Fundamentals of computer

programming
Introduction to computer programming
Terminologies
• A computer is an electronic machine, operating under the control of
instructions stored in its own memory
• It accept data, manipulate the data according to specified rules,
produce results, and store the results for future use
• Computers process data to create information
• Data is a collection of raw unprocessed facts, figures, and symbols.
• Information is data that is organized, meaningful, and useful. To
process data into information, a computer uses hardware and
software.

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Cont..
• A computer program or software is the series of instructions that
tells the hardware how to perform tasks.
• is a collection of instructions that performs a specific task when
executed by a computer
• a sequence of separate small commands, one after the other
• Programming is the act of an individual writing code (a series of
instructions) that are to be interpreted and executed by a computer
or other electronic device.
• Computer programmer
-a person who writes series of instructions
- is a person who creates computer software
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• Computer programming is the process of writing or editing source
code
• Editing source code involves testing, analyzing and refining the code

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What is programming language
• There many definitions of what constitutes a programming language
and there is not one absolute answer
• Here are some ideas on what constitutes a programming language
A computer tool that allows a programmer to write commands in a
format that is more easily understood or remembered by a person,
and in such a way that they can be translated into codes that the
computer can understand and execute.
Allows human beings and computers to communicate Computer
programming languages enable humans to write in a form that is
more compatible with a human system of communication
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The evolution of programming languages

Low-level
• First Generation
• machine-level programming language, which was written in 1s and 0s. There
is no compiler or translator required and it can be understood and used by a
CPU directly.
• Second Generation
• assembly language.
• Symbolic instructions and addresses
• the code can be read and written fairly easily by a human
• but it must be converted into a machine readable form in order to run on a
computer.
• Examples = IBM, BAL and VAX Macro

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High-level
• In assembly language programmers were still forced to think in terms
of individual machine instructions.
• High level languages were designed to be closer to natural languages.
• Third Generation
• Third generation language(3GL) is a high level language designed to be easier
for a human to understand, including things like named variables.
• Fortran, ALGOL and COBOL are early examples of this sort of language. Most
"modern" languages (BASIC, C, C++,Java) are third generation. Most 3GLs
support structured programming.

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• Forth Generation
• closer to human languages than typical high-level programming languages.
• Most 4GLs are used to access databases.
• Examples = SQL, Postscript

• Fifth Generation
• Appeared in the 1990s,
• based around solving problems using constraints given to the program, rather
than using an algorithm written by a programmer.
• used mainly in artificial intelligence research and fuzzy logic.
• Prolog, OPS5, and Mercury are the best known fifth-generation languages

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Compiler vs Interpreter
• Compiler a program that translates high-level language into absolute
code, or sometimes into assembly language
• Interpreter a language processor that analyses a line of code and
then carries out the specified action, rather than producing a
machine-code translation to be executed later

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Approaches (programming methodologies) to
programming design
1. Structured (procedural)approach.
2. Object-oriented approach.
Structured (procedural) programming:
• Dividing a problem into smaller sub problems. Each sub problem is
then analyzed, and a solution is obtained to solve the sub problem.
• The solutions to all of the sub problems are then combined to solve
the overall problem.
• Languages e.g C, Pascal, Fortran, ALGOL and Assembly

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Object-oriented programming
• Object-oriented programming (OOP) refers to the creation of
reusable software objects that can be easily incorporated into
multiple programs
• Object-oriented design (OOD) is a widely used programming
methodology.
• Components called objects are identified. These objects interact with
one another

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Object oriented programming uses the following concepts: -
- A system can be constructed from a set of objects – just as a house is built from
bricks, windows, doors, amongst other things.
• Adding new abilities to existing objects can expand a system.
- Creating new objects can expand a system.
- Objects built for a particular system can be used for building another system.
This reduces the development time as the existing design can be used to create
other objects.

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Classes and objects
• A class is a definition/blueprint/template used for creating objects

• An object is an instance of a class or category.

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• Just like things in the real world, software objects have state and
behaviour.
- The object’s state is made up its properties (or attributes) which
describe aspects of the object, for example, a car might have an
engine type, a make, model number and a colour.
• Behaviours are the operations that the object carries out, for
example, a car accelerating, braking, changing gear and turning the
windscreen wipers on.

