1.

2 Introduction to Programming
 A computer by itself will not do anything particularly useful.

 A program is a set of coded instructions that enables a machine to solve a

problem.
 A program directs the computer to
perform some specific task
 It is the ability to program a computer to

perform different tasks that makes

computers very powerful devices

 Theact of designing, implementing, and maintaining a program is called

programming

 A programming language signifies the syntax that can be used to write a program
 Programming languages are specifically designed for giving commands to a computer

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1.2 Introduction to Programming
 Machine Language
 Machine language is a type of programming language
 Machine language can be understood directly by a particular computer
 Simple instructions that can be executed directly by the CPU of a
computer
 These instructions represent the fundamental operations that the computer
can perform

The fundamental operations that most computers can perform include:

• Arithmetic operations
• Add, Multiply etc.
• Logic operations
• Is something true or false?
• Control Flow operations
• Used to determine the next instruction to carry out

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1.2 Introduction to Programming
 Machine Language
 Machine language is represented by a series of 1’s and 0’s that cause
the computer to perform a particular action.
 E.g., 1010101011010
 This is called a binary encoding
 The set of fundamental operations that a computer can perform and their
binary encodings is called the machine’s instruction set
 Different types of computers use different machine languages
 E.g., Intel Pentium processor vs. IBM PowerPC processor
 A program written in machine language is easy for a computer to
understand but very difficult for a human to understand just by
looking at it.

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1.2 Introduction to Programming
 Assembly Language
 We would like to have a language that was more natural for a human
to understand -> Assembly Language created
 Devise a set of abbreviations corresponding to the ML statements
 Developed a program to translate these abbreviations into ML
 We are still writing programs at a low-level when using assembly
 Instead of having to program in binary we can use a more natural language
 An assembly language instruction will typically have a corresponding
binary encoding

NOTE: When using assembly language we still need to know the details of the
machine being programmed, e.g., is it an Intel Pentium machine or an IBM
PowerPC machine.

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1.2 Introduction to Programming
 High Level Language (HLL)
 Instructions are represented using a set of statements which are similar
to human language (if, else, while etc.)
 Much faster to write program code in a HLL than Assembly or
Machine Language
 A compiler / interpreter is used to translate the HLL statements into
ML

NOTE: When using a high-level language we do not need to know the details of
the machine being programmed.

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1.2 Introduction to Programming
 Compilers & Interpreters

 Contextual Analogy
 Imagine you wish to be able to access the content of a book that is written
in a language with which you are unfamiliar.
 How could you get the book translated into a language that you do
understand?

Option 1: Get the entire book translated by Analogous to the

a translator and then receive a complete function of a
copy of the translated book. compiler

Option 2: Hire a translator to read the book Analogous to the

for you – translating each sentence one at a function of a
time. interpreter

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1.2 Introduction to Programming
 Syntax and Semantics
 The syntax rules of a language define how we can put symbols, reserved words,
and identifiers together to make a valid program. It is similar to the grammar of a
language.

 The semantics of a program statement define what that statement means (its
purpose or role in a program).

 A program that is syntactically correct is not necessarily logically (semantically)

correct

 A program will always do what we tell it to do, not what we meant to tell it to do

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1.3 Algorithms & Problem Solving
 Algorithms

 Itis effective, which means that an answer is

found and it finishes, that is it has a finite number
of steps.
 We can think of an algorithm as a set of
instructions which we must follow in order to
complete a task successfully.
 An example is a recipe that we must follow when
baking a cake.

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