Introduction to computers and C++

Programming
• 1.1 Computer Systems

• A set of instructions for a computer to follow is called a

program.
• The collection of programs used by a computer is
referred to as the software for that computer.
• The actual physical machines that make up a computer
installation are referred to as hardware
• 1.1.1 Hardware
• There are three classes of computers: PCs, workstations
and mainframes.
• A PC (Personal computer) is a relative small computer
designed to be used by one person at a time
• A workstation is a larger and more powerful PC.
• A mainframe is even larger computer that requires some
support staff and generally is shared by more than one
user.
• A network consists of a number of computers
connected, so they may share resources such as
printers, and may share information.
• The hardware for most computer systems is organised
as shown below

CPU

Input devices Main Memory Output devices

Secondary
memory
• The computer has five main components
– Input devices
– Output devices
– Central processing unit (CPU)
– Main memory
– Secondary memory
• The CPU and main memory form the heart of a
computer and can be thought of as an integrated unit.
• An input device is any device that allows a person to
communicate information to the computer e.g. Keyboard
and mouse
• An output device is anything that allows the computer to
communicate information to you. E.g. Video display unit
• The computer has two forms of memory called the main
memory and secondary memory.
• The program that is being executed is kept in the main
memory (often referred to as RAM or random access
memory.
• The main memory consists of a long list of numbered
locations called memory locations. The number of
memory locations varies from computer to computer.
• The memory locations in most computers contain eight
bits. An eight-bit portion of memory is called a byte.
• The number that identifies a byte is called its address.
• If the computer needs to deal with a data item (such as a
large number) that is too large to fit in a single byte, it will
use several adjacent bytes to hold the data item. In this
case the entire chunk of memory that holds the data item
is still a memory location.
• Memory locations and bytes

Byte 1
3 byte location with
Byte 2 address 1
Byte 3
2 byte location with
address 4
1 byte location with address 6

3 byte location with

Byte 8
address 7
Byte 9
• Secondary memory is the memory that is used for
keeping a permanent record of information after (and
before) the computer is used.
• Information in secondary storage is kept in units called
files.
• A program is stored in a file in secondary storage and
copied into main memory when the program is run.
• Several different kinds of secondary memory may be
attached to a single computer. The most common forms
of secondary memory are hard disks, diskettes, tapes
and CD-ROM.
• The central processing unit (CPU) is the brain of the
computer.
• The CPU follows the instructions in a program and
performs the calculations specified by the program.
• The CPU is however, a very simple brain. All it can do is
follow a set of simple instructions provided by the
programmer.
• 1.1.2 Software
• You do not normally talk directly to the computer, but
communicate with it through an operating system.
• The operating system allocates the computer's
resources to the different tasks that the computer must
accomplish.
• The operating system is actually a program. Think of the
operating system as your chief servant.
• If you want to run a program, you tell the operating
system the name of the file that contains it, and the
operating system runs the program.
• The names of some common operating systems are
– UNIX, DOS, OS/2, Windows, Macintosh and VMS.
• A program is a set of instructions for a computer to
follow.
• As shown below, the input to a computer can be thought
of as consisting of two parts, a program and some data.
• The data is what we conceptualise as the input to the
program.
• Whatever we give a computer both as program to follow
and some data for the program, we are said to be
running the program on the data and the computer is
said to execute the program on the data
• Simple view of running a program

Program Data

Computer

Output
• 1.1.3 High-Level Languages
• There are many languages for writing programs.
• C++ is a high-level language
• Other high-level languages include
– C, Pascal, FORTRAN, BASIC, COBOL, Modula-2, Lisp, Scheme
and Ada
• High-level languages resemble human languages in
many ways. They are designed to be easy for human
beings to write programs in and to be easy for human
beings to read.
• A high level language contains instructions that are much
more complicated than the simple instructions a
computer is capable of following.
• The kind of language a computer can understand is
called a low-level language.
• The exact details of a low-level language differ from
computer to computer.
• A typical low-level instruction might be the following:
– ADD X Y Z
• This instruction might mean “add the number in the
memory location X to the number in the memory location
called Y and place the result in the memory location
called Z”.
• The above sample instruction is written in what is called
assembly language. The assembly language must be
translated into string of zeros and ones before the
computer can understand it.
• Programs written in the form of zeros and ones are said
to be written in Machine language.
• 1.1.4 Compilers
• A program that translates a high-level language like C++
to a machine language is called a compiler.
• A compiler its input or data is some other program and
its output is yet another program.
• The input program is called source program or code
• The translated version produced by the compiler is called
the object program or object code.
• The object code for your C++ program must be
combined with the object code for routines (such as input
and output routines) that your program uses. This
process of combining object code is called linking and is
done by a program called a linker. For simple programs
linking may be done for you automatically.
• Preparing a C++ Program for running