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Four fundamental ideas/features in oop
• Abstraction, polymorphism, Inheritance, Encapsulation
Abstraction
-focus on essentials(ignore the irrelevant, ignore the unimportant)
Encapsulation
-information hiding mean that only an object can manipulate its data
through using its own methods or operations.
-This prevents other objects from accessing its insides, and 'prevents
accidents'.
-The idea of encapsulation is to hide your objects, attributes and methods

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Inheritance
• refers to the fact that one class can inherit part or all of its structure
and behaviour from another class
• A subclass inherits everything from a superclass, and can also add
other features, as well as override some of the inherited features
Polymorphism
• Means “many forms”
e.g + sign 2+5 (add), “Hello”+”World”(concatenation)
• Polymorphism allows developers to re- use terminology and to allow
it have more than one meaning.
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Syntax (syntax rules)
- the rules defining the legal sequences of symbolic elements in a
language
- syntax rules define the form of the various constructs in the
language, but say nothing about the meaning of those constructs
• Other syntax rules specify the permissible sequences of tokens and the
process of assigning meaning to these token sequences is part of semantics.
• A token is a string of characters

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Keywords
• In many languages, such as C and similar environments like C++, a keyword is
a reserved word which identifies a syntactic form.
• Words used in control flow constructs, such as if, then, and else are
keywords. In these languages, keywords cannot also be used as the names of
variables or functions.
• Other examples = Repeat, Begin, End.

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Comments
• a comment is a programming language construct used to embed
programmer-readable annotations (notes) in the source code of a
computer program.
• These annotations are potentially significant to programmers but
typically ignorable to compilers and interpreters
• Comments are usually added with the purpose of making the
source code easier to understand.
• The syntax and rules for comments vary and are usually defined in
a programming language specification

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Comments cont…
• Comments are generally formatted as
• block comments (also called prologue comments or stream
comments) or
• line comments (also called inline comments)
• Examples
• // C line comment
• ' Visual basic line comment
• /* */ C block comment

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Variables
• A variable is a symbol that represents a storage location in the
computer’s memory
• The information that is stored in that location is called the value of
the variable
• One common way for a variable to obtain a value is by an assignment
operator
• Depending on the programming language, variables may only be
able to store a specified datatype (e.g. integer or string).
• Therefore only specified actions as defined by the type can be
done on that variable i.e. multiplication of integer variables.
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Identifiers
• Identifiers are names of things that appear in programs, such as
variables, constants, and functions.
• A C++ identifier consists of letters, digits, and the underscore
character (_) and must begin with a letter or underscore
• The following are legal identifiers in C++:-
payRate
counter1

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Whitespaces
• Every C++ program contains whitespaces. Whitespaces include
blanks, tabs, and newline characters.
• Proper utilization of whitespaces in a program is important. They can
be used to make the program more readable.

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Common programming errors
• Syntax error: - This error occurs due to the following reasons;
-Not following the grammatical rules used in declaration of identifier.
-Not terminating statement by semicolon.
-Not providing equal number of opening and closing braces.
• These errors can be rectified by the user as it is displayed while compiling
the program.
• Logical error: - This error won’t be displayed on the screen. However it will
lead to wrong results.
-Example: An infinite loop. This error lead to abnormal termination of a
program or infinite loop.

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• Run-time error: - This error occurs while running a program by
displaying the message listed below;
-Division by 0
-Overflow
-Underflow

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Program translation
translation from a more human-readable form of the program into
executable binary code
Consider the following C++ program

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• When writing C++ programs, remember that C++ is case-sensitive
• That means that main() is different from Main()
• The safest policy is to type everything in lower-case except when you
have a compelling reason to capitalize something.

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Cont..
• The first line of this source code is a preprocessor directive that tells the C++ compiler
where to find the definition of the std object that is used on the 2nd line.

• The identifier iostream is the name of a file in the Standard C++ Library.

• The expression <iostream> is called a standard header.

• The 3rd line is also required in every C++ program. It tells where the program begins.

• The identifier main is the name of a function, called the main function of the program

• Every C++ program must have one and only one main() function.

• The required parentheses that follow the word “main” indicate that it is a function

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• The keyword int is the name of a data type in C++. It stands for “integer”. It is
used here to indicate the return type for the main() function.

• A program body is a sequence of program statements enclosed in braces { }

• << represents the C++ output operator

• >> the input operator

• \n represent the newline character.

-When the output device encounters that character, it advances to the

• Finally, note that every program statement must end with a semicolon (;)
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Program translation process

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Step One
• Use a text editor to create a C++ program following the rules, or
syntax of C++.
• This program is called the source code, or source program.
• The program must be saved in a text file that has the extension .cpp.
Step Two
• Preprocessor directives are processed by a program called
preprocessor.
• Preprocessor directives are statements that begin with the symbol #.
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Step Three
• Verify that the program obeys the rules of the programming language.
• That is to say that the program is syntactically correct and translate the
program into the equivalent machine language.
• The compiler checks the source program for errors.
• The compiler checks the source program for syntax errors and, if no error is
found, translates the program into the equivalent machine language.
• The machine language version of the high-level language program is called
object program.

