Scribd
Upload
59 views6 pages

Lab 0 Manual: COS 495 - Autonomous Robot Navigation

This document introduces students to creating their first C# program in Microsoft Visual Studio. It provides step-by-step instructions to: 1) Create a new C# console application project in Visual Studio. 2) Add "Hello World!" printing code to the main method. 3) Compile and run the program. 4) Modify the code to get user input, add conditional checks with if/else statements, and introduce for loops. It encourages students to add comments to their code and search online for C# documentation.

Uploaded by

Ch Zain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
59 views6 pages

Lab 0 Manual: COS 495 - Autonomous Robot Navigation

This document introduces students to creating their first C# program in Microsoft Visual Studio. It provides step-by-step instructions to: 1) Create a new C# console application project in Visual Studio. 2) Add "Hello World!" printing code to the main method. 3) Compile and run the program. 4) Modify the code to get user input, add conditional checks with if/else statements, and introduce for loops. It encourages students to add comments to their code and search online for C# documentation.

Uploaded by

Ch Zain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 6

COS 495 – Autonomous Robot Navigation

Fall 2011

Lab 0 Manual
1.1 Goals
The programming interface goals of this lab are as follows:
• Introduce students to the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET programming environment
• Introduce students to C# programming language
• Enable students to compile and run their first C# program
• Introduce students to online documentation and help

The programming abstraction goals of this lab are as follows:


• Introduce students to the concept of serial flow
• Introduce students to the concept of variables
• Introduce students to the concept of a loop

The programming application goal of this lab is to:


• Construct a simple ASCII image within a C# console window
• Allow students to use creativity in their programming.

1.2 Creating your first C# program


This portion of the lab should be done alone.

Step 1: Open MVS


From the start =>All Programs menu, select “Microsoft Visual Studio 2010”. The remainder of this
manual will refer to Microsoft Visual Studio as MVS. Within MVS, there is both an editor within which
computer code can be written, and a compiler that creates the application from the code.

Step 2: Create a new project


In MVS, select File => New => Project. A “New Project” window will pop up. In the left part of the
window there is a list of Project types. From the “Installed Templates” directory, select “Visual C#”. In
the right part of the window is a list of Templates. For this lab we will select “Console Application”.
Enter a name and location and press the “OK”. Fig. 1 illustrates this selection.

Your project has several files which you can view/edit by double clicking them from the “Solution
Explorer”, (see Fig. 2). The main file to edit is “Program.cs”, which has several components. Notice the
first 4 lines of the files start with the command using. This command allows your program to access
various packages of code, each called a namespace, already written. The next line “namespace
COS495Lab0” says that we are creating our own namespace that we want to call COS495Lab0.
Everything contained within the brackets {} that follow, will be part of this new namespace.
Figure 1: Creating a new console application.

List  of  packages  


this  program  
will  use  

Class  
declaration  

The  main  code  


in  which  you  do  
things  

Click  files  for  


editing  

.
Figure 2: The template for a console application

The next line “class Program” says to create a new class called Program. A class is an object that has
various variables and methods associated with it. For example, a class called “Rectangle” might have
variables called “length” and “width”, as well as a method called “calculateArea”. Everything contained
within the brackets {} that follow, will be part of this new class.

In the class Program, there is only one method called “Main”. The Main method of a program is what the
program calls when it starts running. Within the {}’s that follow, the programmer should add a list of
commands that should be executed when the program starts. The next step of this lab will guide you in
adding some commands.
Step 3: Add some commands
Within your Main() method of the class Program, add the following commands:

Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
Console.ReadLine();

Your file Program.cs should look like the one shown in Figure 3. Note that Console is a class from the
namespace System that the program says we want to use. Two methods that are part of the Console class
are WriteLine() and ReadLine().

Figure 3: Adding commands to the Main method of your class.

Step 4: Compile your program


You have now created a very simple program that should open up a Console window with the message
“Hello World!” shown. Pressing enter should close the program, (the ReadLine() command waits for
the <Enter> key to be pressed before continuing).

