Topic 1

Basic Programming Concepts

ITP3914 – Programming

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 Part 1 – What is a computer?

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 A computer accepts external input, processes
the data, and produces certain output.

Performs computations and makes logical

decisions.

Millions / billions / trillions times faster than

human brains.
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 Key Elements in a Computer

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 Input Unit  Arithmetic and Logic Unit
 Obtains information (data and (ALU)
programs) from various input  Performs actual calculations
devices, such as keyboard and and comparisons.
disk drive.  Control Unit
 Output Unit  Supervises and coordinates
 Places processed information the entire operations of a
onto various output devices, computer.
such as screen or printer.  Secondary Storage
 Memory Unit  A device, such as tapes or
 Retains information entered disks, for storing programs or
from the input unit. data that are not actively
 Stores programs. being used by other units.
 Stores intermediate results
during processing.
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 Part 2 – A first taste on programming

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 What is a computer program?

Computer programs (software)

• Sets of instructions for which computer processes
data
• E.g. Windows-8, MS Office 2013, Internet Explorer,
Adobe Photoshop, and lots more…
A computer can’t do anything without software.
It is the software that makes computer
intelligent!

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 Job of a Programmer

Software refers to a collection of instructions

for the computer to follow and execute.
A computer only follows what the programmer
tells it to do.
Therefore, the programmer has to know how to
solve problems, and

The job of a programmer is to design a

complete and precise set of instructions for
a computer to carry out a particular problem-
solving task.
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 Machine Language
At
Atthe
thelowest
lowestlevel
level(hardware),
(hardware), So
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mayinstruct
instructthe
thecomputer
computer
computers
computerswork
workwith
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using00and
and1.1.This
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(0s’and
and1s’).
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9

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 Do
Do you
you really
really want
want to
to program
program in
in
machine
machine language?
language?

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 Assembly Language

Assembly
AssemblyLanguage
Language––English-like
English-like
abbreviations
abbreviationsto
torepresent
represent computer
computer
operations.
operations. More
Morehuman-readable.
human-readable.

Assembly Language Machine Language

LD R0, #05 0110001111000010
ADD R0, $1234 0001000111100011
: :
:
Assembler
Assembler :
SUB R0, #22 0011000100001000
LD $2345, R0 1000001001010101
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 An
An assembly
assembly language
language program
program
is
is still
still too
too low-level
low-level and
and difficult
difficult
to
to aa human
human programmer!
programmer!

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 Low-Level Languages

Since assembly and machine languages are

oriented towards CPU, they are called low-
level languages.
Assembly and machine languages are very
difficult for human to read, write, and
understand.
Assembly and machine languages are CPU
dependent; a CPU cannot read programs
written for other CPU architectures.

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 High-Level Languages

Solution
Solution
High
High level
level programming
programming languages
languages
are
are provided
provided to
to close
close the
the gap
gap between
between
human
human programmers
programmers and and computers.
computers.

High Level Program

score = Homework + Quiz + Test;
if (score < 40)
retake();
else
print “Congratulations!”;

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 High-level Languages

Allow for writing more “English-like” instructions.

Contain commonly used mathematical operations.
By using a “translator”, high-level language
programs can run on different CPUs.
The speed of “translated programs” will be slower
than a low-level language programs.

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 score
score==Homework
Homework++Quiz
Quiz++Test
Test
IfIf(score
(score<<40)
40)
High
HighLevel
LevelLanguage
Language
retake();
retake();
Else
Else
print
print“Congratulations!”
“Congratulations!”

LD
LD R0,
R0,#05
#05
ADD R0, $1234
Assembly
AssemblyLanguage
Language
ADD
SUB
SUB
R0, $1234
R0,
R0,#22
#22
LD
LD $2345,
$2345,R0
R0

0110001111000010
0110001111000010
Machine
MachineLanguage
Language 0001000111100011
0001000111100011
0011000100001000
0011000100001000

Easier and Easier! No more excuse saying that this module is difficult!

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 C++, Java, C# are object-oriented
programming languages; reusable
Example HLLs software components that model real-
world items.

