NOTATIONS

FLOW CHART
Flow chart is defined as graphical representation of the logic for problem solving.
The purpose of flowchart is making the logic of the program clear in a visual representation.

Rules for drawing a flowchart

1. The flowchart should be clear, neat and easy to follow.

2. The flowchart must have a logical start and finish.
3. Only one flow line should come out from a process symbol.

4. Only one flow line should enter a decision symbol. However, two or three flow lines may
leave the decision symbol.
5. Only one flow line is used with a terminal symbol.

6. Within standard symbols, write briefly and precisely.

7. Intersection of flow lines should be avoided.
Advantages of flowchart:
1. Communication: - Flowcharts are better way of communicating the logic of a system
to all concerned.
2. Effective analysis: - With the help of flowchart, problem can be analyzed in
more effective way.
3. Proper documentation: - Program flowcharts serve as a good
program documentation, which is needed for various purposes.
4. Efficient Coding: - The flowcharts act as a guide or blueprint during the
systems analysis and program development phase.
5. Proper Debugging: - The flowchart helps in debugging process.
6. Efficient Program Maintenance: - The maintenance of operating program becomes
easy with the help of flowchart. It helps the programmer to put efforts more efficiently on that
part.
Disadvantages of flow chart:
1. Complex logic: - Sometimes, the program logic is quite complicated. In that
case, flowchart becomes complex and clumsy.
2. Alterations and Modifications: - If alterations are required the flowchart may require
re-drawing completely.
3. Reproduction: - As the flowchart symbols cannot be typed, reproduction of flowchart
becomes a problem.
4. Cost: For large application the time and cost of flowchart drawing becomes costly.
PSEUDO CODE:
Pseudo code consists of short, readable and formally styled English languages used for explain
an algorithm.

 It does not include details like variable declaration, subroutines.

 It is easier to understand for the programmer or non programmer to understand the

general working of the program, because it is not based on any programming language.

 It gives us the sketch of the program before actual coding.

 It is not a machine readable

 Pseudo code can’t be compiled and executed.

 There is no standard syntax for pseudo code.

Guidelines for writing pseudo code:

 Write one statement per line

 Capitalize initial keyword

 Indent to hierarchy

 End multiline structure

 Keep statements language independent

Common keywords used in pseudocode
The following gives common keywords used in pseudocodes.
1. //: This keyword used to represent a comment.
2. BEGIN,END: Begin is the first statement and end is the last statement.
3. INPUT, GET, READ: The keyword is used to inputting data.
4. COMPUTE, CALCULATE: used for calculation of the result of the given expression.
5. ADD, SUBTRACT, INITIALIZE used for addition, subtraction and initialization.
6. OUTPUT, PRINT, DISPLAY: It is used to display the output of the program.
7. IF, ELSE, ENDIF: used to make decision.
8. WHILE, ENDWHILE: used for iterative statements.
9. FOR, ENDFOR: Another iterative incremented/decremented tested automatically.

Syntax for if else:

IF (condition)THEN
statement
...
ELSE
statement
...
ENDIF
Example: Greates of two numbers
BEGIN
READ a,b
IF (a>b) THEN
DISPLAY a is greater
ELSE
DISPLAY b is greater
END IF
END
Syntax for For:
FOR( start-value to end-value) DO
statement
...
ENDFOR
Example: Print n natural numbers
BEGIN
GET n
INITIALIZE i=1
FOR (i<=n) DO
PRINT i
i=i+1
ENDFOR
END
Syntax for While:
WHILE (condition) DO
statement
...
ENDWHILE
Example: Print n natural numbers
BEGIN
GET n
INITIALIZE i=1
WHILE(i<=n) DO
PRINT i
i=i+1
ENDWHILE
END
Advantages:

 Pseudo is independent of any language; it can be used by most programmers.

 It is easy to translate pseudo code into a programming language.

 It can be easily modified as compared to flowchart.

 Converting a pseudo code to programming language is very easy as compared with

converting a flowchart to programming language.
 Disadvantages:

 It does not provide visual representation of the program’s logic.

 There are no accepted standards for writing pseudo codes.

 It cannot be compiled nor executed.