To compile your program, i.e. creating an executable program from the code you have written, select
Build => Build Solution from the MVS drop-down menu. If you did everything correctly, the Output
fields at the bottom of your MVS window should read “========= Build: 1 succeeded” (see
Figure 3). Otherwise, errors will be reported.
Step 5: Run your program
To run your program, click the green triangle OR select Debug => Start Debugging from the MVS drop-
down menu. A console window should pop up with your “Hello World!” message. Hit the <Enter> key to
close the program.

Congratulations! You have created, compiled, and run your first C# program!

Step 6: Add user inputs to your program


Now that we have some running code, we will modify it in several ways to start learning tools to make
more complex programs. Modify your Main method to look like the program below:

static void Main(string[] args)


{
Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("What is your name?");
string usersName;
usersName = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("Hello {0}!", usersName);
Console.ReadLine();
}

Notice the fourth line in the method, it creates a new variable called “usersName”. This variable is
declared to be of type string. There are many types of variables one can make while programming
including integers, floats, etc. One can think of string types as text consisting of a string of letters. The
line that follows sets the value of usersName to be whatever text is entered by the user. The value of
usersName is printed back on the next line.

Compile and run this code to make sure you understand how the sequence of commands work.

Step 7: Add a condition check


It is time to introduce a condition check using an if statement. Modify your Main method to look like:

static void Main(string[] args)


{
Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("What is your name?");
string usersName;
usersName = Console.ReadLine();
if (usersName.Equals("Chris") ) {
Console.WriteLine("You are a great professor {0}!", usersName);
} else {
Console.WriteLine("You are a sad case for a student {0}!", usersName);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
Note how the program changes its operation, depending on the value of usersName. One can read such
statements as:

if (an expression is true)


then do whatever commands are in the {} brackets
else do whatever commands are in the next set of {} brackets.

Step 7: Add a loop


It is time to introduce loops. Often we want to call a set of commands many times. In the code below, a
for loop is used. This loop will use the counter i to keep track of how many times to repeat the
commands in the {} brackets that follow. The int i=0, statement says lets declare a variable called i
and lets set it to the value 0. The next conditional check i<numIterations says that the commands
should be repeated if the value of i is less than the value of numIterations. Finally, the i++
statement says to increment the value of i by 1 at the end of each iteration of the loop.

static void Main(string[] args)


{
Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("What is your name?");
string usersName;
usersName = Console.ReadLine();
if (usersName.Equals("Chris") ) {
Console.WriteLine("You are a great professor {0}!", usersName);
} else {
Console.WriteLine("You are a sad case for a student {0}!", usersName);
}
Console.ReadLine();

Console.WriteLine("How many times should I loop?");


usersName = Console.ReadLine();

int numIterations = Convert.ToInt16(usersName);

for (int i = 0; i < numIterations; i++)


{
Console.WriteLine("Loop !");
}
Console.ReadLine();
}

Step 8: Comment your code


We have been sloppy! When writing code you should add comments to describe what you are doing.
Statements preceded by // indicate that the statement on that particular line is a comment and not a
command. For example, one should explain what the commands are being used for:

// Read in the number of iterations from the user


usersName = Console.ReadLine();
This commenting of code helps people (including yourself) read code and understand what it is supposed
to do.

1.3 Find documentation on the net


Use Google to find C# documentation. Find descriptions of the methods ToInt16(), Sqrt(), and
while(). Be sure to understand what the methods do.

1.4 Creating your second C# program


Find another student in the class (could be the same student from 1.3). For this part of the lab, you are
required to design some ASCII art – images created using ASCII characters in your console. First, search
the web for some interesting examples of ASCII art so you have ideas for techniques.

Working with your partner, use your C# Console application to create an ASCII image of a robot. The
image could be inspired by an image, photo, sketch or your imagination. The image must be dynamic in
that it responds to at least 3 different user inputs, (e.g. how wide should the image be? Should the robot be
happy or sad?...). The program should also include at least 1 for loop.

1.6 Deliverables
None for this lab.

You might also like