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Introduction to Programming with RAPTOR

By Lt Col Tom Schorsch
The RAPTOR Programming Language
RAPTOR is a visual programming language based on flowcharts. Flowcharts were developed as
a design aid for developing programs; however, with RAPTOR they are a programming language
in their own right as the flowcharts you develop can be executed by the RAPTOR development
environment.
We use RAPTOR in CS110 for several reasons. First, the RAPTOR language has minimal
syntax (grammar) when compared with other programming languages. This makes Raptor
programs easy to write as there are fewer language elements that you have to learn to be
productive. Second the RAPTOR language is visual; RAPTOR programs are diagrams (directed
graphs). One of the hardest aspects of programming to understand and get right is the flow of
control of the statements in your program. The visual nature of the flow of control in RAPTOR
programs makes them easier to understand and program. Third, we developed the programming
language and development environment. We sought to make the development environment easy
to use and the error messages that RAPTOR displays to you easy to understand. We are
constantly trying to improve RAPTOR, so if you have suggestions please tell us. Fourth, our
purpose is not to teach you how to program in particular language. We want to teach you how to
design and execute algorithms to solve problems, and to implement algorithms using computerbased problem solving tools. These objectives do not require a heavy-weight commercial
programming language such as C++ or Java.
What will you be missing by using RAPTOR instead of some other more conventional
programming language? First, you will miss using a complex development environment that has
been designed to be useful to professional software developers but is extremely difficult to use in
an educational environment by novice programmers. Second, you will miss programming in a
large complex programming language with complex syntax and semantics. Third, you will not
see cryptic error messages describing the multitude of syntax errors you might commit while
programming in the complex programming language using the complex programming
environment.
RAPTOR Program Structure
A RAPTOR program is a directed graph. When executing a program, you begin at
the Start symbol at the top and follow the arrows to execute the program. Raptor
programs end with the End symbol. The smallest RAPTOR program (which does
nothing) is depicted at the right. By placing additional RAPTOR statements
between the Start and End symbols you create more meaningful RAPTOR
programs.

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RAPTOR Variables
Variables are memory locations that hold a value. At any given time a variable can only hold a
single value of a particular type of data, however, as the program executes, the data value stored
in the variable can change. They are called variables because the data stored by them can vary as
the program executes.
As an example, the RAPTOR statement X32 assigns the data value 32 to
the variable X. If that statement is followed by the statement XX+1 the
value of 32 is retrieved from X, the value 1 is added to it, and the result (33)
is stored back in variable X replacing the value that was previously stored
there. Thus, in the program at the right, the variable X initially had no value,
then it is assigned the value 32, then it is assigned the value 33, and finally it
is assigned the value 66. If you are reading this on-line (and have RAPTOR
installed) you can execute the program by double-clicking here: Variable
value changing over time Example.rap. You can step through the program
and see the value of variable X change by clicking on the
button.
A variable is normally used to hold a value that is not known before the
program starts running. This value could be read in from the user, or it
could be computed from other values, and so the exact value that is
stored in the variable may vary every time the program is run (another
reason why it is called a variable).
Variables are one of the most important programming concepts as all
code involves the processing of data that is stored in variables. It is
variables, and their changing data values, that enable the same programs
to act differently every time you run them and to solve different versions
of the same problem. The program at the left gets a value from the user,
the variable Number could have a different value each time the program
is executed. Variable value different each time the program is run
example.rap
An instructor will often ask a student to tell them the value of a variable. What they are asking
for is the value that was last assigned to that variable or was read into that variable at a
particular time during the programs execution. The first assignment of a value to a variable is
called initializing a variable. Variables do not automatically have values. If you try to use a
variables value before it has been given one, expect a run-time error like the following.

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All variables should be given meaningful names by the programmer. The names that you use for
variables should be easily understood and relate to the purpose the variable serves in your
program. Remember, a variable name must start with a letter and can contain letters, numbers,
and underscores (but no spaces or other special characters).
One way of understanding the purpose of variables is to think of them as a means to
communicate information between one part of a program and another. By using the same
variable name in different parts of your program you are using the value that is stored at that
location in different parts of your program. Think of the variable as a place holder or storage
area for values between their use in computations. Most of what a program does is to place
values into variables and retrieve values from variables. When you get information from the user
of a program, that information must be stored in a variable in order for you to use it later. When
you perform a mathematical computation via an assignment statement, the resulting value is also
stored in a variable for later use.
Many programs are based on getting data, processing the data, and displaying the results of your
processing. All of this cannot be done without variables. For example, first you get data from
the user and store that data in variables. Second, you perform some sort of computation using
those variables (and the data that was entered and stored in them) and then store the results in
still more variables. Finally, you display the results of your computations to the user by
displaying the computed values that were stored in variables.

