HARAMAYA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATICS

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Fundamentals of Programing – I Course Module

January 2022
Table of Contents
Chapter One .................................................................................................................................. 3
1.1 Introduction to Programming ................................................................................................ 3
1.2 Types of Programming Languages ....................................................................................... 3
1.2.1 Major categories of computer program.............................................................................. 4
1.2.2 Types of programming languages by paradigm................................................................. 6
1.3 Problem Solving Techniques ................................................................................................ 8
1.3.1 Types of algorithm ............................................................................................................. 8

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 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

1.2 Types of Programming Languages

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 English), are defined by syntactic and semantic rules which describe their structure and

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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.

1.2.1 Major categories of computer program

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 three major categories: low-level, assembly and high-level languages.

1.2.1.1 Low-level language

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

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were easier to learn and understand.

1.2.1.2 Assembly language

Assembly language: As computer became more popular, it became quite apparent that machine
language programming was simply too slow tedious for most programmers. Assembly languages
are also called as low level language instead of using the string of member’s programmers began
using English like abbreviation to represent the elementary operation. The language provided an
opportunity to the programmers to use English like words that were called MNEMONICS. 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.

1.2.1.3 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

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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

1.2.2 Types of programming languages by paradigm

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
four sections, in approximate chronological order.

1.2.2.1 Unstructured programming

In an unstructured programming paradigm all the instructions of a program are written one after
the other in a single function and hence suitable for writing only small and simple applications.
For large applications, unstructured programming paradigms cause difficulties in terms of clarity
of the code, modifiability, and ease of use. Although this type of programming paradigm is not
recommended, still most programmers start learning to program using this technique.

1.2.2.2 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.

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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.

1.2.2.3 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.

1.2.2.4 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.

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1.3 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:

1. The first part focuses on defining the problem and logical procedures to follow in
solving it. There are system analysis and design tools, particularly flowchart and pseudo
code, that can be used to define the problem in terms of the steps to its solution.
2. The second introduces the means by which programmers communicate those procedures
to the computer system so that it can be executed. The programmer uses programming
language to communicate the logic of the solution to the computer.

1.3.1 Types of algorithm

Before a program is written, the programmer must clearly understand what data are to beused,
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 two commonly used tools to help to document program logic (the algorithm). These
are Pseudocode and flowcharts. We will use the two methods here. Generally, flowcharts work
well for small problems but Pseudocode is used for larger problems.

1.3.1.1 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

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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, and 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: Write a program that obtains two integer numbers from the user then it will print
out the sum of those numbers.

Pseudo code:

Start
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 the result
Stop

1.3.1.2 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.

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  Example 1: - Write pseudo code and draw the flow chart to add two numbers and display
their result.
Pseudo code:
 Start
Start
 Read the two numbers (A and B)
 Add A and B and Assign the sum of
A and B to C
Read A, B
 Display the result ( c)
 Stop C= A+B
The flow chart is:

Print C

End

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

Algorithm description.
Start
Read the number x
If x is less than zero
Write a message negative
Else
Write a message not negative
Stop

Sometimes 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

Start
1. Initialize sum to 0 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
Stop

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