Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MODULE 1
INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING
Introduction to programming
1.
Name of Module
: Introduction to programming
2.
Learning Outcomes
: The students should be able to:(a) Define programming (b) State the main steps in programme development.
3.
4.
Module Summary
(b) Understand
Development.
the
phases
of
Program
Introduction to programming
1.1 What is programme?
Programme refers to a series of organize instruction that directs the computer to do something for us with the help of programming language. 1.2 What is a programming language? A Programming Language is a set of rules that provides a way of telling the computer what operation to perform (according to Capron and Johnson,2004) 1.3 What programming languages are available? These programming languages are generally divided into five levels or generations. The following are the descriptions of each level of programming language:Level of language / Generations Machine Language ( First generation ) Descriptions
Natural Language (Fifth Generation )
Lets look at some of the examples of each interface for the programming languages:-
Diagram 5: Pascal Programming e) Example of Fortran programming (taken from http://homepage.cs.uri.edu/faculty/wolfe/book/Readings/Reading13.htm downloaded on 16.6.2006).
Diagram 6: Fotran Programming g) Example of Java programming (taken from http://ssrlibrary.ca/~megatron/images/screenshots/eclipse.png downloaded on 16.6.2006)
Diagram 7: Java Programming The Program Development Life Cycle When we want to produce a program, we need to go through a few phases. There are five main phases in program development;
Diagram 8: Program Development Life Cycle Lets look at the descriptions of each main phase in program development: 1. Problem Analysis What is problem analysis? The programmer need to identify and analyst the problem before developing a programme. (Example: interview the client to get information of problems). 2. Program Design Before a programme is developed it has to be design using algorithm. An algorithm is a set of steps that is able to solve a problem. It can be expressed in many ways such as Pseudo code and Flowcharts.
A pseudo code is a mixture of Computer and English language, used for planning program logic. Example : The following pseudocode is to input (Key-in) two marks (math & Science) and output (display) the total mark. BEGIN ; INPUT math mark INPUT science mark Total = math mark + science mark DISPLAY Total; End ; 2.2 Flowcharts Symbol Name Start / Stop Input / Output Decision Process Connector Flow lines
Table 1 : Flowcharts Symbols
Description
Shows the Start and flowcharts End of the
Shows any function an Input / Output device. Shows the Selection of an option depends on a given condition. Shows the function like Calculations. If the page is not enough, used to continue to the next page. Used to give the direction of the flow of data / information.
Draw a flowchart to enter your Math and Science marks and output shows the Total of Math and Science marks.
Start
3. Coding Coding is to translate the logic from the flowchart or pseudo code into code 4. Testing and Debugging Testing is to find error of the programme, the process of finding error is debugging. 5. Documentation Documentation is important when programming. The document helps a programmer to update and upgrade the programme. A document consists of problem analysis, pseudo code, flowcharts, code, user manual, a clear layout of the input and output records about the programme.
10