Introduction to Programming (CS113)

BEE-4-ABC
1 – Course Overview and Introduction

Dr. Kashif Mahmood Rajpoot ([email protected])

Assistant Professor, DoC, NUST-SEECS.

http://seecs.nust.edu.pk/faculty/kashif.html
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SEECS.CS105.BEE4ABC/
https://lms.nust.edu.pk/portal/course/view.php?id=4081 (Section A)
https://lms.nust.edu.pk/portal/course/view.php?id=4088 (Section B)
https://lms.nust.edu.pk/portal/course/view.php?id=4095 (Section C)
Computer Programming
o What is a computer?

o What is programming?

o What is a programming language?

o Significance of programming?

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Learning Goals
o Understand a typical program development
environment

o Become familiar with computer programming

o Develop and write computer program for a given

problem

o Practice a very common programming language

• C

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Course Design (1+1)
o Components
• Lectures (1 Hours/week)
• Labs (3 Hours/week)
o Lectures
• Concepts of programming
• Examples
• No hands-on programming practice
o Labs
• Hands-on practice
• Lab assignments/exercises
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Course Design (Cont’d)
o Status
• Introductory
o Class
• BEE-4-ABC
o Credit hours
• 1+1
o Duration
• 18 weeks (15 for study, 3 for exams)
o Pre-requisites
• None
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Teaching Staff
o Instructor
• Dr. Kashif Mahmood Rajpoot
• Office: A305 (top floor, SEECS faculty block)
• Tel: 051-9085-2172
• Email: [email protected]
• Office hours: 9am-1pm (Friday)

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Course contents
o Week-1
• Lecture 1: Intro to programming. History of
programming languages. Programming process.
• Lab 1: Programming logic. Pseudo-code. Flow-
charts.
o Week-2
• Lecture 2: Intro to C programming. History of C
language. Basic C program.
• Lab 2: Introduction to programming environment
(Editors, Compilers, Linker, IDE). Program
compilation and execution.

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Course contents
o Week-3
• Lecture 3: Variables, Data types, Input/Output.
• Lab 3: Code debugging, flow-charts. Data types,
Input/output.
o Week-4
• Lecture 4: Statements, expressions, comments,
operators and precedence.
• Lab 4: Flow-charts. Programming tasks about
operators and precedence.

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Course contents
o Week-5
• Lecture 5: Conditional statements (decision
structures I).
• Lab 5: Programming tasks about decision
structures I.
o Week-6 (Exam)
• OHT-1

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Course contents
o Week-7
• Lecture 6: Decision – Switch and break (decision
structures II).
• Lab 6: Programming tasks about decision
structures II.
o Week-8
• Lecture 7: For loops, logical operators (repetition
structures I).
• Lab 7: Programming tasks about repetition
structures I.
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Course contents
o Week-9
• Lecture 8: While and do-while loops, break and
continue (repetition structures II).
• Lab 8: Programming tasks about repetition
structures II.
o Week-10
• Lecture 9: Nested For loops (repetition structures
III).
• Lab 9: Programming tasks about repetition
structures III.
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Course contents
o Week-11
• Lecture 10: Scope of variables, static variables.
• Lab 10: Programming tasks about repetition
structures IV and variable scope.
o Week-12 (Exam)
• OHT-2

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Course contents
o Week-13
• Lecture 11: Function definitions, prototypes,
passing variables (Functions I).
• Lab 11: Programming tasks about functions I.
Project announcement/discussion.
o Week-14
• Lecture 12: More on functions. (Functions II).
• Lab 12: Programming tasks about functions II.

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Course contents
o Week-15
• Lecture 13: Arrays and array indexing.
• Lab 13: Programming tasks about arrays.
o Week-16
• Lecture 14: Arrays and Functions.
• Lab 14: Programming tasks about arrays and
functions.

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Course contents
o Week-17
• Lecture 15: Revision and/or additional topics.
• Lab 15: Project Demos.
o Week-18 (Exam)
• End-Semester Examination

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Books
o Textbook
• C Programming: A Modern Approach
 By K.N. King
 2nd Edition
 W. W. Norton & Company
 “eBook”
o Reference books
• Object Oriented Programming in C++ by Robert Lafore, 4th
Edition
• Beginning C Programming by Ivor Horton.
• Just Enough Programming Logic and Design by Joye Farrell.

o MAKE A HABIT OF READING THE BOOK

• The textbook is easy to read.

