming Models

● People have been writing modern computer

programs since the 1940s
● Newer programming languages
– Look much more like natural language
– Are easier to use
– Create self-contained modules or program segments that
can be pieced together in a variety of ways

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Understanding the Evolution of Programming
Models

● Major models or paradigms used by programmers

– Procedural programming
● Focuses on the procedures that programmers create
– Object-oriented programming
● Focuses on objects, or “things,” and describes their features (or
attributes) and their behaviors
– This text
● Focuses on procedural programming techniques

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1.7 Summary

●
Hardware and software accomplish input, processing, and
output
●
Logic must be developed correctly
●
Logical errors are much more dificult to locate than syntax
errors
●
Use flowcharts, pseudocode charts to plan the logic
●
Avoid infinite loops by testing for a sentinel value
●
Use a text editor or an IDE to enter your program
statements
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1.8 Programming Exercises

1.Draw a flowchart or write pseudocode to represent the

logic of a program that allows the user to enter a value.
The program divides the value by 2 and outputs the
result.
2.Draw a flowchart or write pseudocode to represent the
logic of a program that allows the user to enter a value
for one edge of a cube. The program calculates the
surface area of one side of the cube, the surface area of
the cube, and its volume. The program outputs all the
results.
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Programming Exercises

3.Draw a flowchart or write pseudocode to represent the logic of a

program that allows the user to enter values for a salesperson’s
base salary, total sales, and commission rate. The program
computes and outputs the salesperson’s pay by adding the base
salary to the product of the total sales and commission rate.
4.A mobile phone app allows a user to press a button that starts a
timer that counts seconds. When the user presses the button
again, the timer stops. Draw a flowchart or write pseudocode
that accepts the elapsed time in seconds and displays the value
in minutes and seconds. For example, if the elapsed time was
130 seconds, the output would be 2 minutes and 10 seconds.
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