Computer Programming

SECT-M1082
 Chapter 1
Introduction to Programming
SECT-M1082
 1.1 Computer Systems
• A set of instructions for a computer to follow is called a
program. Personal Computer
• The collection of programs used by a computer is referred to as
the software.
• The actual physical machines that make up a computer
installation are referred to as hardware.
• There are three main classes of computers:
• PC
• Workstations
• Mainframes Workstations
• A network consists of a number of computers connected, so
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.

Mainframes

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 1.1 Computer Systems
Main Components of a Computer
1. Input Devices
• A device that allows a user to pass information to the computer.
Example: Keyboard, Mouse, Scanners, Microphones and etc
2. Output Devices
• Provide information from the computer to the user.
Example: Monitor, Speakers, Printer and etc
3. The Processor
• Also known as Central Processing Unit (CPU)
• It is the brain of the computer.
• It follows the instructions in a program and performs the calculations specified
by the program.
• It 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.

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 Main Components of a Computer…
5. Main Memory
• Keep the program being executed.
• It is called random access because the computer can immediately
access the data in any memory location.
Example: Random Access Memory (RAM)
6. Secondary Memory or Auxiliary Memory
• Keep permanent record of information.
• It 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.
• A program is stored in a file in secondary storage and copied
into main memory when the program is run.
Example: Hard disks, Removable Storage and CD

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 1.1 Computer Systems
• Bit : a digit that can only be zero or one .
• A byte consists of eight binary digits ,bits, each either
zero or one.
• A computer’s 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
form a larger memory location. In that case, the address
of the first byte is used as the address of this larger
memory location.

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 Operating System
• Operating Systems: facilitates the communication
between a program and a computer.
• It allocates the computer’s resources to the different
tasks that the computer must accomplish.
• Some common operating systems are UNIX, DOS, Linux,
Windows, Macintosh, and VMS
• 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 a program, and
in that way, performs some process.
• The data is what we conceptualize as the input to the
program, and both the program and the data are input to
the computer through an operating system.

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 Types of Computer Programming Languages
1. Low-level Language
1.1 Machine Language
• A computer programming language consisting of
binary or hexadecimal instructions wich a computer
can respond to directly.[1]
• It is machine dependent. In other words, it is different
from machine to machine.
• The only language that computers directly
understand.
• Only programmers who build Software Compilers and
Operating Systems need to view a machine language.
• Cannot be easily understood by humans.
• It is a first-generation programming language.

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 Types of Computer Programming Languages
1. Low-level Language
1.2 Assembly Language
• English like abbreviations used to represent
elementary computer operations.
• Needs to be converted to a machine language to
execute.
• An assembler converts assembly language to machine
language.
• Generally consist of simple phrases like ADD, STORE,
and LOAD.

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 Types of Computer Programming Languages
2. High-level Language
• Resembles English language and common mathematical
notations.
• Easier for human beings to understand.
• It must be translated to machine language for the program to
execute.
• A compiler converts high-level language to machine language.
• Some of high level programming languages are C++, Python,
Java, JavaScript, Pascal, Visual Basic, FORTRAN, COBOL, Lisp,
Scheme, and Ada.

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 Linker and Compiler
• 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.
• In the compiling process your C++ program is converted to an
object code and linked with other object codes and converted
to a machine language.
• 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 .

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 1.2 Programming and Problem Solving
• Algorithms
• A sequence of precise instructions which leads to a
solution is called an algorithm.
• An algorithm is a finite sequence of well-defined,
computer-implementable instructions, typically to solve
a class of problems or to perform a computation.
• Algorithms are generally created independent of
underlying language.
• Some approximately equivalent words are recipe,
method, directions, procedure, and routine.
• To qualify as an algorithm, a set of instructions must
• Completely and unambiguously specify the steps to
be taken.
• Specify the order in which they are taken.

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 1.2 Programming and Problem Solving
• Characteristics of Algorithms
• An algorithm should be clear and unambiguous.
• An algorithm should have one or more well-defined outputs and should match the
desired output.
• An algorithm should have 0 or well-defined set of inputs.
• An algorithm must terminate after finite number of steps.
• An algorithm should be feasible with available resource.
• An algorithm should have a step-by-step direction and should be independent of any
programming language.

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 1.2 Programming and Problem Solving
• Algorithm example
Question: Design an algorithm to add three
numbers and display the result.

• Step 1 − START
• Step 2 − declare three integers a, b, c & d
• Step 3 − get values of a, b and c from user
• Step 4 − add values of a and b
• Step 5 − store output of step 4 to d
• Step 6 − print d
• Step 7 − STOP

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 1.2 Programming and Problem Solving
Program Design
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.
Program design is divided into two phases:
1. Problem Solving Phase
2. Implementation Phase

Problem Solving Phase

• The solution to the problem is stated in a step by step manner by sequence
of precise instructions.
• The output of this phase is an algorithm.

Implementation Phase
• The algorithm is implemented by a programming language and tested until
the intended output is achieved.

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 The Software Life Cycle
• Designers of large software systems, such as compilers and operating systems, divided the software
development process into six phases known as the software life cycle.
• The six phases of this life cycle are:
1. Analysis and specification of the task (problem definition)
2. Design of the software (object and algorithm design)
3. Implementation (coding)
4. Testing
5. Maintenance and evolution of the system
• Maintain incase of failures and introduce changes to deployed software.
6. Obsolescence
• Being obsolete or outdated.

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 Introduction to C++
• Brief history of C++
BCPL => B => C => 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.

Bjarne Stroustrup
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 Layout of a Simple C++ Program
#include < >
- is called include directive.
- It tells the compiler where to find information about
certain items that are used in your program.
#include <iostream>
- In this case iostream is the 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.

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 Layout of a Simple C++ Program
using namespace std;
- the names defined in iostream are to be interpreted in the
“standard way” (std is an abbreviation of standard) .
int main( )
{}
- Specifies that the program starts executing here.
- The curly brace shows the start and end of the body of the main
part.
return 0;
- It is called a return statement.
- It tells the program to end the execution.

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 A Sample C++ Program

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 Testing and Debugging

• A mistake in a program is usually called a bug.

• The process of eliminating bugs is called debugging.
• Kinds of program errors:
1. Syntax Errors
• Occur by the violation of the syntax (grammar).
• The compiler tells you that your program contains a syntax error.
Example: Missing a closing curly brace.
2. Runtime Errors
• Errors that are detected by the computer when the program is run.
Example: Zero division error
3. Logical Errors
• A mistake made by a programmer during the development.
• It is not detected both by the computer and a compiler.
• To avoid logical errors programming carefully and testing the program with different data sets is
preferable.
Example: Accidentally using * instead of + to add two numbers

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 Thank you!

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