Variable

A variable is a value holder. The value of a variable can change during the
execution of the program. Physically, variables are memory locations that hold
a value. Using a variable identifier (its name) in an instruction enables data to
be retrieved from, or stored to that memory location. All variables start with a
letter and may contain additional letters, numbers, and underscores.

Unlike most programming languages, RAPTOR variables are not declared in a separate section
of the program. Instead, RAPTOR variables are defined upon their first use. All RAPTOR
variables are of type Number or String, meaning they could be a whole number like 12, 567,
-342, etc., a floating point number like -12.4, 3.14159, 0.000369, etc., or a string value like
Hello how are you?, James Bond, Female, etc.
As variables are not declared in advance, it can be easy to forget which variables you are using
and to mistype the name of a variable. Either of these problems can lead to your program not
working as you would like it to. For example, the variables Average and Avg are two different
variables as their names are different. Based on their names, both variables probably store the
average of something. However, the RAPTOR development environment cannot read your mind
and determine if Average and Avg should be the same variable so it treats them as different
variables. It is incumbent upon you, the programmer, to consistently use the same name for a
variable in all of its uses in your program.

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RAPTOR Statements
RAPTOR has 6 basic statements: Input, Output, Assignment, Call,
Selection, and Loop. Each of these statements is indicated by a different
symbol in RAPTOR as shown at the right.
The Selection and Loop statements are also called control structure
statements. They are control statements because they control how the
program executes. They are structured statements because they can
enclose other statements.

The RAPTOR program

on the left contains
examples of some of the
6 basic statements. The
comment explains what
the program does. Notice
how the loop statement
controls the execution
flow and encloses other
statements. Those of you
that have read Douglas
Adams
book,
The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy will understand
the reference.
If you are reading this on-line you can execute the program by clicking on: The Ultimate
Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.rap,

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The RAPTOR program to the right

contains examples of the remaining
basic statements.
The comment explains what the
program does.
Notice how the
selection control statement encloses
other statements and that only one of
the statements will be executed. To
try it yourself, click here:
Draw_Example.rap.
Statement
or
Instructio
n

A programming language instruction to the computer. An executable

statement that causes a specific action to occur when the program is run.

The Assignment, Call, Input, and Output statements are described below. A separate reading
describes the Selection and Loop control structure statements.
Assignment Statement
Programming often involves using formulas to compute
some value. The assignment statement is used to perform
a computation and then store the results in a variable. The
value stored in the variable can then be retrieved and used
in a later statement in the program.
The dialog box at the right is used to enter both the name
of the variable being assigned and the computation that
will be evaluated and whose result will be assigned to the
variable.
Syntax for an assignment statement
<Variable> <Expression>

or

Set <Variable> to <Expression>

An example assignment statement is:

Cost (Tax_Rate * Non_Food_Total) + Food_Total

Assignment Symbol

Expression to be evaluated
and assigned during run time

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Variable being assigned

Expression

Any sequence of literals, variables, operators, etc. that, during run-time, can
be evaluated to produce a single value. That value is referred to as the result
of the expression.

The semantics for an assignment statement are:

Evaluate the expression on the right hand side of the assignment operator.
Take the value that was calculated and place it in the memory location associated with the
variable, replacing whatever data value had been stored there previously.
Assignmen
t

An assignment statement is used to modify or replace the data stored at the

memory location associated with a variable.

