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Introduction to
Computers and
C++ Programming 1
1.1 COMPUTER SYSTEMS 2 1.4 TESTING AND DEBUGGING 30
Hardware 2 Kinds of Program Errors 30
Software 7 Pitfall: Assuming Your Program Is Correct 31
High-Level Languages 8
Compilers 9 Chapter Summary 32
History Note 12 Answers to Self-Test Exercises 33
Programming Projects 36
1.2 PROGRAMMING AND
PROBLEM-SOLVING 12
Algorithms 12
Program Design 15
Object-Oriented Programming 17
The Software Life Cycle 17

1.3 INTRODUCTION TO C++ 19

Origins of the C++ Language 19
A Sample C++ Program 20
Pitfall: Using the Wrong Slash in \n 24
Programming Tip: Input and Output Syntax 24
Layout of a Simple C++ Program 24
Pitfall: Putting a Space before the include
File Name 26
Compiling and Running a C++ Program 27
Programming Tip: Getting Your Program to Run 27
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The whole of the development and operation of analysis are now

capable of being executed by machinery.... As soon as an Analytical
Engine exists, it will necessarily guide the future course of science.
CHARLES BABBAGE (17921871)

INTRODUCTION
In this chapter we describe the basic components of a computer, as well as
the basic technique for designing and writing a program. We then show you
a sample C++ program and describe how it works.

1.1 COMPUTER SYSTEMS

A set of instructions for a computer to follow is called a program. The
software collection of programs used by a computer is referred to as the software for
that computer. The actual physical machines that make up a computer
hardware installation are referred to as hardware. As we will see, the hardware for a
computer is conceptually very simple. However, computers now come with a
large array of software to aid in the task of programming. This software
includes editors, translators, and managers of various sorts. The resulting
environment is a complicated and powerful system. In this book we are
concerned almost exclusively with software, but a brief overview of how the
hardware is organized will be useful.

Hardware
PCs, There are three main classes of computers: PCs, workstations, and mainframes. A
workstations, PC (personal computer) is a relatively small computer designed to be used by
and one person at a time. Most home computers are PCs, but PCs are also widely
mainframes used in business, industry, and science. A workstation is essentially a larger and
more powerful PC. You can think of it as an industrial-strength PC. A
mainframe is an even larger computer that typically requires some support staff
and generally is shared by more than one user. The distinctions between PCs,
workstations, and mainframes are not precise, but the terms are commonly used
and do convey some very general information about a computer.
network A network consists of a number of computers connected, so that they may
share resources such as printers, and may share information. A network might
contain a number of workstations and one or more mainframes, as well as
shared devices such as printers.
For our purposes in learning programming, it will not matter whether you
are working on a PC, a mainframe, or a workstation. The basic configuration
of the computer, as we will view it, is the same for all three types of computers.

2
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1.1 Computer Systems 3

The hardware for most computer systems is organized as shown in

Display 1.1. The computer can be thought of as having five main components:
the input device(s), the output device(s), the processor (also called the CPU, for
central processing unit), the main memory, and the secondary memory. The
processor, main memory, and sometimes even secondary memory are normal-
ly housed in a single cabinet. The processor and main memory form the heart
of a computer and can be thought of as an integrated unit. Other components
connect to the main memory and operate under the direction of the processor.
The arrows in Display 1.1 indicate the direction of information flow.
An input device is any device that allows a person to communicate input devices
information to the computer. Your primary input devices are likely to be a
keyboard and a mouse.
An output device is anything that allows the computer to communicate output devices
information to you. The most common output device is a display screen,
referred to as a monitor. Quite often, there is more than one output device. For
example, in addition to the monitor, your computer probably is connected to
a printer for producing output on paper. The keyboard and monitor are
sometimes thought of as a single unit called a terminal.

DISPLAY 1.1 Main Components of a Computer

Processor (CPU)

Input Output
Main memory
device(s) device(s)

Secondary
memory
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4 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

In order to store input and to have the equivalent of scratch paper for
performing calculations, computers are provided with memory. The program
that the computer executes is also stored in this memory. A computer has two
forms of memory, called main memory and secondary memory. The program
that is being executed is kept in main memory, and main memory is, as the
main memory name implies, the most important memory. Main memory consists of a long
list of numbered locations called memory locations; the number of memory
locations varies from one computer to another, ranging from a few thousand
to many millions, and sometimes even into the billions. Each memory
location contains a string of zeros and ones. The contents of these locations
can change. Hence, you can think of each memory location as a tiny
blackboard on which the computer can write and erase. In most computers,
all memory locations contain the same number of zero/one digits. A digit that
bit can assume only the values zero or one is called a binary digit or a bit. The
memory locations in most computers contain eight bits (or some multiple of
byte eight bits). An eight-bit portion of memory is called a byte, so we can refer to
these numbered memory locations as bytes. To rephrase the situation, you can
think of the computers main memory as a long list of numbered memory
address locations called bytes. The number that identifies a byte is called its address. A
data item, such as a number or a letter, can be stored in one of these bytes, and
the address of the byte is then used to find the data item when it is needed.
If the computer needs to deal with a data item (such as a large number)
that is too large to fit in a single byte, it will use several adjacent bytes to hold
the data item. In this case the entire chunk of memory that holds the data item
memory location is still called a memory location. The address of the first of the bytes that make
up this memory location is used as the address for this larger memory
location. Thus, as a practical matter, you can think of the computers main
memory as a long list of memory locations of varying sizes. The size of each of
these locations is expressed in bytes and the address of the first byte is used as
the address (name) of that memory location. Display 1.2 shows a picture of a
hypothetical computers main memory. The sizes of the memory locations are
not fixed, but can change when a new program is run on the computer.
The fact that the information in a computers memory is represented as
zeros and ones need not be of great concern to you when programming in C++

Bytes and Addresses

Main memory is divided into numbered locations called bytes. The

number associated with a byte is called its address. A group of consecutive
bytes is used as the location for a data item, such as a number or letter. The
address of the first byte in the group is used as the address of this larger
memory location.
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1.1 Computer Systems 5

DISPLAY 1.2 Memory Locations and Bytes

byte 1
byte 2 3 byte location with address 1
byte 3
byte 4
byte 5 2 byte location with address 4
byte 6 1 byte location with address 6
byte 7
byte 8 3 byte location with address 7
byte 9

(or in most other programming languages). There is, however, one point
about this use of zeros and ones that will concern us as soon as we start to
write programs. The computer needs to interpret these strings of zeros and
ones as numbers, letters, instructions, or other types of information. The
computer performs these interpretations automatically according to certain
coding schemes. A different code is used for each different type of item that is
stored in the computers memory: one code for letters, another for whole
numbers, another for fractions, another for instructions, and so on. For
example, in one commonly used set of codes, 01000001 is the code for the
letter A and also for the number 65. In order to know what the string 01000001
in a particular location stands for, the computer must keep track of which code
is currently being used for that location. Fortunately, the programmer seldom
needs to be concerned with such codes and can safely reason as though the
locations actually contained letters, numbers, or whatever is desired.

Why Eight?