 For a beginner, It is more difficult to follow the logic or write pseudo code as compared
to flowchart.
Example:
Addition of two numbers:
BEGIN
GET a,b
ADD c=a+b
PRINT c
END

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
A programming language is a set of symbols and rules for instructing a computer to perform
specific tasks. The programmers have to follow all the specified rules before writing program
using programming language. The user has to communicate with the computer using language
which it can understand.
Types of programming language
1. Machine language
2. Assembly language
3. High level language
Machine language:
The computer can understand only machine language which uses 0’s and 1’s. In machine
language the different instructions are formed by taking different combinations of 0’s and 1’s.
Advantages:
Translation free:
Machine language is the only language which the computer understands. For executing any
program written in any programming language, the conversion to machine language is necessary.
The program written in machine language can be executed directly on computer. In this case any
conversion process is not required.
High speed
The machine language program is translation free. Since the conversion time is saved, the
execution of machine language program is extremely fast.
Disadvantage:
Ø It is hard to find errors in a program written in the machine language.
Ø Writhing program in machine language is a time consuming process.

Machine dependent: According to architecture used, the computer differs from each other. So
machine language differs from computer to computer. So a program developed for a particular
type of computer may not run on other type of computer.
Assembly language:
To overcome the issues in programming language and make the programming process easier, an
assembly language is developed which is logically equivalent to machine language but it is easier
for people to read, write and understand.
Ø Assembly language is symbolic representation of machine language. Assembly languages are
symbolic programming language that uses symbolic notation to represent machine language
instructions. They are called low level language because they are so closely related to the
machines.
Assembler
Assembler is the program which translates assembly language instruction in to a machine
language.
Ø Easy to understand and use.
Ø It is easy to locate and correct errors.
Disadvantage
Machine dependent
The assembly language program which can be executed on the machine depends on the
architecture of that computer.
Hard to learn
It is machine dependent, so the programmer should have the hardware knowledge to create
applications using assembly language.
Less efficient
Ø Execution time of assembly language program is more than machine language program.
Ø Because assembler is needed to convert from assembly language to machine language.

High level language

High level language contains English words and symbols. The specified rules are to be followed
while writing program in high level language. The interpreter or compilers are used for
converting these programs in to machine readable form.
Translating high level language to machine language
The programs that translate high level language in to machine language are called interpreter or
compiler.
Compiler:
A compiler is a program which translates the source code written in a high level language in to
object code which is in machine language program. Compiler reads the whole program written in
high level language and translates it to machine language. If any error is found it display error
message on the screen.
Interpreter
Interpreter translates the high level language program in line by line manner. The interpreter
translates a high level language statement in a source program to a machine code and executes it
immediately before translating the next statement. When an error is found the execution of the
program is halted and error message is displayed on the screen.
Advantages
Readability
High level language is closer to natural language so they are easier to learn and understand
Machine independent
High level language program have the advantage of being portable between machines.
Easy debugging
Easy to find and correct error in high level language
Disadvantages
Less efficient
The translation process increases the execution time of the program. Programs in high level
language require more memory and take more execution time to execute.
They are divided into following categories:
1. Interpreted programming languages
2. Functional programming languages
3. Compiled programming languages
4. Procedural programming languages
5. Scripting programming language
6. Markup programming language
7. Concurrent programming language
8. Object oriented programming language
Interpreted programming languages:
An interpreted language is a programming language for which most of its implementation
executes instructions directly, without previously compiling a program into machine language
instructions. The interpreter executes the program directly translating each statement into a
sequence of one or more subroutines already compiled into machine code.
Examples: Pascal Python
Functional programming language:
Functional programming language defines every computation as a mathematical evaluation.
They focus on the programming languages are bound to mathematical calculations
Examples: Clean, Haskell
Compiled Programming language:
A compiled programming is a programming language whose implementation are typically
compilers and not interpreters.
It will produce a machine code from source code.
Examples: C, C++, C#, JAVA
Procedural programming language:
Procedural (imperative) programming implies specifying the steps that the programs should take
to reach to an intended state.
A procedure is a group of statements that can be referred through a procedure call. Procedures
help in the reuse of code. Procedural programming makes the programs structured and easily
traceable for program flow.
Examples: Hyper talk , MATLAB
Scripting language:
Scripting language are programming languages that control an application. Scripts can execute
independent of any other application. They are mostly embedded in the application that they
control and are used to automate frequently executed tasks like communicating with external
program.
Examples: Apple script, VB script
Markup languages:
A markup language is an artificial language that uses annotations to text that define hoe the text
is to be displayed.
Examples: HTML, XML
Concurrent programming language:
Concurrent programming is a computer programming technique that provides for the execution
of operation concurrently, either with in a single computer or across a number of systems.
Examples: Joule, Limbo
Object oriented programming language:
Object oriented programming is a programming paradigm based on the concept of objects which
may contain data in the form of procedures often known as methods.
Examples: Lava, Moto