• Dinosaurs
• Cobol – for business data processing; still in use in banks
• Fortran – for scientific computation
• Middle Aged
• Pascal – a sophisticated but overly complicated HLL
• C – a widely used HLL for general computing
• Youngsters
• C++ – an enhancement over C with object-oriented features
• Java – an OO language with networking and lots other features
• C# - developed by Microsoft in competition with Java

Java
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 Your First Java Program

/*
/*
**The
TheHelloWorld
HelloWorldApplication
Application
*/
*/

public
publicclass
classHelloWorld
HelloWorld{{

public
publicstatic
staticvoid
voidmain(String
main(String[][]argv)
argv)
{{
System.out.println("Hello
System.out.println("HelloWorld!");
World!");
}}
}}

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 Part 3 – The Java program development process

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 There are just too much details that you don’t
have to understand at this moment.

But now we go through some more details in a

Java program.

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 HLL and compilation

HLL programs are written as text files (source code).

Source codes have to be compiled before it can be
executed.
A compiler is a piece of software that translates a high-
level language program to a machine language program.

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 Java compilation process

Edit

Compile

Execute

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 Use VSCode to edit
Edit
HelloWorld.java

c:\> javac HelloWorld.java

c:\> dir
Compile
1/09/2014 11:30 HelloWorld.java
1/09/2014 11:35 HelloWorld.class
c:\>

c:\> java HelloWorld

Execute
Hello World!

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/*
/*
**The
TheHelloWorld
HelloWorldApplication
Application
*/
*/
If you type anything
public
publicclass
classHelloWorld
HelloWorld{{ incorrect, even missing a
public
publicstatic
staticvoid
voidmain(String
main(String[][]argv)
argv) single letter or a punctuation,
{{
System.out.println("Hello your program will fail to be
System.out.println("HelloWorld!")
World!")
}} compiled.
}}

c:\> javac HelloWorld.java

HelloWorld.java:9: ‘;’ expected
System.out.println(“Hello World!”)
^
1 error
c:\> dir
1/09/2014 11:30 HelloWorld.java
c:\>
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 Use VSCode to write
Edit
HelloWorld.java

c:\> javac HelloWorld.java

Compile
Compilation Error

c:\> java HelloWorld

Execute
Hello World! Execution Error

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 Java class library
Java already provides a huge library (more than
3000 ready-for-use classes in J2SE 7)

Collectively, known
as Java APIs
Application
Programming
Interfaces

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 IDE for Java

IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

• A tool that helps programmer to develop and debug
his/her programs.
• Netbeans (from Sun, thus Oracle)
• Jdeveloper (from Oracle)
• JBuilder (from Borland)
• Eclipse (An IDE that supports
many different programming
languages, not just Java)

Eclipse
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 Part 4 – Some more details on Java programs

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 Java Program Structure

/*
* The HelloWorld Application Multi-line Comment
*/

public class HelloWorld { Class header

public static void main(String [] argv) Method main(). The core

{ part of the program which
System.out.println("Hello World!"); defines what the program
} should do.
}

This is the core statement in this

Don’t
Don’task
askme
mewhat
what simple program. It prints the string
these
theseare!
are!Just
Justcopy!
copy! enclosed by “ “ on the screen.
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 A Java program is made up of class definitions.
A class definition contains a header and a body.
• The header defines the name of the class (and others).
public class HelloWorld
• In this example, the body consists of main().

The filename must be same as the class name

with .java appended, i.e. HelloWorld.java, in
this example.

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 A More Complex Java Program
public
publicclass
classCircle
Circle{{
What is the
public purpose of this
publicstatic
staticvoid
voidmain(String
main(String[][]args)
args)
{{ program?
int
int radius;
radius; Can you guess?
double
double area;
area;
c:\> java Circle
radius Radius = 3
radius==3;
3;
System.out.println("Radius Area = 28.26
System.out.println("Radius==""++radius);
radius);

area The program needs

area==radius
radius**radius
radius**3.14;
3.14;
a place to store the
System.out.println("Area
System.out.println("Area==""++area);
area); area of the circle
}} before it is printed.
}}
VARIABLES!!!!!
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 Variables

Variables are storage spaces for your program

to hold data values.
Variables are being stored in the computer
memory.
Variables must be declared (created):
• Type of data to be stored inside
• Name of the variables

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public
publicclass
classCircle
Circle{{
Data type
public
publicstatic
staticvoid
voidmain(String
main(String[][]args)
args)
{{
int
int Name of the variable
radius;
radius; radius area
double
double area;
area;

radius Assignment
radius==3;
3;
3
System.out.println("Radius
System.out.println("Radius==""++radius);
radius); radius area

area
area==radius
radius**radius
radius**3.14;
Expression
3.14;
System.out.println("Area 3 28.26
System.out.println("Area==""++area);
area);
}} radius area
}}
You
Youcan
canalso
alsoprint
printthe
thevalue
value
stored in a variable.
stored in a variable.
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 Does it work???