A byte is a memory location that can hold eight bits. What is so special
about eight? Why not ten bits? There are two reasons why eight is special.
First, eight is a power of 2. (8 is 23.) Since computers use bits, which have
only two possible values, powers of two are more convenient than powers
of 10. Second, it turns out that eight bits (one byte) are required to code a
single character (such as a letter or other keyboard symbol).
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6 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

The memory we have been discussing up until now is the main memory.
Without its main memory, a computer can do nothing. However, main memory
is only used while the computer is actually following the instructions in a
program. The computer also has another form of memory called secondary
memory or secondary storage. (The words memory and storage are exact synonyms
secondary in this context.) Secondary memory is the memory that is used for keeping a
memory permanent record of information after (and before) the computer is used. Some
alternative terms that are commonly used to refer to secondary memory are
auxiliary memory, auxiliary storage, external memory, and external storage.
files Information in secondary storage is kept in units called files, which can be
as large or as small as you like. A program, for example, is stored in a file in
secondary storage and copied into main memory when the program is run.
You can store a program, a letter, an inventory list, or any other unit of
information in a file.
Several different kinds of secondary memory can be attached to a single
computer. The most common forms of secondary memory are hard disks,
diskettes, CDs, DVDs and removable flash memory drives. (Diskettes are also
sometimes referred to as floppy disks.) CDs (compact discs) used on computers
are basically the same as those used to record and play music, while DVDs
(digital video discs) are the same as those used to play videos. CDs and DVDs
for computers can be read-only so that your computer can read, but cannot
change, the data on the disc; CDs and DVDs for computers can also be read/
write, which can have their data changed by the computer. Information is
CDs, DVDs, disks, stored on hard disks and diskettes in basically the same way as it is stored on
and diskettes CDs and DVDs. Hard disks are fixed in place and are normally not removed
from the disk drive. Diskettes and CDs can be easily removed from the disk
drive and carried to another computer. Diskettes and CDs have the advantages
of being inexpensive and portable, but hard disks hold more data and operate
faster. Other forms of secondary memory are also available, but this list covers
most forms that you are likely to encounter.
RAM Main memory is often referred to as RAM or random access memory. It
is called random access because the computer can immediately access the data
in any memory location. Secondary memory often requires sequential access,
which means that the computer must look through all (or at least very many)
memory locations until it finds the item it needs.
processor The processor (also known as the central processing unit, or CPU) is the
brain of the computer. When a computer is advertised, the computer
chip company tells you what chip it contains. The chip is the processor. The
processor follows the instructions in a program and performs the calculations
specified by the program. The processor is, however, a very simple brain. All it
can do is follow a set of simple instructions provided by the programmer.
Typical processor instructions say things like Interpret the zeros and ones as
numbers, and then add the number in memory location 37 to the number in
memory location 59, and put the answer in location 43, or Read a letter of
input, convert it to its code as a string of zeros and ones, and place it in
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1.1 Computer Systems 7

memory location 1298. The processor can add, subtract, multiply, and divide
and can move things from one memory location to another. It can interpret
strings of zeros and ones as letters and send the letters to an output device. The
processor also has some primitive ability to rearrange the order of instructions.
Processor instructions vary somewhat from one computer to another. The
processor of a modern computer can have as many as several hundred
available instructions. However, these instructions are typically all about as
simple as those we have just described.

Software
You do not normally talk directly to the computer, but communicate with it
through an operating system. The operating system allocates the computers operating
resources to the different tasks that the computer must accomplish. The system
operating system is actually a program, but it is perhaps better to think of it as
your chief servant. It is in charge of all your other servant programs, and it
delivers your requests to them. If you want to run a program, you tell the
operating system the name of the file that contains it, and the operating
system runs the program. If you want to edit a file, you tell the operating
system the name of the file and it starts up the editor to work on that file. To
most users the operating system is the computer. Most users never see the
computer without its operating system. The names of some common operat-
ing systems are UNIX, DOS, Linux, Windows, Mac OS, and VMS.
A program is a set of instructions for a computer to follow. As shown in program
Display 1.3, the input to a computer can be thought of as consisting of two
parts, a program and some data. The computer follows the instructions in the
program, and in that way, performs some process. The data is what we data
conceptualize as the input to the program. For example, if the program adds
two numbers, then the two numbers are the data. In other words, the data is
the input to the program, and both the program and the data are input to the
computer (usually via the operating system). Whenever we give a computer

DISPLAY 1.3 Simple View of Running a Program

Program Data

Computer

Output
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8 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

both a program to follow and some data for the program, we are said to be
running a running the program on the data, and the computer is said to execute the
program program on the data. The word data also has a much more general meaning
than the one we have just given it. In its most general sense it means any
executing a information available to the computer. The word is commonly used in both
program the narrow sense and the more general sense.

High-Level Languages
There are many languages for writing programs. In this text we will discuss the
C++ programming language and use it to write our programs. C++ is a high-
level language, as are most of the other programming languages you are likely
to have heard of, such as C, Java, Pascal, Visual Basic, FORTRAN, COBOL,
high-level Lisp, Scheme, and Ada. High-level languages resemble human languages in
language many ways. They are designed to be easy for human beings to write programs
in and to be easy for human beings to read. A high-level language, such as
C++, contains instructions that are much more complicated than the simple
instructions a computers processor (CPU) is capable of following.
low-level The kind of language a computer can understand is called a low-level
language language. The exact details of low-level languages differ from one kind of
computer to another. A typical low-level instruction might be the following:

ADD X Y Z

This instruction might mean Add the number in the memory location called
X to the number in the memory location called Y, and place the result in the
memory location called Z. The above sample instruction is written in what is
assembly called assembly language. Although assembly language is almost the same as
language the language understood by the computer, it must undergo one simple
translation before the computer can understand it. In order to get a computer
to follow an assembly language instruction, the words need to be translated
into strings of zeros and ones. For example, the word ADD might translate to
0110, the X might translate to 1001, the Y to 1010, and the Z to 1011. The
version of the above instruction that the computer ultimately follows would
then be:

0110 1001 1010 1011

Assembly language instructions and their translation into zeros and ones
differ from machine to machine.
Programs written in the form of zeros and ones are said to be written in
machine machine language, because that is the version of the program that the
language computer (the machine) actually reads and follows. Assembly language and
machine language are almost the same thing, and the distinction between
them will not be important to us. The important distinction is that between
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1.1 Computer Systems 9

machine language and high-level languages like C++: Any high-level language
program must be translated into machine language before the computer can
understand and follow the program.

Compilers
A program that translates a high-level language like C++ to a machine
language is called a compiler. A compiler is thus a somewhat peculiar sort of compiler
program, in that its input or data is some other program, and its output is yet
another program. To avoid confusion, the input program is usually called the
source program or source code, and the translated version produced by the source program
compiler is called the object program or object code. The word code is object program
frequently used to mean a program or a part of a program, and this usage is code
particularly common when referring to object programs. Now, suppose you
want to run a C++ program that you have written. In order to get the computer
to follow your C++ instructions, proceed as follows. First, run the compiler
using your C++ program as data. Notice that in this case, your C++ program is
not being treated as a set of instructions. To the compiler, your C++ program
is just a long string of characters. The output will be another long string of
characters, which is the machine-language equivalent of your C++ program.
Next, run this machine-language program on what we normally think of as the
data for the C++ program. The output will be what we normally conceptualize
as the output of the C++ program. The basic process is easier to visualize if you
have two computers available, as diagrammed in Display 1.4. In reality, the
entire process is accomplished by using one computer two times.

Compiler

A compiler is a program that translates a high-level language program,

such as a C++ program, into a machine-language program that the
computer can directly understand and execute.

The complete process of translating and running a C++ program is a bit

more complicated than what we show in Display 1.4. Any C++ program you
write will use some operations (such as input and output routines) that have
already been programmed for you. These items that are already programmed
for you (like input and output routines) are already compiled and have their
object code waiting to be combined with your programs object code to produce
a complete machine-language program that can be run on the computer.
Another program, called a linker, combines the object code for these program linker
pieces with the object code that the compiler produced from your C++ program.
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10 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

The interaction of the compiler and the linker are diagrammed in Display 1.5. In
routine cases, many systems will do this linking for you automatically. Thus, you
may not need to worry about linking in very simple cases.

