Chapter One

1.1 Introduction to programming

A Computer is an electronic device that accepts data, performs computations, and makes
logical decisions according to instructions that have been given to it; then produces
meaningful information in a form that is useful to the user. In current world we live in,
computers are almost used in all walks of life for different purposes. They have been
deployed to solve different real life problems, from the simplest game playing up to the
complex nuclear energy production. Computers are important and widely used in our
society because they are cost-effective aids to problem solving in business, government,
industry, education, etc.

In order to solve a given problem, computers must be given the correct instruction about
how they can solve it. The terms computer programs, software programs, or just
programs are the instructions that tells the computer what to do. Computer requires
programs to function, and a computer programs does nothing unless its instructions are
executed by a CPU. Computer programming (often shortened to programming or
coding) is the process of writing, testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the
source code of computer programs. Writing computer programs means writing instructions,
that will make the computer follow and run a program based on those instructions. Each
instruction is relatively simple, yet because of the computer's speed, it is able to run
millions of instructions in a second. A computer program usually consists of two elements:
 Data – characteristics
 Code – action
Computer programs (also know as source code) is often written by professionals known as
Computer Programmers (simply programmers). Source code is written in one of
programming languages. A programming language is an artificial language that can be
used to control the behavior of a machine, particularly a computer. Programming
languages, like natural language (such as Amharic), are defined by syntactic and semantic
rules which describe their structure and meaning respectively. The syntax of a language
describes the possible combinations of symbols that form a syntactically correct program.
The meaning given to a combination of symbols is handled by semantics. Many
programming languages have some form of written specification of their syntax and
semantics; some are defined only by an official implementation. In general, programming
languages allow humans to communicate instructions to machines.

A main purpose of programming languages is to provide instructions to a computer. As

such, programming languages differ from most other forms of human expression in that
they require a greater degree of precision and completeness. When using a natural language
to communicate with other people, human authors and speakers can be ambiguous and
make small errors, and still expect their intent to be understood. However, computers do
exactly what they are told to do, and cannot understand the code the programmer
"intended" to write. So computers need to be instructed to perform all the tasks. The
combination of the language definition, the program, and the program's inputs must fully
specify the external behavior that occurs when the program is executed. Computer
languages have relatively few, exactly defined, rules for composition of programs, and
strictly controlled vocabularies in which unknown words must be defined before they can
be used.

Available programming languages come in a variety of forms and types. Thousands of

different programming languages have been developed, used, and discarded. Programming
languages can be divided in to two major categories: low-level and high-level languages.

Low-level languages
Computers only understand one language and that is binary language or the language of 1s
and 0s. Binary language is also known as machine language, one of low-level languages.
In the initial years of computer programming, all the instructions were given in binary
form. Although the computer easily understood these programs, it proved too difficult for a
normal human being to remember all the instructions in the form of 0s and 1s. Therefore,
computers remained mystery to a common person until other languages such as assembly
language was developed, which were easier to learn and understand. Assembly language
correspondences symbolic instructions and executable machine codes and was created to
use letters (called mnemonics) to each machine language instructions to make it easier to
remember or write. For example:
ADD A, B – adds two numbers in memory location A and B
Assembly language is nothing more than a symbolic representation of machine code, which
allows symbolic designation of memory locations. However, no matter how close assembly
language is to machine code, computers still cannot understand it. The assembly language
must be translated to machine code by a separate program called assembler. The machine
instruction created by the assembler from the original program (source code) is called
object code. Thus assembly languages are unique to a specific computer (machine).
Assemblers are written for each unique machine language.

High-level languages
Although programming in assembly language is not as difficult and error prone as stringing
together ones and zeros, it is slow and cumbersome. In addition it is hardware specific. The
lack of portability between different computers led to the development of high-level
languages—so called because they permitted a programmer to ignore many low-level
details of the computer's hardware. Further, it was recognized that the closer the syntax,
rules, and mnemonics of the programming language could be to "natural language" the less
likely it became that the programmer would inadvertently introduce errors (called "bugs")
into the program. High-level languages are more English-like and, therefore, make it easier
for programmers to "think" in the programming language. High-level languages also
require translation to machine language before execution. This translation is accomplished
by either a compiler or an interpreter. Compilers translate the entire source code program
before execution. Interpreters translate source code programs one line at a time. Interpreters
are more interactive than compilers. FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator), BASIC (Bingers
All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), PASCAL, C, C++, Java are some examples of
high-level languages.
The question of which language is best is one that consumes a lot of time and energy
among computer professionals. Every language has its strengths and weaknesses. For
example, FORTRAN is a particularly good language for processing numerical data, but it
does not lend itself very well to organizing large programs. Pascal is very good for writing
well-structured and readable programs, but it is not as flexible as the C programming
language. C++ embodies powerful object-oriented features

As might be expected in a dynamic and evolving field, there is no single standard for
classifying programming languages. Another most fundamental ways programming
languages are characterized (categorized) is by programming paradigm. A programming
paradigm provides the programmer's view of code execution. The most influential
paradigms are examined in the next three sections, in approximate chronological order.