C++ program

Compiler

Object code for C++ Object code for

program other routines

Linker

Complete machine
language code
ready to run
• 1.2 Programming and Problem-Solving
• 1.2.1 Algorithms
• The most difficult part of solving a problem on a
computer is discovering the method of solution. After you
come up with a method of solution, it is routine to
translate your method into the required language.
• A sequence of precise instructions which lead to a
solution is called an algorithm. Some approximate
equivalent words are recipe, method, directions,
procedure and routine
• The instruction may be expressed in a programming
language or human language.
• Our algorithms will be expressed in English
• A computer program is simply an algorithm expressed in
a language that a computer can understand.
• An Algorithm
• 1 Get the list of names
• 2 Get name being checked
• 3 Set a counter to zero
• 4 Do the following for each name on the list:
– Compare the name on the list of the name being checked and if
the names are the same, then add one to the counter
• 5 Announce that the answer is the number indicated by
the counter
• The above algorithm determines the number of times a
specified name occurs on a list of names
• 1.2.2 Program Design
• Designing a program is often a difficult talk with no
complete set of rules, no algorithm to tell you how to
write programs. Program design is a creative process.
• The outline is given in the diagram below. The entire
process can be divided into two phases: the problem-
solving phase and the implementation phase.
• The result of the problem-solving phase is an
algorithm, expressed in English, for solving the problem.
• To produce a program in a programming language, the
algorithm is translated into the programming language .
Producing the final program from the algorithm is called
the implementation phase.
• Program Design Process
Start Implementation phase

Problem definition

Algorithm Translating to C++

Desktop testing Testing

Problem-solving phase Working program

• 1.2.3 The software Life Cycle
• Designers of large software systems, such as compilers
and operating systems, divided the software
development process into six phases known as the
software life cycle. The six phases of this life cycle are:
• 1. Analysis and specification of the task (problem
definition);
• 2. Design of software (algorithm design)
• 3. Implementation (Coding)
• 4. Testing
• 5. Maintenance and evolution of the system
• 6. Obsolescence
• 1.3 Introduction to C++
• The C programming language was developed by Dennis
Ritchie in 1970. It was first used for writing and
maintaining the UNIX operating system.
• The C language is peculiar because it is a high-level
language with many of the features of a low-level
language
• C is somewhere in between the two extremes of very
high-level and low-level language and therein lies both
its strengths and its weaknesses.
• Like assembly language, C language programs can
directly manipulate the computer memory. It also has
features of a high-level language, which makes it easier
to read and write than assembly language.
• This makes C an excellent choice for writing systems
programs, but for other programs C is not as easy to
understand as other languages.
• To overcome these and other shortcomings of C, C++
was developed in 1980. C++ was designed to better C.
Most of C is a subset of C++ and most C programs are
also C++ programs.
• Unlike C, C++ has facilities to do object-oriented
programming, which is a recently developed and very
powerful programming technique.
• 1.3.2 A sample C++ program
• The figure below contains a simple C++ program and the
screen display that might be generated when a user runs
and interacts with this program.
• The person who runs a program is called the user.
• The person who writes the program is called the
programmer.
• The beginning and end of our sample program contain
details that need not concern us yet.
• #include <iostream.h>
int main()
{
return0;
}
• A sample C++ program