Linking

The object code for your C++ program must be combined with the object
code for routines (such as input and output routines) that your program
uses. This process of combining object code is called linking and is done
by a program called a linker. For simple programs, linking may be done
for you automatically.

DISPLAY 1.4 Compiling and Running a C++ Program (Basic Outline)

Data for
C++ program
C++ program

Compiler

Computer

Machine-
language

Computer

Output of
C++ program
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1.1 Computer Systems 11

DISPLAY 1.5 Preparing a C++ Program for Running

C++ program

Compiler

Object code for Object code for

C++ program other routines

Linker

Complete machine-
language code
ready to run

SELF-TEST EXERCISES

1. What are the five main components of a computer?

2. What would be the data for a program to add two numbers?

3. What would be the data for a program that assigns letter grades to stu-
dents in a class?

4. What is the difference between a machine-language program and a high-

level language program?

5. What is the role of a compiler?

6. What is a source program? What is an object program?

7. What is an operating system?

8. What purpose does the operating system serve?

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12 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

9. Name the operating system that runs on the computer you use to prepare
programs for this course.

10. What is linking?

11. Find out whether linking is done automatically by the compiler you use
for this course.

History Note
Charles Babbage The first truly programmable computer was designed by Charles Babbage, an
English mathematician and physical scientist. Babbage began the project
sometime before 1822 and worked on it for the rest of his life. Although he
never completed the construction of his machine, the design was a conceptual
milestone in the history of computing. Much of what we know about Charles
Babbage and his computer design comes from the writings of his colleague
Ada Augusta Ada Augusta. Ada Augusta was the daughter of the poet Byron and was the
Countess of Lovelace. Ada Augusta is frequently given the title of the first
computer programmer. Her comments, quoted in the opening of the next
section, still apply to the process of solving problems on a computer.
Computers are not magic and do not, at least as yet, have the ability to
formulate sophisticated solutions to all the problems we encounter. Comput-
ers simply do what the programmer orders them to do. The solutions to
problems are carried out by the computer, but the solutions are formulated by
the programmer. Our discussion of computer programming begins with a
discussion of how a programmer formulates these solutions.

1.2 PROGRAMMING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING

The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can
do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis; but it
has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths. Its province is to
assist us in making available what we are already acquainted with.
ADA AUGUSTA, COUNTESS OF LOVELACE (18151852)

In this section we describe some general principles that you can use to design
and write programs. These principles are not particular to C++. They apply no
matter what programming language you are using.

Algorithms
When learning your first programming language it is easy to get the impres-
sion that the hard part of solving a problem on a computer is translating your
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1.2 Programming and Problem-Solving 13

Charles Babbage
A model of
Babbages
computer

Ada Augusta,
Countess of Lovelace and
the first computer programmer

ideas into the specific language that will be fed into the computer. This
definitely is not the case. The most difficult part of solving a problem on a
computer is discovering the method of solution. After you come up with a
method of solution, it is routine to translate your method into the required
language, be it C++ or some other programming language. It is therefore
helpful to temporarily ignore the programming language and to concentrate
instead on formulating the steps of the solution and writing them down in
plain English, as if the instructions were to be given to a human being rather
than a computer. A sequence of instructions expressed in this way is frequently
referred to as an algorithm.
A sequence of precise instructions which leads to a solution is called an
algorithm. Some approximately equivalent words are recipe, method, directions, algorithm
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14 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

procedure, and routine. The instructions may be expressed in a programming

language or a human language. Our algorithms will be expressed in English
and in the programming language C++. A computer program is simply an
algorithm expressed in a language that a computer can understand. Thus, the
term algorithm is more general than the term program. However, when we say
that a sequence of instructions is an algorithm, we usually mean that the
instructions are expressed in English, since if they were expressed in a
programming language we would use the more specific term program. An
example may help to clarify the concept.
Display 1.6 contains an algorithm expressed in English. The algorithm
determines the number of times a specified name occurs on a list of names. If
the list contains the winners of each of last seasons football games and the
name is that of your favorite team, then the algorithm determines how many
games your team won. The algorithm is short and simple but is otherwise very
typical of the algorithms with which we will be dealing.
The instructions numbered 1 through 5 in our sample algorithm are
meant to be carried out in the order they are listed. Unless otherwise specified,
we will always assume that the instructions of an algorithm are carried out in
the order in which they are given (written down). Most interesting algorithms
do, however, specify some change of order, usually a repeating of some
instruction again and again such as in instruction 4 of our sample algorithm.
origin of the The word algorithm has a long history. It derives from the name of a ninth-
word algorithm century Persian mathematician and astronomer al-Khowarizmi. He wrote a
famous textbook on the manipulation of numbers and equations. The book
was entitled Kitab al-jabr walmuqabala, which can be translated as Rules for
reuniting and reducing. The similar-sounding word algebra was derived from
the arabic word al-jabr, which appears in the title of the book and which is
often translated as reuniting or restoring. The meanings of the words algebra
and algorithm used to be much more intimately related than they are today.
Indeed, until modern times, the word algorithm usually referred only to

DISPLAY 1.6 An Algorithm

Algorithm that determines how many times a name occurs in a list of names:
1. Get the list of names.
2. Get the name being checked.
3. Set a counter to zero.
4. Do the following for each name on the list:
Compare the name on the list to the name being checked,
and if the names are the same, then add one to the counter.
5. Announce that the answer is the number indicated by the counter.
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1.2 Programming and Problem-Solving 15

algebraic rules for solving numerical equations. Today the word algorithm can
be applied to a wide variety of kinds of instructions for manipulating symbolic
as well as numeric data. The properties that qualify a set of instructions as an
algorithm now are determined by the nature of the instructions rather than by
the things manipulated by the instructions. To qualify as an algorithm, a set
of instructions must completely and unambiguously specify the steps to be
taken and the order in which they are taken. The person or machine carrying
out the algorithm does exactly what the algorithm says, neither more nor less.

Algorithm

An algorithm is a sequence of precise instructions that leads to a solution.

Program Design
Designing a program is often a difficult task. There is no complete set of rules,
no algorithm to tell you how to write programs. Program design is a creative
process. Still, there is the outline of a plan to follow. The outline is given in
diagrammatic form in Display 1.7. As indicated there, the entire program-
design process can be divided into two phases, the problem-solving phase and
the implementation phase. The result of the problem-solving phase is an problem-solving
algorithm, expressed in English, for solving the problem. To produce a phase
program in a programming language such as C++, the algorithm is translated
into the programming language. Producing the final program from the
algorithm is called the implementation phase. implementation
The first step is to be certain that the taskthat you want your program to phase
dois completely and precisely specified. Do not take this step lightly. If you
do not know exactly what you want as the output of your program, you may
be surprised at what your program produces. Be certain that you know what
the input to the program will be and exactly what information is supposed to
be in the output, as well as what form that information should be in. For
example, if the program is a bank accounting program, you must know not
only the interest rate, but also whether interest is to be compounded annually,
monthly, daily, or whatever. If the program is supposed to write poetry, you
need to determine whether the poems can be in free verse or must be in
iambic pentameter or some other meter.
Many novice programmers do not understand the need to design an
algorithm before writing a program in a programming language, such as C++,
and so they try to short-circuit the process by omitting the problem-solving
phase entirely, or by reducing it to just the problem definition part. This seems
reasonable. Why not go for the mark and save time? The answer is that it does
not save time! Experience has shown that the two-phase process will produce a
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16 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

correctly working program faster. The two-phase process simplifies the algo-
rithm design phase by isolating it from the detailed rules of a programming
language such as C++. The result is that the algorithm design process becomes
much less intricate and much less prone to error. For even a modest-size
program, it can represent the difference between a half day of careful work and
several frustrating days of looking for mistakes in a poorly understood program.
The implementation phase is not a trivial step. There are details to be
concerned about, and occasionally some of these details can be subtle, but it
is much simpler than you might at first think. Once you become familiar with
C++ or any other programming language, the translation of an algorithm from
English into the programming language becomes a routine task.
As indicated in Display 1.7, testing takes place in both phases. Before the
program is written, the algorithm is tested, and if the algorithm is found to be
deficient, then the algorithm is redesigned. That desktop testing is performed
by mentally going through the algorithm and executing the steps yourself. On
large algorithms this will require a pencil and paper. The C++ program is
tested by compiling it and running it on some sample input data. The
compiler will give error messages for certain kinds of errors. To find other
types of errors, you must somehow check to see whether the output is correct.
The process diagrammed in Display 1.7 is an idealized picture of the
program design process. It is the basic picture you should have in mind, but