Built in Operators and Functions

An operator or function directs the computer to perform some computation on data. Operators
are placed between the data being operated on (i.e. X/3, Y+7, etc.) whereas functions use
parentheses to indicate the data they are operating on (i.e. sqrt(4.7), sin(2.9) ). When
executed, operators and functions perform their computation and return their result. RAPTOR
has the following built-in operators and functions.
basic math:
+, -, *, /, ^, **, rem, mod, sqrt, log, abs, ceiling, floor
trigonometry:
sin, cos, tan, cot, arcsin, arcos, arctan, arccot
relational:
=, !=, /=, <, >, >=, <=
logical:
and, or, not
miscellaneous:
random, Length_of
The basic math operators and functions include the familiar (+, -, *, /) as well as some that are
unfamiliar.
** and ^ are exponentiation, ex 2**4 is 16, 3^2 is 9
rem (remainder) and mod (modulus) return the remainder (what is left over) when the
right operand divides the left operand, ex 10 rem 3 is 1, 10 mod 3 is 1 also
sqrt returns the square root, ex sqrt(4) is 2
log returns the natural logarithm, ex log(e) is 1
abs returns the absolute value, ex abs(-9) is 9
ceiling rounds up to a whole number, ex ceiling(3.14159) is 4
floor rounds down to a whole number, ex floor(10/3) is 3
+ also works as a concatenation operation to join two strings or a string and a number,
ex The average is + (Total / Number)
Length_Of returns the number of characters in a string variable (also the number of
elements in an array which you will learn about later), ex Name Stuff
followed by Length_Of(Name) is 5
You should be familiar with the trigonometric functions (sin, cos, tan, cot, arcsin,
arcos, arctan, arccot). They work on angles whose units are radians. (i.e. you must
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convert from degrees to radians before using these functions.). The arctan and arccot are
the two parameter versions of these functions. (i.e. arctan(X/Y) is written in RAPTOR as
arctan(X,Y)).
In RAPTOR, the relational operators and logical operators can only be used in decisions as part
of Selection and Loop statements, which are discussed more fully in the next reading. Relational
operators are =, != (not equal to), /= (not equal to), <, >, >=, and <=. The relational operators
return a Boolean value true or false (yes or no). For example, the operation X<Y would
return true if the value stored in variable X is less than the value stored in variable Y.
Otherwise false is returned. The results of a relational operation can be used by logical
operators.

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The logical operators are defined by the following tables. The operands used by the logical
operators should be Boolean values (meaning the values returned by relational operators or
logical operators).
Expression
True and True
True and False
False and True
False and False
Expression
True or True
True or False
False or True
False or False
Expression
not (True)
not (False)

Result
True
False
False
False
Result
True
True
True
False
Result
False
True

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The random function returns a number between 0 and 1, ex Xrandom could be 0, 0.23,
0.46578, etc. If you need a random number in a different range then you can combine the
random function with other operations. For example, random*100 will evaluate to a number
between 0 and 100. ceiling(random*100) will evaluate to a whole number between 1
and 100.
Built in Constants
Constants are pre-defined variables whose values cannot be changed.
following built-in constants.
constants:
pi, e, true, false, yes, no

RAPTOR has the

pi is defined to be 3.14159274101257.
e is defined to be 2.71828174591064.
True and Yes are defined to be 1.
False and No are defined to be 0.
The constants True, False, Yes, and No are used by the RAPTOR execution system to
determine the results of a decision.
Procedure Call statements
You have heard that a pilot follows take-off and landing procedures, a car mechanic follows a
procedure to change your oil or replace your transmission, and you probably have a procedure
for shining your shoes. I follow the change-oil procedure myself, but I get a car mechanic to do
the replace transmission procedure for me when that becomes necessary. Typically, a procedure
has something that it is acting upon, like the specific transmission and car. Similarly, a called
procedure often must be supplied data, and it often returns data. In this class you will only be
calling procedures, not creating procedures.
A procedure is a named collection of programming statements that accomplish a task. Calling a
procedure suspends execution of your program, executes the steps associated with the called
procedure, and then returns back and starts executing your program again. You do not have to
see the instructions or even know what they are in order to use a procedure; you just have to
know what the procedure will do to use it properly.
To use an existing procedure, you must call it by invoking its name and providing it with data
that it needs. You may call a procedure many times sending it different data each time.
Similarly, a car mechanic may know the procedure for replacing a transmission (or it could be
written down in a book) and could execute that procedure on many different cars and rebuilt
transmissions. Thus you can talk and reason about the procedure separately from the specific
item (be it a specific transmission or a specific piece of data) a procedure is acting upon.
The Draw Example (several pages ago) contained 3 examples of procedure calls which are
repeated below. The first opens up a graphics window that is 100 pixels wide by 100 pixels high.
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The second draws a circle centered at pixel 50, 50 with a radius of 25 pixels. The last draws a
box that has a lower left corner at pixel 25, 25 and an upper right corner at pixel 75, 75. Both the
circle and square are black in color and both are filled. By changing any of the data being passed
into the procedure, you change what the procedure does.