Procedural Programming Languages

Procedural programming specifies a list of operations that the program must complete to
reach the desired state. Each program has a starting state, a list of operations to complete,
and an ending point. This approach is also known as imperative programming. Integral to
the idea of procedural programming is the concept of a procedure call.
Procedures, also known as functions, subroutines, or methods, are small sections of code
that perform a particular function. A procedure is effectively a list of computations to be
carried out. Procedural programming can be compared to unstructured programming,
where all of the code resides in a single large block. By splitting the programmatic tasks
into small pieces, procedural programming allows a section of code to be re-used in the
program without making multiple copies. It also makes it easier for programmers to
understand and maintain program structure.
Two of the most popular procedural programming languages are FORTRAN and BASIC.

Structured Programming Languages

Structured programming is a special type of procedural programming. It provides
additional tools to manage the problems that larger programs were creating. Structured
programming requires that programmers break program structure into small pieces of code
that are easily understood. It also frowns upon the use of global variables and instead uses
variables local to each subroutine. One of the well-known features of structural
programming is that it does not allow the use of the GOTO statement. It is often associated
with a "top-down" approach to design. The top-down approach begins with an initial
overview of the system that contains minimal details about the different parts. Subsequent
design iterations then add increasing detail to the components until the design is complete.
The most popular structured programming languages include C, Ada, and Pascal.

Object-Oriented Programming Languages

Object-oriented programming is one the newest and most powerful paradigms. In object-
oriented programs, the designer specifies both the data structures and the types of
operations that can be applied to those data structures. This pairing of a piece of data with
the operations that can be performed on it is known as an object. A program thus becomes
a collection of cooperating objects, rather than a list of instructions. Objects can store state
information and interact with other objects, but generally each object has a distinct, limited
role.

1.2 Problem solving Techniques

Computer solves varieties of problems that can be expressed in a finite number of steps
leading to a precisely defined goal by writing different programs. A program is not needed
only to solve a problem but also it should be reliable, (maintainable) portable and efficient.
In computer programming two facts are given more weight:
 The first part focuses on defining the problem and logical procedures to follow in
solving it.
 The second introduces the means by which programmers communicate those
procedures to the computer system so that it can be executed.
There are system analysis and design tools, particularly flowchart and structure chart, that
can be used to define the problem in terms of the steps to its solution. The programmer uses
programming language to communicate the logic of the solution to the computer.
Before a program is written, the programmer must clearly understand what data are to be
used, the desired result, and the procedure to be used to produce the result. The procedure,
or solution, selected is referred to as an algorithm. An algorithm is defined as a step-by-
step sequence of instructions that must terminate and describe how the data is to be
processed to produce the desired outputs. Simply, algorithm is a sequence of instructions.
Algorithms are a fundamental part of computing. There are three commonly used tools to
help to document program logic (the algorithm). These are flowcharts, structured chart,
and Pseudocode. We will use the three methods here. Generally, flowcharts work well for
small problems but Pseudocode is used for larger problems.

1.2.1 Pseudocode

Pseudocode (derived from pseudo and code) is a compact and informal high-level
description of a computer algorithm that uses the structural conventions of programming
languages, but typically omits detailes such as subroutines, variables declarations and
system-specific syntax. The programming language is augmented with natural language
descriptions of the details, where convenient, or with compact mathematical notation. The
purpose of using pseudocode is that it may be easier for humans to read than conventional
programming languages, and that it may be a compact and environment-independent
generic description of the key principles of an algorithm. No standard for pseudocode
syntax exists, as a program in pseudocode is not an executable program. As the name
suggests, pseudocode generally does not actually obey the synatx rules of any particular
language; there is no systematic standard form, although any particular writer will
generally borrow the appearance of a particular language.

The programming process is a complicated one. You must first understand the program
specifications, of course, Then you need to organize your thoughts and create the program.
This is a difficult task when the program is not trivial (i.e. easy). You must break the main
tasks that must be accomplished into smaller ones in order to be able to eventually write
fully developed code. Writing pseudocode will save you time later during the construction
& testing phase of a program's development.
Example:

Original Program Specification:

Write a program that obtains two integer numbers from the user. It will print
out the sum of those numbers.

Pseudocode:

Prompt the user to enter the first integer

Prompt the user to enter a second integer
Compute the sum of the two user inputs
Display an output prompt that explains the answer as the sum
Display the result

1.2.2 Structured Charts

Structured chart depicts the logical functions to the solution of the problem using a chart. It
provides an overview that confirms the solution to the problem without excessive
consideration to detail. It is high-level in nature.
Example: Write a program that asks the user to enter a temperature reading in centigrade
and then prints the equivalent Fahrenheit value.

Input Process Output

Centigrade  Prompt for centigrade value Fahrenheit
 Read centigrade value
 Compute Fahrenheit value
 Display Fahrenheit value

CelsusToFarh
(main func)

centigard Fahrenheit
centigard

InPutCen CalcFar OutPutFar

Fahrenheit

1.2.3 Flowchart
A flowchart (also spelled flow-chart and flow chart) is a schematic representation of an
algorithm or a process . The advantage of flowchart is it doesn’t depend on any particular
programming language, so that it can used, to translate an algorithm to more than one
programming language. Flowchart uses different symbols (geometrical shapes) to
represent different processes. The following table shows some of the common symbols.

