Week 1: Computer Basics

IST 1025: Introduction to Programming

Prof. Audrey Mbogho

Spring 2022
USIU-Africa
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 Introduction
Modern life is heavily dependent on computers.
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How many activities can you think of that use computers?

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Two of the most basic ideas that computer science focuses

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on are algorithms and information processing.

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 Algorithms
●Consider the problem of subtracting one three digit number from
another. You might follow the steps below:
1.Write down the two numbers, with the larger number above the
smaller number and their digits aligned in columns from the right.
2.Start with the rightmost column of digits and work your way left
through the rest of the columns.
3.Write down the difference between the two digits in the current
column of digits, borrowing a 1 from the top number’s next
column to the left if necessary.
4.If there is no next column to the left, stop. Otherwise, move to
the next column to the left, and go back to Step 3.

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 Algorithms
The above sequence of steps is an example of an
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algorithm
●An algorithm is like a recipe. It provides a set of instructions
that tells us how to do something, such as make change,
bake bread, or put together a piece of furniture.
More precisely, an algorithm describes a process that ends
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with a solution to a given problem

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 Features of an Algorithm
An algorithm consists of a finite number of instructions.
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Each individual instruction in an algorithm is well defined.

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This means that the action described by the instruction can be

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performed effectively or be executed by a computing agent.

For example, any computing agent capable of arithmetic can
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compute the difference between two digits.

So an algorithmic step that says “compute the difference
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between two digits” would be well defined.

On the other hand, a step that says “divide a number by 0” is not
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well defined, because no computing agent could carry it out.

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 Features of an Algorithm
An algorithm describes a process that eventually halts after
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arriving at a solution to a problem.

–For example, the process of subtraction halts after the
computing agent writes down the difference between the
two digits in the leftmost column of digits.
● An algorithm solves a general class of problems.
For example, an algorithm that describes how to make
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change should work for any two amounts of money.

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 Special- vs. General-Purpose Computers
Computers can be designed to run a small set of algorithms for
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performing specialized tasks such as operating a microwave

oven.
●But we can also build computers, like the one on your desktop,
that are capable of performing a task described by any algorithm.
These computers are general-purpose problem-solving
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machines.
Unlike other tools, computers can be programmed, which is what
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makes them versatile, general-purpose tools.

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 Information Processing
Information processing can be described with algorithms.
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In our earlier example, the subtraction steps involved

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manipulating symbols used to represent numbers.

In carrying out the instructions of any algorithm, a
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computing agent manipulates information.

●The computing agent starts with some given information
(known as input), transforms this information according to
well-defined rules, and produces new information, known as
output.
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 The Structure of a Computer
●A modern computer system consists of hardware and software.
●Hardware consists of the physical devices required to execute
algorithms.
●Software is the set of these algorithms, represented as
programs, in particular programming languages, such as Python,
Java, C, C++, etc.
●We will focus on the hardware and software found in a typical
desktop computer system, although similar components are also
found in other computer systems, such as handheld devices and
ATMs

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 Computer Hardware
●The basic hardware components of a computer are
memory, a central processing unit (CPU), and a set of
input/output devices, as shown below.

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 Input and Output Devices
Human users primarily interact with the input and output devices.
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●The input devices include a keyboard, a mouse, a trackpad, a microphone, and a

touchscreen.
Common output devices include a monitor and speakers. Computers can also
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communicate with the external world through various ports that connect them to
networks and to other devices such as smartphones and digital cameras.
The purpose of most input devices is to convert information that human beings deal
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with, such as text, images, and sounds, into information for computational
processing.
●The purpose of most output devices is to convert the results of this processing back
to human-usable form.

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 Computer Memory
Computer memory is set up to represent and store information in
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electronic form as patterns of binary digits (1s and 0s).

Consider a basic device such as a light switch, which can only
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be in one of two states, on or off. Now suppose there is a bank of

switches that control 16 small lights in a row. By turning the
switches off or on, we can represent any pattern of 16 binary
digits (1s and 0s) as patterns of lights that are on or off.
●Computer scientists have discovered how to represent any
information, including text, images, and sound, in binary form.

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 Computer Memory
Now, suppose there are 8 of these groups of 16 lights. We
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can select any group of lights and examine or change the

state of each light within that collection.
●We have just developed a tiny model of computer memory
with 8 cells, each of which can store 16 bits of binary
information.
This memory is also sometimes called primary or internal
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or random access memory (RAM).

Information in RAM is meant to be processed.
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Computer Memory

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 The CPU
The part of a computer that is responsible for processing
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data is the central processing unit (CPU) or processor.