DISPLAY 1.7 Program Design Process

Problem-solving phase
Implementation phase
Start

Problem
definition

Algorithm Translating
design to C++

Desktop
Testing
testing

Working
program
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1.2 Programming and Problem-Solving 17

reality is sometimes more complicated. In reality, mistakes and deficiencies

are discovered at unexpected times, and you may have to back up and redo an
earlier step. For example, as shown in Display 1.7, testing the algorithm might
reveal that the definition of the problem was incomplete. In such a case you
must back up and reformulate the definition. Occasionally, deficiencies in the
definition or algorithm may not be observed until a program is tested. In that
case you must back up and modify the problem definition or algorithm and
all that follows them in the design process.

Object-Oriented Programming
The program design process that we outlined in the previous section repre-
sents a program as an algorithm (set of instructions) for manipulating some
data. That is a correct view, but not always the most productive view. Modern
programs are usually designed using a method known as object-oriented
programming, or OOP. In OOP a program is viewed as a collection of OOP
interacting objects. The methodology is easiest to understand when the
program is a simulation program. For example, for a program to simulate a
highway interchange, the objects might represent the automobiles and the
lanes of the highway. Each object has algorithms that describe how it should
behave in different situations. Programming in the OOP style consists of
designing the objects and the algorithms they use. When programming in the
OOP framework the term Algorithm design in Display 1.7 would be replaced
with the phrase Designing the objects and their algorithms.
The main characteristics of OOP are encapsulation, inheritance, and
polymorphism. Encapsulation is usually described as a form of information
hiding or abstraction. That description is correct, but perhaps an easier to
understand characterization is to say that encapsulation is a form of simplifi-
cation of the descriptions of objects. Inheritance has to do with writing
reusable program code. Polymorphism refers to a way that a single name can
have multiple meanings in the context of inheritance. Having made those
statements, we must admit that they hold little meaning for readers who have
not heard of OOP before. However, we will describe all these terms in detail
later in this book. C++ accommodates OOP by providing classes, a kind of class
data type combining both data and algorithms.

The Software Life Cycle

Designers of large software systems, such as compilers and operating systems,
divide the software development process into six phases collectively known as
the software life cycle. The six phases of this life cycle are: software life
cycle
1. Analysis and specification of the task (problem definition)
2. Design of the software (object and algorithm design)
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18 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

3. Implementation (coding)
4. Testing
5. Maintenance and evolution of the system
6. Obsolescence
We did not mention the last two phases in our discussion of program design
because they take place after the program is finished and put into service.
However, they should always be kept in mind. You will not be able to add
improvements or corrections to your program unless you design it to be easy
to read and easy to change. Designing programs so that they can be easily
modified is an important topic that we will discuss in detail when we have
developed a bit more background and a few more programming techniques.
The meaning of obsolescence is obvious, but it is not always easy to accept.
When a program is not working as it should and cannot be fixed with a
reasonable amount of effort, it should be discarded and replaced with a
completely new program.

SELF-TEST EXERCISES

12. An algorithm is approximately the same thing as a recipe, but some kinds
of steps that would be allowed in a recipe are not allowed in an algorithm.
Which steps in the following recipe would be allowed in an algorithm?
Place 2 teaspoons of sugar in mixing bowl.
Add 1 egg to mixing bowl.
Add 1 cup of milk to mixing bowl.
Add 1 ounce of rum, if you are not driving.
Add vanilla extract to taste.
Beat until smooth.
Pour into a pretty glass.
Sprinkle with nutmeg.

13. What is the first step you should take when creating a program?

14. The program design process can be divided into two main phases. What
are they?

15. Explain why the problem-solving phase should not be slighted.

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1.3 Introduction to C++ 19

1.3 INTRODUCTION TO C++

Language is the only instrument of science...
SAMUEL JOHNSON (17091784)

In this section we introduce you to the C++ programming language, which is

the programming language used in this book.

Origins of the C++ Language

The first thing that people notice about the C++ language is its unusual name.
Is there a C programming language, you might ask? Is there a C or a C
language? Are there programming languages named A and B? The answer to
most of these questions is no. But the general thrust of the questions is on the
mark. There is a B programming language; it was not derived from a language
called A, but from a language called BCPL. The C language was derived from
the B language, and C++ was derived from the C language. Why are there two
pluses in the name C++? As you will see in the next chapter, ++ is an operation
in the C and C++ languages, so using ++ produces a nice pun. The languages
BCPL and B do not concern us. They are earlier versions of the C programming
language. We will start our description of the C++ programming language with
a description of the C language.
The C programming language was developed by Dennis Ritchie of AT&T
Bell Laboratories in the 1970s. It was first used for writing and maintaining the
UNIX operating system. (Up until that time UNIX systems programs were
written either in assembly language or in B, a language developed by Ken
Thompson, who is the originator of UNIX.) C is a general-purpose language
that can be used for writing any sort of program, but its success and popularity
are closely tied to the UNIX operating system. If you wanted to maintain your
UNIX system, you needed to use C. C and UNIX fit together so well that soon
not just systems programs, but almost all commercial programs that ran under
UNIX were written in the C language. C became so popular that versions of
the language were written for other popular operating systems; its use is not
limited to computers that use UNIX. However, despite its popularity, C is not
without its shortcomings.
The C language is peculiar because it is a high-level language with many
of the features of a low-level language. C is somewhere in between the two
extremes of a very high-level language and a low-level language, and therein
lies both its strengths and its weaknesses. Like (low-level) assembly language,
C language programs can directly manipulate the computers memory. On the
other hand, C has many features of a high-level language, which makes it
easier to read and write than assembly language. This makes C an excellent
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20 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

choice for writing systems programs, but for other programs (and in some
sense even for systems programs), C is not as easy to understand as other
languages; also, it does not have as many automatic checks as some other
high-level languages.
To overcome these and other shortcomings of C, Bjarne Stroustrup of
AT&T Bell Laboratories developed C++ in the early 1980s. Stroustrup designed
C++ to be a better C. Most of C is a subset of C++, and so most C programs
are also C++ programs. (The reverse is not true; many C++ programs are
definitely not C programs.) Unlike C, C++ has facilities to do object-oriented
programming, which is a recently developed and very powerful programming
technique, described earlier in this chapter.