Example 1: - Draw flow chart of an algorithm to add two numbers and display their result.
Algorithm description
 Read the rules of the two numbers (A and B)
 Add A and B
 Assign the sum of A and B to C
 Display the result ( c)
The flow chart is:
 Start

Read A, B

C= A+B

Print C

End

Example 2: Write an algorithm description and draw a flow chart to check a number is
negative or not.

Algorithm description.
1/ Read a number x
2/ If x is less than zero write a message negative
else write a message not negative

Some times there are conditions in which it is necessary to execute a group of statements
repeatedly. Until some condition is satisfied. This condition is called a loop. Loop is a
sequence of instructions, which is repeated until some specific condition occurs. A loop
normally consists of four parts. These are:
Initialization: - Setting of variables of the computation to their initial values and setting the
counter for determining to exit from the loop.
Computation: - Processing
Test: - Every loop must have some way of exiting from it or else the program would
endlessly remain in a loop.
Increment: - Re-initialization of the loop for the next loop.

Example 3: - Write the algorithmic description and draw a flow chart to find the following
sum.
Sum = 1+2+3+…. + 50
Algorithmic description
1. Initialize sum too and counter to 1
1.1.If the counter is less than or equal to 50

• Add counter to sum

• Increase counter by 1
• Repeat step 1.1
1.2.Else
• Exit

2. Write sum
1.3 System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual model used in project
management that describes the stages involved in a computer system development project
from an initial feasibility study through maintenance of the completed application. The
phases of SDLC is discussed below briefly.

1.3.1 Feasibility study

The first step is to identify a need for the new system. This will include determining
whether a business problem or opportunity exists, conducting a feasibility study to
determine if the proposed solution is cost effective, and developing a project plan.

This process may involve end users who come up with an idea for improving their work or
may only involve IS people. Ideally, the process occurs in tandem with a review of the
organization's strategic plan to ensure that IT is being used to help the organization achieve
its strategic objectives. Management may need to approve concept ideas before any money
is budgeted for its development.

A preliminary analysis, determining the nature and scope of the problems to be solved is
carried out. Possible solutions are proposed, describing the cost and benefits. Finally, a
preliminary plan for decision making is produced.

The process of developing a large information system can be very costly, and the
investigation stage may require a preliminary study called a feasibility study, which
includes e.g. the following components:

a. Organisational Feasibility

 How well the proposed system supports the strategic objectives of the organization.

b. Economic Feasibility

 Cost savings
 Increased revenue
 Decreased investment
 Increased profits

c. Technical Feasibility

 Hardware, software, and network capability, reliability, and availability

d. Operational Feasibility

 End user acceptance

 Management support
  Customer, supplier, and government requirements

1.3.2 Requirements analysis

Requirements analysis is the process of analyzing the information needs of the end users,
the organizational environment, and any system presently being used, developing the
functional requirements of a system that can meet the needs of the users. Also, the
requirements should be recorded in a document, email, user interface storyboard,
executable prototype, or some other form. The requirements documentation should be
referred to throughout the rest of the system development process to ensure the developing
project aligns with user needs and requirements.

End users must be involved in this process to ensure that the new system will function
adequately and meets their needs and expectations.

1.3.3 Designing solution

After the requirements have been determined, the necessary specifications for the
hardware, software, people, and data resources, and the information products that will
satisfy the functional requirements of the proposed system can be determined. The design
will serve as a blueprint for the system and helps detect problems before these errors or
problems are built into the final system.

The created system design, but must reviewed by users to ensure the design meets users'
needs.

1.3.4 Testing designed solution

A smaller test system is sometimes a good idea in order to get a “proof-of-concept”
validation prior to committing funds for large scale fielding of a system without knowing if
it really works as intended by the user.

1.3.5 Implementation
The real code is written here. Systems implementation is the construction of the new
system and its delivery into production or day-to-day operation.The key to understanding
the implementation phase is to realize that there is a lot more to be done than programming.
Implementation requires programming, but it also requires database creation and
population, and network installation and testing. You also need to make sure the people are
taken care of with effective training and documentation. Finally, if you expect your
development skills to improve over time, you need to conduct a review of the lessons
learned.

1.3.6 Unit testing

Normally programs are written as a series of individual modules, these subject to separate
and detailed test.
1.3.7 Integration and System testing
Brings all the pieces together into a special testing environment, then checks for errors,
bugs and interoperability. The system is tested to ensure that interfaces between modules
work (integration testing), the system works on the intended platform and with the
expected volume of data (volume testing) and that the system does what the user requires
(acceptance/beta testing).

1.3.8 Maintenance
What happens during the rest of the software's life: changes, correction, additions, moves to
a different computing platform and more. This, the least glamorous and perhaps most
important step of all, goes on seemingly forever.