This device consists of electronic switches arranged to
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perform simple logical, arithmetic, and control operations.

●The CPU executes an algorithm by fetching its binary
instructions from memory, decoding them, and executing
them.
●Executing an instruction might involve fetching other binary
information—the data—from memory as well.
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 Secondary Memory
Information remains in primary memory as long as the computer is on.
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When the computer is switched off, this information is lost.

●Secondary or external memory is permanent, and it comes in several
forms.
Magnetic storage media, such as tapes and hard disks, allow bit
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patterns to be stored as patterns on a magnetic field.

Semiconductor storage media, such as flash memory sticks, perform
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much the same function with a different technology, as do optical

storage media, such as CDs and DVDs.
Some of these secondary storage media can hold much larger
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quantities of information than the internal memory of a computer.

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 Computer Software
You have learned that a computer is a general-purpose
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problem-solving machine.
To solve any computable problem, a computer must be
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capable of executing any algorithm.

●Because it is impossible to anticipate all of the problems for
which there are algorithmic solutions, there is no way to
“hardwire” all potential algorithms into a computer’s
hardware.

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 Computer Software
●Instead, we build some basic operations into the
hardware’s processor and require any algorithm to use
them.
●The algorithms are converted to binary form and then
loaded, with their data, into the computer’s memory.
●The processor can then execute the algorithms’
instructions by running the hardware’s more basic
operations.

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 Computer Software
Any programs that are stored in memory so that they can
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be executed later are called software.

●A program stored in computer memory must be
represented in binary digits, which is also known as
machine code.
●Loading machine code into computer memory one digit at a
time would be a tedious, error-prone task for human beings.
It would be convenient if we could automate this process to
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get it right every time.

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 The Loader
For this reason, computer scientists have developed another
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program, called a loader, to perform this task.

A loader takes a set of machine language instructions as input
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and loads them into the appropriate memory locations.

●When the loader is finished, the machine language program is
ready to execute.
Obviously, the loader cannot load itself into memory, so this is
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one of those algorithms that must be hardwired into the

computer.

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 The Operating System
Now that a loader exists, we can load and execute other
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programs that make the development, execution, and

management of programs easier.
This type of software is called system. The most important
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example of system software is a computer’s operating

system.
Familiar examples of operating systems include Linux,
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Apple’s macOS, and Microsoft’s Windows.

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 The Operating System
An operating system is responsible for managing and
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scheduling several concurrently running programs.

●It also manages the computer’s memory, including the
external storage, and manages communications between
the CPU, the input/output devices, and other computers on
a network.

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 The Operating Systen
● The operating system provides the following:
● A file system to allow users to organise their data.
A user interface to allow users to interact with the
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computer’s software. These include:

– terminal-based interfaces
– graphical user interfaces (GUI)
– touchscreen interfaces.
– voice user interfaces (VUI).
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 Application Software
Another major type of software is called applications software, or
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simply apps.
An application is a program that is designed for a specific task,
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such as editing a document or displaying a Web page.

Applications include Web browsers, word processors,
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spreadsheets, database managers, graphic design packages,

music production systems, and games, among millions of others.
As you begin learning to write computer programs, you will focus
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on writing simple applications.

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 Programming Languages
●As you have learned, computer hardware can execute only
instructions that are written in binary form—that is, in machine
language.
●Writing a machine language program, however, would be an
extremely tedious, error-prone task.
●To ease the process of writing computer programs, computer
scientists have developed high-level programming languages for
expressing algorithms.
●These languages resemble English and allow the author to
express algorithms in a form that other people can understand.

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 Programming
●A programmer typically starts by writing high-level language
statements in a text editor.
●The programmer then runs another program called a translator
to convert the high-level program code into executable code.
●Because it is possible for a programmer to make grammatical
mistakes even when writing high-level code, the translator
checks for syntax errors before it completes the translation
process.
●If it detects any of these errors, the translator alerts the
programmer via error messages.

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 Programming
The programmer then has to revise the program.
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●If the translation process succeeds without a syntax error,

the program can be executed by the run-time system.
●The run-time system might execute the program directly on
the hardware or run yet another program called an
interpreter or virtual machine to execute the program.

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The Coding Process

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A History of the Computer

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A History of the Computer

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 Getting Started with Python
●Guido van Rossum invented the Python programming language
in the early 1990s.
●Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language
for solving problems on modern computer systems.
The language and many supporting tools are free, and Python
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programs can run on any operating system.

You can download Python, its documentation, and related
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materials from www.python.org.