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Step Four
• The object program is translated into an executable file for the computer to
execute.
• This is done by a program called a linker.
• Linker: A program that combines the object program with other programs
in the library and is used in the program to create the executable code.
Step Five
• Load the executable program into main memory for execution.
• A program called a loader accomplishes this task.
Step Six
• The final step is to execute (run) the program.

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Steps in Software Development
1. Requirement gathering and analysis
2. Design
3. Implementation or coding
4. Testing
5. Deployment
6. Maintenance

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Requirement gathering and analysis
• This phase is the main focus of the project managers and stake
holders. Meetings with managers, stake holders and users are held in
order to determine the requirements like;
-Who is going to use the system?
-How will they use the system?
-What data should be input into the system?
-What data should be output by the system?
• After requirement gathering these requirements are analyzed for
their validity and the possibility of incorporating the requirements in
the system to be development is also studied.

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Design
• In this phase the system and software design is prepared from the
requirement specifications which were studied in the first phase.
• System Design helps in specifying hardware and system requirements
and also helps in defining overall system architecture.
• The system design specifications serve as input for the next phase of
the model

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Implementation / Coding
• On receiving system design documents, the work is divided in
modules/units and actual coding is started.
• Since, in this phase the code is produced so it is the main focus for
the developer.
• This is the longest phase of the software development life cycle.

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Testing
• After the code is developed it is tested against the requirements to make
sure that the product is actually solving the needs addressed and gathered
during the requirements phase.
• During this phase all types of functional testing like unit testing,
integration testing, system testing, acceptance testing are done as well as
non-functional testing are also done.
• Functionality testing: is performed to verify that a software application
performs and functions correctly according to design specifications.
• Unit testing: a method by which individual units of source code are tested
to determine if they are fit for use.
• integration testing: tests integration or interfaces between components,
interactions to different parts of the system such as an operating system,
file system and hardware or interfaces between systems.
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• System testing: testing the behavior of whole system/product is
tested as defined by the scope of the development project or
product.
• Acceptance testing: Acceptance testing is basically done by the user
or customer although other stakeholders may be involved as well
• The goal of acceptance testing is to establish confidence in the
system.
• Acceptance testing is most often focused on a validation type testing.
• non-functional testing the quality characteristics of the component
or system is tested.
• Non-functional refers to aspects of the software that may not be
related to a specific function or user action such as scalability or
security. Eg. How many people can log in at once?

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Deployment
• Deployment: After successful testing the product is delivered /
deployed to the customer for their use.
• As soon as the product is given to the customers they will first do the
beta testing.
• If any changes are required or if any bugs are caught, then they will
report it to the engineering team.
• Once those changes are made or the bugs(errors) are
fixed(debugged) then the final deployment will happen.

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Maintenance
• Once when the customers starts using the developed system then the
actual problems comes up and needs to be solved from time to time.
• This process where the care is taken for the developed product is
known as maintenance.

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Algorithms and Procedures
• Algorithm: is a finite set of instructions(step by step instructions) for
performing a computation or solving a problem
• Procedure: A method for accomplishing a result such as solving a
problem or performing a task

• When mathematical equations are used, the description is called a

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Pseudo-code
• Pseudo code is one of the tools that is used to write a preliminary
plan which is developed into a computer program.
• It is not a standard language, although programmers often use terms
within it that closely resemble the actual language to be used.
• Its purpose is to describe an algorithm in a form that can easily be
understood and then translated into the actual programming code
required.

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Example pseudocode-1
Begin
ACCEPT number1, number2, number3
Sum:=number1 + number2 + number3
PRINT sum
End program

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Example Pseudocode – 2
Use variables: number1, number2, number3, sum OF TYPE Integer
DISPLAY “Enter three numbers”
ACCEPT number1, number2, number3
sum:= number1 + number2 + number3
PRINT“The sum is ” sum
end program

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Example Pseudocode – 3
Begin
use variables: length, width, perimeter, area OF TYPE integer
DISPLAY “Enter length and width of the rectangle”
• accept length, width
• perimeter = 2 * (length + width)
• area = length * width
• DISPLAY “The perimeter is” perimeter
• DISPLAY “The area is” area
• end program

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Flowchart
• Diagrams may also be used to represent an algorithm.
• A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents an algorithm,
workflow or process
• This diagrammatic representation illustrates a solution model to a
given problem.
• Flowcharts are used in analyzing, designing, documenting or
managing a process or program in various fields.

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Common flowchart symbols

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Solution in form of a diagram (example pseudocode-2)

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