#include <iostream.h>
int main()
{
int number_of_pods, peas_per_pod, total_peas;
cout << “press return after entering a number. \n”;
cout << “Enter the number of pods: \n”;
cin >> number_of_pods;
cout << “Enter the number of peas in a pod: \n”;
cin >> peas_per_pod;

total_peas = number_of_pods * peas_per_pod;

cout << “If you have”;

cout << number_of_pods;
cout << “pea pods\n”;
cout << “and”;
cout << peas_per_pod;
cout << “peas in each pod, then\n”;
cout << “you have “;
cout << total_peas;
cout << “ peas in all the pods. \n”;

return 0;
}
• Sample Dialogue

Press return after entering a number

Enter the number of pods
10
Enter the number of peas in a pod
9
If you have 10 pea pods
And 9 peas in each pod, then
You have 90 peas in all the pods.
• Description of the above lines

• int number_of_pods, peas_per_pod, total_peas ;

• The above line is called a variable declaration. This

variable declaration tells the computer that
number_of_pods, peas_per_pod and total_peas will be
used as names of variables.
• The word that starts the line int, is an abbreviation for the
word integer and it tell the computer that the numbers
named by these variables will be integers.

• The remaining lines are all instructions that tell the

computer to do something. These instructions are called
statements or executable statements.
• Most of the statements begin with either the word cin or
cout. These statements are input and output statement.
• The statement that begin with cin tell the computer what
to do when information is entered from the keyboard.
• The word cout is used for output.
• The arrows << or >> tell you the direction that the data is
moving. The arrows, << and >> are called “insert” and
“extract” or put to and get from respectively.

• E.g cout << “Press return after entering a number. \n”;

• This line may be read, put “ Press … number \n” to cout.
• cin >> number_of_pods;
• This line may be read, “get number of pods from cin”.
• 1.3.3 Layout of a simple C++ Program
#include <iostream.h>

int main()
{
Variable_Declarations

Statement_1
Statement_2
…..
Statement_Last

return 0;
}
• The first line
#include <iostream.h>

• is called an include directive. It tell the computer where

to find information about certain items that are used in
your program.
• In this case iostream is the name of a library that
contains the definitions of the routines that handle input
from the keyboard and output to the screen. iostream.h
is a file that contains some basic information about this
library.
• The linker program combines the object code for the
library iostream and the object code for the program you
write.
• The second and third nonblank lines simply say that the
main function of the program starts here.
int main()
{

• The braces { and } mark the beginning and end of the

main function of the program.
• The next-to-last line
return 0;

• says to “end the program when you get here”

• Some compilers will allow you to omit this line, others will
insist that you include it. It is best to get in the habit of
including it. This line is called a return-statement and it
is considered to be an executable statement.
• 1.3.4 Compiling and running a C++
program
• You write a C++ program using a text editor in the same
way that you write any other document. The program is
kept in a file just like any other document.
• The way you compile and run a C++ program also
depends on the particular system you are using
• You will need to learn how to give the commands to
compile, link and run a C++ program on your system.
• When you give the command to compile your program
this will produce a machine-language translation of your
C++ program. This translated version of your program is
called the object code for your program.
• The object code for your program must be linked with the
object code for routines (e.g. input and output routines)
written for you.
• 1.4 Testing and Debugging
• A mistake in a program is called a bug and the process
of eliminating bugs is called debugging.

• 1.4.1 Kinds of Program Errors

• The compiler will catch certain kinds of mistakes and will
write out an error message when it finds a mistake. It will
detect what are called syntax errors since they are, by
and large violation of the syntax of the programming
language, such as omitting a semicolon.
• If your program contains something that is a direct
violation of the syntax rules for your programming
language, the compiler will give you an error message.
• Sometimes the compiler will give you only a warning
message which indicates that you have done something
that is not technically speaking, a violation of the
programming language syntax rules, but that is unusual
enough to indicate a likely mistake.
• There are certain kinds of errors that the computer
system can detect only when a program is run. These
are called run-time errors. Many run time errors have to
do with numeric calculations.
• If the compiler approved of your program and the
program ran once with no run-time error messages, this
does not guarantee that your program is correct.
• Mistakes in the underlying algorithm or in translating the
algorithm into the C++ language are called logic errors.