A Sample C++ Program

Display 1.8 contains a simple C++ program and the screen display that might
be generated when a user runs and interacts with this program. The person
user who runs a program is called the user. The text typed in by the user is shown
in boldface to distinguish it from the text written by the program. On the
actual screen both texts would look alike. The person who writes the program
programmer is called the programmer. Do not confuse the roles of the user and the
programmer. The user and the programmer might or might not be the same
person. For example, if you write and then run a program, you are both the
programmer and the user. With professionally produced programs, the
programmer (or programmers) and the user are usually different persons.
In the next chapter we will explain in detail all the C++ features you need
to write programs like the one in Display 1.8, but to give you a feel for how a
C++ program works, we will now give a brief description of how this particular
program works. If some of the details are a bit unclear, do not worry. In this
section, we just want to give you a feel for what a C++ program is.
beginning of The beginning and end of our sample program contain some details that
program need not concern us yet. The program begins with the following lines:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main( )
{

For now we will consider these lines to be a rather complicated way of saying
The program starts here.
return 0; The program ends with the following two lines:
return 0;
}

For a simple program, these two lines simply mean The program ends here.
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1.3 Introduction to C++ 21

DISPLAY 1.8 A Sample C++ Program

1 #include <iostream>
2 using namespace std;
3 int main( )
4 {
5 int number_of_pods, peas_per_pod, total_peas;
6 cout << "Press return after entering a number.\n";
7 cout << "Enter the number of pods:\n";
8 cin >> number_of_pods;
9 cout << "Enter the number of peas in a pod:\n";
10 cin >> peas_per_pod;
11 total_peas = number_of_pods * peas_per_pod;
12 cout << "If you have ";
13 cout << number_of_pods;
14 cout << " pea pods\n";
15 cout << "and ";
16 cout << peas_per_pod;
17 cout << " peas in each pod, then\n";
18 cout << "you have ";
19 cout << total_peas;
20 cout << " peas in all the pods.\n";
21 return 0;
22 }

Sample Dialogue
Press return after entering a number.
Enter the number of pods:
10
Enter the number of peas in a pod:
9
If you have 10 pea pods
and 9 peas in each pod, then
you have 90 peas in all the pods.

The lines in between these beginning and ending lines are the heart of the
program. We will briefly describe these lines, starting with the following line:
int number_of_pods, peas_per_pod, total_peas;
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22 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

variable This line is called a variable declaration. This variable declaration tells the
declarations computer that number_of_pods, peas_per_pod, and total_peas will be used as
names for three variables. Variables will be explained more precisely in the next
chapter, but it is easy to understand how they are used in this program. In this
variables program, the variables are used to name numbers. The word that starts this
line, int, is an abbreviation for the word integer and it tells the computer that
integer the numbers named by these variables will be integers. An integer is a whole
number, like 1, 2, 1, 7, 0, 205, 103, and so forth.
The remaining lines are all instructions that tell the computer to do
statements something. These instructions are called statements or executable statements.
In this program each statement fits on exactly one line. That need not be true,
but for very simple programs, statements are usually listed one per line.
cin and cout Most of the statements begin with either the word cin or cout. These
statements are input statements and output statements. The word cin, which
is pronounced see-in, is used for input. The statements that begin with cin
tell the computer what to do when information is entered from the keyboard.
The word cout, which is pronounced see-out, is used for output; that is, for
sending information from the program to the terminal screen. The letter c is
there because the language is C++. The arrows, written << or >>, tell you the
direction that data is moving. The arrows, << and >>, are called insert and
extract, or put to and get from, respectively. For example, consider the line:
cout << "Press return after entering a number.\n";

This line may be read, put "Press...number.\n" to cout or simply output

"Press...number.\n". If you think of the word cout as a name for the screen
(the output device), then the arrows tell the computer to send the string in
quotes to the screen. As shown in the sample dialogue, this causes the text
\n contained in the quotes to be written to the screen, The \n at the end of the
quoted string tells the computer to start a new line after writing out the text.
Similarly, the next line of the program also begins with cout, and that program
line causes the following line of text to be written to the screen:

Enter the number of pods:

The next program line starts with the word cin, so it is an input statement.
Lets look at that line:
cin >> number_of_pods;

This line may be read, get number_of_pods from cin or simply input
number_of_pods.
If you think of the word cin as standing for the keyboard (the input
device), then the arrows say that input should be sent from the keyboard to the
variable number_of_pods. Look again at the sample dialogue. The next line
shown has a 10 written in bold. We use bold to indicate something typed in at
the keyboard. If you type in the number 10, then the 10 appears on the screen.
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1.3 Introduction to C++ 23

If you then press the Return key (which is also sometimes called the Enter key),
that makes the 10 available to the program. The statement which begins with
cin tells the computer to send that input value of 10 to the variable
number_of_pods. From that point on, number_of_pods has the value 10; when
we see number_of_pods later in the program, we can think of it as standing for
the number 10.
Consider the next two program lines:
cout << "Enter the number of peas in a pod:\n";
cin >> peas_per_pod;

These lines are similar to the previous two lines. The first sends a message
to the screen asking for a number. When you type in a number at the keyboard
and press the Return key, that number becomes the value of the variable
peas_per_pod. In the sample dialogue, we assume that you type in the number 9.
After you type in 9 and press the Return key, the value of the variable
peas_per_pod becomes 9.
The next nonblank program line, shown below, does all the computation
that is done in this simple program:
total_peas = number_of_pods * peas_per_pod;

The asterisk symbol, *, is used for multiplication in C++. So this statement says
to multiply number_of_pods and peas_per_pod. In this case, 10 is multiplied
by 9 to give a result of 90. The equal sign says that the variable total_peas
should be made equal to this result of 90. This is a special use of the equal sign;
its meaning here is different than in other mathematical contexts. It gives the
variable on the left-hand side a (possibly new) value; in this case it makes 90
the value of total_peas.
The rest of the program is basically more of the same sort of output.
Consider the next three nonblank lines:
cout << "If you have ";
cout << number_of_pods;
cout << " pea pods\n";

These are just three more output statements that work basically the same as
the previous statements that begin with cout. The only thing that is new is the
second of these three statements, which says to output the variable
number_of_pods. When a variable is output, it is the value of the variable that
is output. So this statement causes a 10 to be output. (Remember that in this
sample run of the program, the variable number_of_pods was set to 10 by the
user who ran the program.) Thus, the output produced by these three lines is:

If you have 10 pea pods

Notice that the output is all on one line. A new line is not begun until the
special instruction \n is sent as output.
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24 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

The rest of the program contains nothing new, and if you understand
what we have discussed so far, you should be able to understand the rest of
the program.

PITFALL Using the Wrong Slash in \n

backslash When you use a \n in a cout statement be sure that you use the backslash,
which is written \. If you make a mistake and use /n rather than \n, the
compiler will not give you an error message. Your program will run, but the
output will look peculiar.

PROGRAMMING TIP Input and Output Syntax

If you think of cin as a name for the keyboard or input device and think of
cout as a name for the screen or the output device, then it is easy to remember
the direction of the arrows >> and <<. They point in the direction that data
moves. For example, consider the statement:

cin >> number_of_pods;

In the above statement, data moves from the keyboard to the variable
number_of_pods, and so the arrow points from cin to the variable.
On the other hand, consider the output statement:

cout << number_of_pods;

In this statement the data moves from the variable number_of_pods to the
screen, so the arrow points from the variable number_of_pods to cout.