Built in Procedure
The delay_for procedure pauses the execution of the program for the number of seconds
specified. delay_for is not a function or a operation and cant be used in an assignment
statement. Instead, it should be used in a call. Ex, delay_for(0.5) delays operation for half
a second.

Input statements
Every programming language has statements that enable the program to get information from the
user of the program via the keyboard and that can display information on the computer terminal.
Without such statements the user could not type instructions to the computer or give the
computer requested information. Nor could the program display messages to the user, provide
results to the user, or request information from the user.
An input statement is a special type of procedure that gets
information from the user of the program so that the program
can act upon it.
In RAPTOR, an input statement displays a prompt to the user
(prompting them to input a value) and then gets a single value
and stores it in a given variable. In RAPTOR, a dialog box asks
you for the prompt to use and the variable in which to store the
entered data.
The prompt should be as explicit as possible. If a value in
particular units is desired (such as a height in feet or meters) you
should mention the units in the prompt.
As you can see by the Enter Input dialog box at the right there are two types of input prompts,
Text prompts and Expression prompts. An Expression prompt enables you to mix text and
variables together like the following prompt: Enter a number between + low + and + high
+ : .

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Output statements
In RAPTOR, an output
statement is a special type of procedure that
displays a value to the output screen. A dialog box asks you to identify whether you are writing
out an expression or text (using a radio button) and whether a new line will be output (using a
checkbox). The dialog boxes depict different examples depending on whether Number or Text
output is chosen (see below).

When outputting text, you can place additional spaces after the text as shown in the dialog box to
the left above and in the RAPTOR program to the right above. This will cause the Number
output to be separated from the text by a space. When outputting an Expression, you can write
out a mathematical expression as well as a variable as shown in the dialog box in the middle
above.
Your instructor (or your assignment) will also often say Display the results in a user-friendly
manner. What your instructor means is that you should not just write out the results numbers,
but you should also write out some explanatory text explaining what the number is. In other
words, you should tell the user what the data is ("The circle volume is "), and then
display the data as was done in the RAPTOR code above and to the right.

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Selection and Loop statements

As mentioned previously, the selection and loop statements are described in a separate reading.
Comments in RAPTOR
RAPTOR, like many other programming languages, allows you to add comments to your
program. The sole purpose of a comment is to explain some aspect of a program. Comments
should inform or add information for the reader, especially in places where the program code is
complex and hard to understand. Comments are not executed and mean nothing to the computer
but can be very informative to the human reader.
Comment

Explanatory text that is written for the human reader of the program code.
Comments are not instructions to the computer.

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What we have learned

We understand the basic structure and parts of a RAPTOR program.
We know what the arithmetic, logical, and relational operators are and what they can do.
We know purposes of and how to use the 6 basic RAPTOR statements.
We know how to display information in a user-friendly fashion.
We understand what an expression is and can evaluate an expression to determine its value.
We can assign a value to a variable using an assignment statement
Reading Self-Check
1. Label the following RAPTOR identifiers as (L) legal or (I) Illegal. If illegal then explain why.
____ 1) This_Is_A_Test
____ 2) U_2
____ 3) Money$
____ 4) Thisisanawfullylongidentifiername
____ 5) Mickey-Mouse
____ 6) 365_Days
____ 7) Begin
____ 8) End_Of_Data
____ 9) Variable
____ 10) Procedure
____ 11) Is This Identifier Legal
____ 12 Why_Isnt_This_One_Legal
2. Why are comments important?

3. True or False. In RAPTOR, a variable does not have a value (in its memory location) until a
program instruction gives it a value.
4. Identify both the result of the following expressions or indicate if the expression is in error
Result
__________ 1)
__________ 2)
__________ 3)

46 / 2
46 / 3
46 rem 3
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__________ 4)
__________ 5)
__________ 6)
__________ 7)
__________ 8)
__________ 9)
__________ 10)
__________ 11)
__________ 12)
__________ 13)
__________ 14)
__________ 15)
__________ 16)

46 ** 2
12 < 13
35 > 90
120 /= 60*2
46 < 49.5
True and False
(False and False) or True
(45.6 < 32.4) or (14 < 28)
8 < 10 < 20
True and 7
4**4 < 121.456
77 + -1128
(3 * 3)**2 < 80 or (True and (67.5 < 121.5))

5. Identify the following as (A) Arithmetic, (L) Logical, or (R) relational operators.
____ 1)
____ 2)
____ 3)
____ 4)

!=
**
/
not

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