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Course Material
o Books
• E-format
o Lecture slides
• Course website on LMS
o CONSULT THE BOOK, ALWAYS!
o Softwares
• Visual C++ Express 2010
• Visual Logic
 Flow-chart drawing and execution

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Course Assessment
o Course Part (50%)
• Quizzes – 3 to 4 (un-announced)
• Assignments (2 to 3; home-work)
• OHTs (60 minutes long)
• Final Exam (2/3 hours long)
o Lab Part (50%)
• Project
• Lab Assignments

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Grading Policy
o Course Part (50% of Total 100 Marks)
• 10% - Quizzes
• 10% - Assignments (home-work)
• 30% - OHTs
• 50% - Final Exam
o Lab Part (50% of Total 100 Marks)
• 70% - Lab Assignments
• 30% - Programming project

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General stuff
o Prepare in advance for lectures
• Read textbook
o Un-announced quizzes
o Timely submission of assignments
• Late submission = zero (0) marks
o Be punctual in lectures and labs
o Attendance required for sitting in exam – 75%
each in lectures and labs
o NO Copying/cheating/plagiarising assignments
• Carry zero (0) marks
• Disciplinary action
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Computer Applications
o Computers are everywhere.
• ATMs, Online banks
• NADRA databases, E-government
• Internet
• Games
• Mobile OS/software
• Medical databases
• Weather simulations
• Space explorations

o All of these are enabled by computer programming.

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Why this course?
o Why to learn programming?
• Shows you how to use the resources and potential of a
computer.
• Shows you how to instruct a computer to perform a
given task.
• Learn how to solve a problem on a computer.
• This has become a very crucial and important course in
electrical/electronic engineering curriculum.
• Many subsequent courses/projects are dependent
upon programming.
• JOB MARKET
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Programming a Computer
o Programming – giving a machine the directions to
perform a task
o Speed-dial feature on a cell-phone
o Microwave oven configurations
o Similarly, a computer is given directions to perform
a task
• Computer program or simply a program
o Programmer – somebody who writes a computer
program
o Programming languages – variety of languages
used to give directions to a computer
• C, C++, Visual Basic, C#, Java

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The Programmer’s Job
o Need for solving a problem using a computer: a
programmer comes to the rescue
• Programmer meets the user
• Who is a user?
o Determines the exact problem, agree on the
desired solution
o Converts the solution into a computer program
o Regularly meets the user during the conversion
phase and meet user‟s needs
o Rigorously tests the program using sample data
o Releases the program, often along with a user
manual describing how to use the program
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History of Programming Languages
o Humans communicate with each other using a
variety of languages
• Urdu, English, French, Hindi, Chinese
• Each language has its own strengths
o Similarly, programmers communicate with
computers using a variety of languages
• C, C++, Java, C#, Python
• Each language has its own strengths for a
particular application

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History of Programming Languages
o Programming languages have progressed enormously
during last 6-7 decades
o Machine language
• Computers store data and instructions in binary form
 On (1) or off (0)
• Computers can only understand the language of 0s and 1s
• Early programmers wrote programs in the language of 0s
and 1s e.g. a program may contain instruction 00101
10001 10000.
• Instructions written in 0s and 1s are called machine
language or machine code
• Machine code is the only language a computer can
understand
• Understandably, coding in machine language is very tedious,
time-consuming, and error-prone
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History of Programming Languages
o Assembly language
• Allow the programmer to use pnemonics in place of
0s and 1s
 Pnemonics are memory aids – alphabetic abbreviations
for memory instructions
 e.g. ADD ax, bx
• Programs written in assembly language require an
assembler to convert assembly code to machine
code
 Assembler – a computer program to do code conversion
• Simpler to write assembly code than machine code,
but is still tedious and time-consuming
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History of Programming Languages
o High-level languages
• Allow programmers to write programs using
instructions that closely resemble English language
 e.g. grossPay = hours * rate
• High-level language programs require a compiler to
convert instructions into 0s and 1s
 Compiler – a computer program to do conversion
• Compiled languages
 C, C++, Visual Basic

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History of Programming Languages
o Procedure-oriented high-level languages
• Focus on the major tasks the programmer needs to perform
• Instruct the computer every step of the way, from start to
finish
• Programmer focuses and delivers the correct sequence of
instructions to write the program
• C, Basic, COBOL
o Object-oriented high-level languages
• Focus on objects and their interaction needed to write the
program
• An object has some properties and some actions associated
• Objects can be re-used in other applications
• Use a different set of “glasses” to look at the problem
• C++, Java, C#
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Programming Languages
o Similar to human languages, every
programming language has some rules
governing its word usage and punctuation
o These rules are called the language syntax
o Example: What name is your?
• Most humans, knowing English, can make sense of
this
o But for programming languages, the syntax
needs to be perfect
• Otherwise, computer can not interpret the meaning

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Programming Languages
o Every programming language needs a software,
compiler/interpreter/assembler, to convert its
code to machine language (or binary code or
object code)
o In addition to conversion, a compiler also
verifies the syntax of the program
• Are there any syntax errors?
• Syntax errors are easy to spot for the compiler
• A message is shown by the compiler, indicating the
error location and type (often)
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Programming Languages
o Once the program is found free of syntax errors
and is converted to machine code, it can be
executed
• Linking?
o A program, at execution, may or may not
produce correct results
• Programmer must give a correct set of instructions
in a specific sequence
• Must not leave any instructions out, must not add
extraneous instructions
• By doing so, we are developing the logic of program
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Programming Language: Logic
o Consider a cake recipe:

o Recipe uses correct English syntax, but:

• Wrong sequence of instructions
• Missing instructions
• Extraneous instructions
o Such errors are called logical errors, and are much
more difficult to locate than syntax errors

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Programming Language: Logic
o Other examples of logical errors:
• Adding 3 eggs, instead of 2 eggs
• Might require a teaspoon of vanilla
o Easy to spot whether „Eggs‟ is spelled correctly, but
very hard to find out the correctness of recipe
o Similarly, it is easy for compiler to locate syntax
errors, but impossible to locate logical errors
o Some program errors are considered to be
semantic errors
• An instruction that does not make any sense in current
context
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Programming Language
o Errors examples:
• Syntax
• Semantic
• Logical
o Write a program that takes a number (an input
step), doubles it (processing), and tells you the
answer (output step)

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Understanding the Programming Process
o Programmer‟s job is to write instructions, but a
programmer does not just sit down at a computer
and start typing
o Following steps are followed:
1. Understanding the problem
2. Planning the logic
3. Coding the program
4. Translating into machine language
5. Testing the program
6. Putting the program into production
7. Maintaining the program

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Understanding the Programming Process

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1. Understanding the Problem
o Programmer write programs to meet the needs of other
people or organizations
• E.g. HR department, billing department, email program,
video/photo upload, etc.
o As the programmer is providing a service to the user, the
programmer must first understand what its users want
• Example: an inventory control system, a point of sales
system, a photo storage system, a medical record system
• The important decisions on the system are to be made in
consultation with the end-user
o Understanding the problem is one of the most difficult
aspects of programming
o Try to make everything clear about what the user wants
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2. Planning the Logic
o Heart of the programming process lies in planning the
logic
• Planning a program is also referred as “developing an
algorithm”
• Algorithm – step-by-step instructions to accomplish a task or
solve a problem
o Programmer decides the steps included and their order,
in order to solve the problem
o Planning can be helpful by the use of flowcharts and
pseudo-code
o During the planning, the programmer should not worry
about language syntax
o Planning includes thinking, in advance, about various
inputs and how they are to be processed
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Planning Logic: Pseudo-code and Flowcharts
o In the planning phase, programmers often use
pseudo-code and flowcharts
o Pseudo-code
• English-like representation of the logical steps it
takes to solve a problem
o Flowchart
• Pictorial representation of the steps to solve a
problem

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Planning Logic: Pseudo-code
o We have seen examples of pseudo-code earlier
• Nothing mysterious about them, no fixed sytax
• “Free style” English representation
o Writing pseudo-code involves writing all steps
needed to solve a problem
o Flexibility to write
• use small/capital letters
• Start/begin, stop/end
o Use one style consistently
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Planning Logic: Flowchart
o Flowchart is an alternative way to pictorially
represent the steps of a solution
o Some prefer writing pseudo-code, due to its
similarity with code
o Others prefer drawing flowchart, due to its easy
and simplicity
o There are graphical symbols (i.e. shapes) for
each kind of step
• Start, stop, processing, input, output

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Planning Logic: Pseudo-code and Flowchart

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3. Coding the Program
o Once the logic (i.e. algorithm) has been developed,
the programmer can now code it in the language
of his choice
o Only after a language has been chosen, the
programmer should worry about the syntax
o Experienced programmers can develop the logic
and code the program simultaneously
• However, new programmers should focus more closely
on planning the logic in advance. Otherwise, syntax
restrictions can distract you.
o What is more difficult: planning the logic or coding
the program?

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4. Translating into Machine Language
o Computers can only understand machine
language
o Any modern high-level language needs to be
translated into machine code before it can be
executed
o A program must be free of syntax errors, before
it can be translated

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5. Testing the Program
o A program successfully translated is free of
syntax errors, but not necessarily free of logical
errors
• E.g. awarding grades based on marks: is the
system awarding the right grades?
o Testing – execute the program with some
sample input data

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6. Putting the Program into Production
o Once the testing is successful, the program is
ready for release i.e. production
o Putting into production might be as simple as
running it, or could take months (training, etc)
• Microsoft Office
• Exam system, time table scheduling
• Medical record system

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7. Maintaining the Program
o Post production, any further changes required
or troubleshooting is maintaining the program
o Maintenance is required for many reasons:
• Bug fixes
• Change of rates (tax, prices, etc)
• Change in user needs
o Frequently, new professional programmers are
required to maintain previously written
programs
• Generally, you repeat the development life cycle

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Book References
o Chapters 1 & 2: Just Enough Programming
Logic and Design

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