Layout of a Simple C++ Program

The general form of a simple C++ program is shown in Display 1.9. As far as the
line breaks compiler is concerned, the line breaks and spacing need not be as shown there
and spaces and in our examples. The compiler will accept any reasonable pattern of line
breaks and indentation. In fact, the compiler will even accept most unreason-
able patterns of line breaks and indentation. However, a program should always
be laid out so that it is easy to read. Placing the opening brace, {, on a line by
itself and also placing the closing brace, }, on a line by itself will make these
punctuations easy to find. Indenting each statement and placing each statement
on a separate line makes it easy to see what the program instructions are. Later
on, some of our statements will be too long to fit on one line and then we will
use a slight variant of this pattern for indenting and line breaks. You should
follow the pattern set by the examples in this book, or follow the pattern
specified by your instructor if you are in a class.
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1.3 Introduction to C++ 25

DISPLAY 1.9 Layout of a Simple C++ Program

1 #include <iostream>
2 using namespace std;
3
4 int main( )
5 {
6 Variable_Declarations
7
8 Statement_1
9 Statement_2
10 ...
11 Statement_Last
12
13 return 0;
14 }

In Display 1.8, the variable declarations are on the line that begins with
the word int. As we will see in the next chapter, you need not place all your
variable declarations at the beginning of your program, but that is a good
default location for them. Unless you have a reason to place them somewhere
else, place them at the start of your program as shown in Display 1.9 and in
the sample program in Display 1.8. The statements are the instructions that statement
are followed by the computer. In Display 1.8, the statements are the lines that
begin with cout or cin, and the one line that begins with total_peas followed
by an equal sign. Statements are often called executable statements. We will executable
use the terms statement and executable statement interchangeably. Notice that statement
each of the statements we have seen ends with a semicolon. The semicolon in
statements is used in more or less the same way that the period is used in
English sentences; it marks the end of a statement.
For now you can view the first few lines as a funny way to say this is the
beginning of the program. But we can explain them in a bit more detail. The #include
first line
#include <iostream>

is called an include directive. It tells the compiler where to find information include
about certain items that are used in your program. In this case iostream is the directive
name of a library that contains the definitions of the routines that handle
input from the keyboard and output to the screen; iostream is a file that
contains some basic information about this library. The linker program that
we discussed earlier in this chapter combines the object code for the library
iostream and the object code for the program you write. For the library
iostream this will probably happen automatically on your system. You will
eventually use other libraries as well, and when you use them, they will have
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26 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

to be named in directives at the start of your program. For other libraries, you
may need to do more than just place an include directive in your program,
but in order to use any library in your program, you will always need to at least
place an include directive for that library in your program. Directives always
begin with the symbol #. Some compilers require that directives have no
spaces around the #; so it is always safest to place the # at the very start of the
line and not include any space between the # and the word include.
The following line further explains the include directive that we just
explained.
using namespace std;

This line says that the names defined in iostream are to be interpreted in the
standard way (std is an abbreviation of standard). We will have more to say
about this line a bit later in this book.
int main( ) The third and fourth nonblank lines, shown next, simply say that the
main part of the program starts here:
int main( )
{

The correct term is main function, rather than main part, but the reason for that
subtlety will not concern us until Chapter 4. The braces { and } mark the
beginning and end of the main part of the program. They need not be on a
line by themselves, but that is the way to make them easy to find and we will
therefore always place each of them on a line by itself.
return 0; The next-to-last line
return 0;

says to end the program when you get to here. This line need not be the last
thing in the program, but in a very simple program it makes no sense to place it
anywhere else. Some compilers will allow you to omit this line and will figure
out that the program ends when there are no more statements to execute.
However, other compilers will insist that you include this line, so it is best to get
in the habit of including it, even if your compiler is happy without it. This line
return statement is called a return statement and is considered to be an executable statement
because it tells the computer to do something; specifically, it tells the computer
to end the program. The number 0 has no intuitive significance to us yet, but
must be there; its meaning will become clear as you learn more about C++. Note
that even though the return statement says to end the program, you still must
add a closing brace } at the end of the main part of your program.

PITFALL Putting a Space before the include File Name

Be certain that you do not have any extra space between the < and the iostream
file name (Display 1.9) or between the end of the file name and the closing >.
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1.3 Introduction to C++ 27

The compiler include directive is not very smart: It will search for a file name
that starts or ends with a space! The file name will not be found, producing an
error that is quite difficult to find. You should make this error deliberately in
a small program, then compile it. Save the message that your compiler
produces so you know what the error message means the next time you get
that error message.

Compiling and Running a C++ Program

Video Note
In the previous section you learned what would happen if you ran the C++ Compiling and
program shown in Display 1.8. But where is that program and how do you Running a C++
Program
make it run?
You write a C++ program using a text editor in the same way that you write
any other document such as a term paper, a love letter, a shopping list, or
whatever. The program is kept in a file just like any other document you
prepare using a text editor. There are different text editors, and the details of
how to use the text editor will vary from one text editor to another, so we
cannot say too much more about your text editor. You should consult the
documentation for your editor.
The way that you compile and run a C++ program also depends on the
particular system you are using, so we will discuss these points in only a very
general way. You need to learn how to give the commands to compile, link, and
run a C++ program on your system. These commands can be found in the
manuals for your system and by asking people who are already using C++ on
your system. When you give the command to compile your program, this will
produce a machine-language translation of your C++ program. This translated
version of your program is called the object code for your program. The object
code for your program must be linked (that is, combined) with the object code
for routines (such as input and output routines) that are already written for you.
It is likely that this linking will be done automatically, so you do not need to
worry about linking. But on some systems, you may be required to make a
separate call to the linker. Again, consult your manuals or a local expert. Finally,
you give the command to run your program; how you give that command also
depends on the system you are using, so check with the manuals or a local expert.

PROGRAMMING TIP Getting Your Program to Run

Different compilers and different environments might require a slight varia-
tion in some details of how you set up a file with your C++ program. Obtain
a copy of the program in Display 1.10. It is available for downloading over the
Internet. (See the preface for details.) Alternatively, very carefully type in the
program yourself. Compile the program. If you get an error message, check
your typing, fix any typing mistakes, and recompile the file. Once the program
compiles with no error messages, try running the program.
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28 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

DISPLAY 1.10 Testing Your C++ Setup

1 #include <iostream>
2 using namespace std; If you cannot compile and run this program, then
3 see the programming tip entitled Getting Your
4 int main( ) Program to Run. It suggests some things to do
5 { to get your C++ programs to run on your particular
6 cout << "Testing 1, 2, 3\n"; computer setup.
7 return 0;
8 }
9

Sample Dialogue
Testing 1, 2, 3

If you get the program to compile and run normally, you are all set. You
do not need to do anything different from the examples shown in the book.
If this program does not compile or does not run normally, then read on. In
what follows we offer some hints for dealing with your C++ setup. Once you
get this simple program to run normally, you will know what small changes
to make to your C++ program files in order to get them to run on your system.
If your program seems to run, but you do not see the output line
Testing 1, 2, 3

then, in all likelihood, the program probably did give that output, but it
disappeared before you could see it. Try adding the following to the end of
your program, just before the line return 0; these lines should stop your
program to allow you to read the output.
char letter;
cout << "Enter a letter to end the program:\n";
cin >> letter;

The part in braces should then read as follows:

cout << "Testing 1, 2, 3\n";
char letter;
cout << "Enter a letter to end the program:\n";
cin >> letter;
return 0;

For now you need not understand these added lines, but they will be clear to
you by the end of Chapter 2.
If the program does not compile or run at all, then try changing
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1.3 Introduction to C++ 29

#include <iostream>

by adding .h to the end of iostream, so it reads as follows:

#include <iostream.h>

If your program requires iostream.h instead of iostream, then you have an

old C++ compiler and should obtain a more recent compiler.
If your program still does not compile and run normally, try deleting
using namespace std;

If your program still does not compile and run, then check the documen-
tation for your version of C++ to see if any more directives are needed for
console input/output.
If all this fails, consult your instructor if you are in a course. If you are not
in a course or you are not using the course computer, check the documenta-
tion for your C++ compiler or check with a friend who has a similar computer
setup. The necessary change is undoubtedly very small and, once you find out
what it is, very easy.