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 The Python Shell
Python is an interpreted language, and you can run simple
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Python expressions and statements in an interactive

programming environment called the shell.
●The easiest way to open a Python shell is to launch the
IDLE (Integrated DeveLopment Environment).
●This is an integrated program development environment
that comes with the Python installation.
There are two major versions of Python: 2 and 3. We will
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be using Python 3 in this course.

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The Python Shell

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 The Python Shell
●When you enter an expression or statement, Python evaluates it
and displays its result, if there is one, followed by a new prompt.
●Note the colour coding in IDLE. This helps you to quickly identify
various program elements.
●The Python shell is useful for experimenting with short
expressions or statements to learn new features of the language,
test out ideas, as well as for consulting documentation on the
language.
●To quit the Python shell, you can either select the window’s close
box or press the ctrl+D key combination.

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 Input, Processing and Output
●Most useful programs accept inputs from some source, process
these inputs, and then finally output results to some destination.
In terminal-based interactive programs, the input source is the
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keyboard, and the output destination is the terminal display.

●The Python shell itself is such a program; its inputs are Python
expressions or statements. Its processing evaluates these items.
Its outputs are the results displayed in the shell.

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 The print function
The programmer can also force the output of a value by
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using the print function.

– print(<expression>)
● Python evaluates <expression> and then displays it.
●In the example below, the expression is evaluated,
resulting in the value 5, and then it is printed.
– print(3 + 2)

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 The print function
●You can pass multiple expressions to the print function by separating them with a
comma.
–print(“hello”, name)

The print function will insert a space between the displayed values.
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It you don’t want this behaviour, you can use the sep parameter to change it.
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 Receiving Input
As you create programs in Python, you’ll often want your
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programs to ask the user for input.

You can do this by using the input function.
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 Receiving Input
● The input function does the following:
–Displays a prompt for the input. In this example, the prompt
is "Enter your name: " .
Receives a string of keystrokes, called characters, entered
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at the keyboard and returns the string to the shell.

The prompt was provided to the input function as an
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argument.
●An argument is a piece of information that a function needs
to do its work.
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 Variables
The string returned by the function in our example is saved
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by assigning it to the variable name.

●The form of an assignment statement with the input
function is the following:
<variable identifier> = input(<a string prompt>)
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●A variable identifier (or just variable) is a name that stores a

value. The variable can be used again and again wherever
that value is needed.

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 Inputting Numbers
The input function always builds a string from the user’s
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keystrokes and returns it to the program.

After inputting strings that represent numbers, the
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programmer must convert them from strings to the

appropriate numeric types.
In Python, there are two type conversion functions for this
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purpose, called int (for integers) and float (for floating-point

numbers).

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 Inputting Numbers
●In the session below, a string is first returned by the input
function. Then the string is passed to the int function to be
converted to an integer.

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 Python Scripts
While it is easy to try out short Python expressions and
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statements interactively at a shell prompt, it is more

convenient to compose, edit, and save longer, more
complex programs in files.
●We can then run these program files or scripts either within
IDLE or from the operating system’s command prompt
without opening IDLE.
Script files are also the means by which Python programs
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are saved permanently and distributed to others.

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 Creating and Executing a Script in IDLE
●Select the option New File from the File menu of the shell
window.
●In the new window, enter Python expressions or statements on
separate lines, in the order in which you want Python to execute
them.
●At any point, you may save the file by selecting File/Save. If you
do this, you should use a . py extension. For example, your first
program file might be named myprogram.py.
●To run this file of code as a Python script, select Run Module
from the Run menu or press F5.

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Creating and Running a Script

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Steps in Interpreting a Python Program

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 Steps in Interpreting a Python Program
●The interpreter reads a Python expression or statement,
also called the source code, and verifies that it is well
formed. As soon as the interpreter encounters such a
syntax error, it halts translation with an error message.
●If a Python expression is well formed, the interpreter then
translates it to an equivalent form in a low-level language
called byte code.
●When the interpreter runs a script, it completely translates
it to byte code.
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 Steps in Interpreting a Python Program
This byte code is next sent to another software component,
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called the Python virtual machine (PVM), where it is executed.

If another error occurs during this step, execution also halts with
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an error message.
●This is a run-time error. Dividing by zero is an example of a run-
time error.
●Another type of error, that goes undetected and unreported, is
the logic error where your code does a computation other than
what is required to solve the problem at hand.

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 Exercise
●Write a script that asks the user for three things: their
name, the amount of money they have, and the price of the
item the wish to buy.
●The program then calculates and reports how much money
the user has left after they have bought the item.

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