public
publicclass
classCircle
Circle{{

public
publicstatic
staticvoid
voidmain(String
main(String[][]args)
args)
{{
radius
radius==3;
3;
int
int radius;
radius;

System.out.println("Radius
System.out.println("Radius==""++radius);
Strangely, students just
radius);
System.out.println("Area
System.out.println("Area==""++area);
area);put all the things into a
program and HOPE they
double
double area;
area;
area
work correctly together.
area==radius
radius**radius
radius**3.14;
3.14;
}}
}}

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 Part 5 – Steps in program development

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 Recall that …

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 Steps in Program Development

1. Define the problem

2. Outline the solution
3. Turn the outline into steps for solving the problem
4. Test the steps for correctness
5. Code the steps into a targeted programming
language
6. Run the program on a computer
7. Document and maintain the program

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 Based on the problem description, divide the
problem into three separate components:
• Input source data
• Perform processing steps needed to produce the
required outputs
• Output results required

Processing
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 Basic operations

There are six basic operations in a solution:

• Inputting the data
• Outputting the result (and other intermediate messages)
• Performing processing and calculation
• Storing a data into variables
• SELECTION – comparing two different values and
selecting alternative actions
• REPETITION – repeating a group of actions

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 How can the steps in a solution be expressed
precisely and concisely?

Answer: Flowcharts
Graphically depict the logical steps to
carry out a task and show how the steps
relate to each other.

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 Flowchart Symbols
Used to connect symbols
Flow line and indicate the flow of logic.

Used to represent the beginning (Start) or

Terminal the end (End) of a task.

Used for input and output operations,

Input/Output such as reading and displaying. The data to
be read or displayed are described inside.

Used for arithmetic and data-manipulation

Processing operations. The instructions are listed
inside the symbol.

Used for any logic or comparison operations.

Unlike the input/output and processing symbols,
Decision which have one entry and one exit flowline, the
decision symbol has one entry and two exit
paths. The path chosen depends on whether the
answer to a question is “yes” or “no”.

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 Connector Used to join different
flowlines.

Used to indicate that the

Offpage Connector flowchart continues to a
second page.

Used to represent a group of

Predefined Process statements that perform one
processing task.

Used to provide additional

Annotation information about another
flowchart symbol.

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 The Structure Theorem

The Structure Theorem states that it is possible

to write ANY computer program by using only
the three basic control structures:
• Sequence
• Selection
• Repetition

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 Series of steps – Sequence
Start
Process:
Input: speed = distance / time
distance
Input:
Input: distance Strangely, students
time like their programs to
rush for calculation
Input: before data input.
Process: time
speed = distance / time

Output:
Output:
speed
speed

End
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 Start
Example
Input:
number1
Problem:
A program is required to get three Input:
numbers and then add them together number2
and give their total.
Input: Input:
number3
3 numbers
Process: Process:
calculate the total of the 3 numbers total = number1 +
number2 + number3
Output:
total of the 3 numbers
Output:
total

End
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 Decision flow chart – Selection

Comparing two
different values and
selecting alternative
actions false true
Is condition true?

Process step(s) 2 Process step(s) 1

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 Start

Example Input:
Octopus balance

Problem:
Determine if Octopus payment Input:
is accepted. If so, what the payment amount
new balance is?
Input: amount
Octopus balance, <=
false true
(balance+50)
payment amount
Process: Output: newBalance =
balance - amount
Check existing balance. “Insufficient
Balance”
Deduct payment amount from
balance if it is sufficient. Output:
newBalance
Output:
new balance or “insufficient
Balance”

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 Looping flow chart – Repetition

Repeating a group of
actions

Is condition true?
false

true

Process step(s)

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 Start

set numStudent=0

Example
set total=0

Problem: Loop Input:

an individual mark
Calculate and report the
average mark for a class of an
examination. add mark to total

Input:
add 1 to numStudent
individual marks
Process: true more student
Sum individual marks to a total. marks?
Count the number of students.
Calculate average as false
total/count.
average = total / numStudent
Output:
average mark
Output: average

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End
 END

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