SELF-TEST EXERCISES

16. If the following statement were used in a C++ program, what would it
cause to be written on the screen?

cout << "C++ is easy to understand.";

17. What is the meaning of \n as used in the following statement (which

appears in Display 1.8)?

cout << "Enter the number of peas in a pod:\n";

18. What is the meaning of the following statement (which appears in Dis-
play 1.8)?

cin >> peas_per_pod;

19. What is the meaning of the following statement (which appears in Display
1.8)?

total_peas = number_of_pods * peas_per_pod;

20. What is the meaning of this directive?

#include <iostream>
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30 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

21. What, if anything, is wrong with the following #include directives?

a. #include <iostream >
b. #include < iostream>
c. #include <iostream>

1.4 TESTING AND DEBUGGING

And if you take one from three hundred and sixty-five, what remains?
Three hundred and sixty-four, of course.
Humpty Dumpty looked doubtful. Id rather see that done on paper, he said.
LEWIS CARROLL, Through the Looking-Glass

bug A mistake in a program is usually called a bug, and the process of eliminating
debugging bugs is called debugging. There is colorful history of how this term came into
use. It occurred in the early days of computers, when computer hardware was
extremely sensitive. Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (19061992) was the
third programmer on the worlds first large-scale digital computer. (Denise W.
Gurer, Pioneering women in computer science CACM 38(1):4554, January
1995.) While Hopper was working on the Harvard Mark I computer under the
command of Harvard professor Howard H. Aiken, an unfortunate moth caused
a relay to fail. Hopper and the other programmers taped the deceased moth in
the logbook with the note First actual case of bug being found. The logbook
is currently on display at the Naval Museum in Dahlgren, Virginia. This was
the first documented computer bug. Professor Aiken would come into the
facility during a slack time and inquire if any numbers were being computed.
The programmers would reply that they were debugging the computer. For more
information about Admiral Hopper and other persons in computing, see
Robert Slater, Portraits in Silicon, MIT Press, 1987. Today, a bug is a mistake in
a program. In this section we describe the three main kinds of programming
mistakes and give some hints on how to correct them.

Kinds of Program Errors

The compiler will catch certain kinds of mistakes and will write out an error
syntax error message when it finds a mistake. It will detect what are called syntax errors,
because they are, by and large, violation of the syntax (that is, the grammar
rules) of the programming language, such as omitting a semicolon.
If the compiler discovers that your program contains a syntax error, it will
tell you where the error is likely to be and what kind of error it is likely to be. If
the compiler says your program contains a syntax error, you can be confident
that it does. However, the compiler may be incorrect about either the location
or the nature of the error. It does a better job of determining the location of an
error, to within a line or two, than it does of determining the source of the error.
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1.4 Testing and Debugging 31

This is because the compiler is guessing at what you meant to write down and
can easily guess wrong. After all, the compiler cannot read your mind. Error
messages subsequent to the first one have a higher likelihood of being incorrect
with respect to either the location or the nature of the error. Again, this is
because the compiler must guess your meaning. If the compilers first guess was
incorrect, this will affect its analysis of future mistakes, since the analysis will be
based on a false assumption.
If your program contains something that is a direct violation of the syntax error messages
rules for your programming language, the compiler will give you an error versus
message. However, sometimes the compiler will give you only a warning warning
message, which indicates that you have done something that is not, technical- messages
ly speaking, a violation of the programming language syntax rules, but that is
unusual enough to indicate a likely mistake. When you get a warning message,
the compiler is saying, Are you sure you mean this? At this stage of your
development, you should treat every warning as if it were an error until your
instructor approves ignoring the warning.
There are certain kinds of errors that the computer system can detect only
when a program is run. Appropriately enough, these are called run-time run-time error
errors. Most computer systems will detect certain run-time errors and output
an appropriate error message. Many run-time errors have to do with numeric
calculations. For example, if the computer attempts to divide a number by
zero, that is normally a run-time error.
If the compiler approved of your program and the program ran once with
no run-time error messages, this does not guarantee that your program is
correct. Remember, the compiler will only tell you if you wrote a syntactically
(that is, grammatically) correct C++ program. It will not tell you whether the
program does what you want it to do. Mistakes in the underlying algorithm or
in translating the algorithm into the C++ language are called logic errors. For logic error
example, if you were to mistakenly use the addition sign + instead of the
multiplication sign * in the program in Display 1.8, that would be a logic
error. The program would compile and run normally, but would give the
wrong answer. If the compiler approves of your program and there are no run-
time errors, but the program does not perform properly, then undoubtedly
your program contains a logic error. Logic errors are the hardest kind to
diagnose, because the computer gives you no error messages to help find the
error. It cannot reasonably be expected to give any error messages. For all the
computer knows, you may have meant what you wrote.

PITFALL Assuming Your Program Is Correct

In order to test a new program for logic errors, you should run the program
on several representative data sets and check its performance on those
inputs. If the program passes those tests, you can have more confidence in it,
but this is still not an absolute guarantee that the program is correct. It still
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32 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

may not do what you want it to do when it is run on some other data. The
only way to justify confidence in a program is to program carefully and so
avoid most errors.

SELF-TEST EXERCISES

22. What are the three main kinds of program errors?

23. What kinds of errors are discovered by the compiler?

24. If you omit a punctuation symbol (such as a semicolon) from a program,

an error is produced. What kind of error?

25. Omitting the final brace } from a program produces an error. What kind
of error?

26. Suppose your program has a situation about which the compiler reports a
warning. What should you do about it? Give the texts answer, and your
local answer if it is different from the texts. Identify your answers as the
texts or as based on your local rules.

27. Suppose you write a program that is supposed to compute the interest on
a bank account at a bank that computes interest on a daily basis, and sup-
pose you incorrectly write your program so that it computes interest on an
annual basis. What kind of program error is this?

CHAPTER SUMMARY
The collection of programs used by a computer is referred to as the
software for that computer. The actual physical machines that make up
a computer installation are referred to as hardware.
The five main components of a computer are the input device(s), the out-
put device(s), the processor (CPU), the main memory, and the secondary
memory.
A computer has two kinds of memory: main memory and secondary mem-
ory. Main memory is used only while the program is running. Secondary
memory is used to hold data that will stay in the computer before and/or
after the program is run.
A computers main memory is divided into a series of numbered locations
called bytes. The number associated with one of these bytes is called the
address of the byte. Often several of these bytes are grouped together to
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Answers to Self-Test Exercises 33

form a larger memory location. In that case, the address of the first byte is
used as the address of this larger memory location.
A byte consists of eight binary digits, each either zero or one. A digit that
can only be zero or one is called a bit.

A compiler is a program that translates a program written in a high-level

language like C++ into a program written in the machine language that the
computer can directly understand and execute.

A sequence of precise instructions that leads to a solution is called an algo-

rithm. Algorithms can be written in English or in a programming language,
like C++. However, the word algorithm is usually used to mean a sequence
of instructions written in English (or some other human language, such as
Spanish or Arabic).

Before writing a C++ program, you should design the algorithm (method of
solution) that the program will use.

Programming errors can be classified into three groups: syntax errors, run-
time errors, and logic errors. The computer will usually tell you about errors
in the first two categories. You must discover logic errors yourself.

The individual instructions in a C++ program are called statements.

A variable in a C++ program can be used to name a number. (Variables are

explained more fully in the next chapter.)

A statement in a C++ program that begins with cout << is an output state-
ment, which tells the computer to output to the screen whatever follows the <<.

A statement in a C++ program that begins with cin >> is an input statement.

Answers to Self-Test Exercises

1. The five main components of a computer are the input device(s), the out-
put device(s), the processor (CPU), the main memory, and the secondary
memory.

2. The two numbers to be added.

3. The grades for each student on each test and each assignment.

4. A machine-language program is a low-level language consisting of zeros

and ones that the computer can directly execute. A high-level language is
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34 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

written in a more English-like format and is translated by a compiler into

a machine-language program that the computer can directly understand
and execute.

5. A compiler translates a high-level language program into a machine-

language program.

6. The high-level language program that is input to a compiler is called the

source program. The translated machine-language program that is output
by the compiler is called the object program.

7. An operating system is a program, or several cooperating programs, but is

best thought of as the users chief servant.

8. An operating systems purpose is to allocate the computers resources to

different tasks the computer must accomplish.

9. Among the possibilities are the Macintosh operating system Mac OS, Win-
dows 2000, Windows XP, VMS, Solaris, SunOS, UNIX (or perhaps one of
the UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux). There are many others.

10. The object code for your C++ program must be combined with the object
code for routines (such as input and output routines) that your program
uses. This process of combining object code is called linking. For simple
programs this linking may be done for you automatically.

11. The answer varies, depending on the compiler you use. Most UNIX and
UNIX-like compilers link automatically, as do the compilers in most inte-
grated development environments for Windows and Macintosh operating
systems.

12. The following instructions are too vague for use in an algorithm:
Add vanilla extract to taste.
Beat until smooth.
Pour into a pretty glass.
Sprinkle with nutmeg.
The notions of to taste, smooth, and pretty are not precise. The
instruction sprinkle is too vague, since it does not specify how much
nutmeg to sprinkle. The other instructions are reasonable to use in an
algorithm.

13. The first step you should take when creating a program is to be certain
that the task to be accomplished by the program is completely and pre-
cisely specified.
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Answers to Self-Test Exercises 35

14. The problem-solving phase and the implementation phase.

15. Experience has shown that the two-phase process produces a correctly
working program faster.

16. C++ is easy to understand.

17. The symbols \n tell the computer to start a new line in the output so that
the next item output will be on the next line.

18. This statement tells the computer to read the next number that is typed
in at the keyboard and to send that number to the variable named
peas_per_pod.

19. This statement says to multiply the two numbers in the variables
number_of_pods and peas_per_pod, and to place the result in the variable
named total_peas.

20. The #include <iostream> directive tells the compiler to fetch the file
iostream. This file contains declarations of cin, cout, the insertion (<<)
and extraction (>>) operators for I/O (input and output). This enables
correct linking of the object code from the iostream library with the I/O
statements in the program.

21. a. The extra space after the iostream file name causes a file-not-found
error message.
b. The extra space before the iostream file name causes a file-not-found
error message.
c. This one is correct.

22. The three main kinds of program errors are syntax errors, run-time errors,
and logic errors.

23. The compiler detects syntax errors. There are other errors that are not tech-
nically syntax errors that we are lumping with syntax errors. You will learn
about these later.

24. A syntax error.

25. A syntax error.

26. The text states that you should take warnings as if they had been reported
as errors. You should ask your instructor for the local rules on how to han-
dle warnings.

27. A logic error.

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36 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

PROGRAMMING PROJECTS

1. Using your text editor, enter (that is, type in) the C++ program shown in
Display 1.8. Be certain to type the first line exactly as shown in Display
1.8. In particular, be sure that the first line begins at the left-hand end of
the line with no space before or after the # symbol. Compile and run the
program. If the compiler gives you an error message, correct the program
and recompile the program. Do this until the compiler gives no error mes-
sages. Then run your program.

2. Modify the C++ program you entered in Programming Project 1. Change

the program so that it first writes the word Hello to the screen and then
goes on to do the same things that the program in Display 1.8 does. You
will only have to add one line to the program to make this happen. Recom-
pile the changed program and run the changed program. Then change the
program even more. Add one more line that will make the program write
the word Good-bye to the screen at the end of the program. Be certain to
add the symbols \n to the last output statement so that it reads as follows:

cout << "Good-bye\n";

(Some systems require that final \n, and your system may be one of the
systems that requires a final \n.) Recompile and run the changed program.

3. Further modify the C++ program that you already have modified in Pro-
gramming Project 2. Change the multiplication sign * in your C++ program
to a division sign /. Recompile the changed program. Run the program.
Enter a zero input for number of peas in a pod. Notice the run time error
message due to division by zero.

4. Modify the C++ program that you entered in Programming Project 1.

Change the multiplication sign * in your C++ program to an addition sign +.
Recompile and run the changed program. Notice that the program compiles
and runs perfectly fine, but the output is incorrect. That is because this mod-
ification is a logic error.

5. Write a C++ program that reads in two integers and then outputs both
their sum and their product. One way to proceed is to start with the pro-
gram in Display 1.8 and to then modify that program to produce the pro-
gram for this project. Be certain to type the first line of your program
exactly the same as the first line in Display 1.8. In particular, be sure that
the first line begins at the left-hand end of the line with no space before or
after the # symbol. Also, be certain to add the symbols \n to the last out-
put statement in your program. For example, the last output statement
might be the following:

cout << "This is the end of the program.\n";

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Programming Projects 37

(Some systems require that final \n, and your system may be one of
these.)

6. The purpose of this exercise is to produce a catalog of typical syntax errors

and error messages that will be encountered by a beginner, and to con- Video Note
Solution to
tinue acquainting you with the programming environment. This exercise Programming
should leave you with a knowledge of what error to look for when given Project 1.6
any of a number of common error messages.
Your instructor may have a program for you to use for this exercise. If not,
you should use a program from one of the previous Programming
Projects.

Deliberately introduce errors to the program, compile, record the error and the
error message, fix the error, compile again (to be sure you have the program
corrected), then introduce another error. Keep the catalog of errors and add
program errors and messages to it as you continue through this course.

The sequence of suggested errors to introduce is:

a. Put an extra space between the < and the iostream file name.
b. Omit one of the < or > symbols in the include directive.
c. Omit the int from int main().
d. Omit or misspell the word main.
e. Omit one of the (), then omit both the ().
f. Continue in this fashion, deliberately misspelling identifiers (cout,
cin, and so on). Omit one or both of the << in the cout statement;
leave off the ending curly brace }.

7. Write a program that prints out C S ! in large block letters inside a border
of *s followed by two blank lines then the message Computer Science is
Cool Stuff. The output should look as follows:
*****************************************************

C C C S S S S !!
C C S S !!
C S !!
C S !!
C S S S S !!
C S !!
C S !!
C C S S
C C C S S S S OO

*****************************************************
Computer Science is Cool Stuff!!!
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38 CHAPTER 1 / Introduction to Computers and C++ Programming

8. Write a program that allows the user to enter a number of quarters, dimes,
and nickels and then outputs the monetary value of the coins in cents. For
example, if the user enters 2 for the number of quarters, 3 for the number
of dimes, and 1 for the number of nickels, then the program should out-
put that the coins are worth 85 cents.

9. Write a program that allows the user to enter a time in seconds and then
outputs how far an object would drop if it is in freefall for that length of
time. Assume that the object starts at rest, there is no friction or resistance
from air, and there is a constant acceleration of 32 feet per second due to
gravity. Use the equation:
2
acceleration  time
distance  ------------------------------------------------------
-
2

You should first compute the product and then divide the result by 2
(The reason for this will be discussed later in the book).