COMP 202 Foundations of Programming
Instructor: Juan Camilo Gamboa Higuera
Use the arrow keys to navigate. Press 'm' to see all the slides.
Who am I
Born and raised in Bucaramanga, Colombia
Spent a bunch of years figuring out what I wanted to do in Bogotá, Colombia
Hoped to make a living writing code
Decided I wanted to build and program robots and moved to Montreal
Got a MSc in CS
Hoping to make a living writing code
What I'm doing now
Getting a PhD in CS
(You should find this funny by the end of this course, maybe)
Preliminary remarks
Why are you taking this class?
This is a required course for your program
You're in CS and have no idea about programming
You're considering joining CS and have no idea about programming
You're have no idea about programming and want to learn the basics
Preliminary remarks
Why should you care about this course?
Because you want to do neat things with computers
Because you think you will learn an useuful skill
Because it costs you (or your parents) money
What skills we aim to develop in this class?
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In class
Thinking like a computer scientist
Reading and understanding computer code
Object oriented programming
-
In the tutorials
How to use software tools
Practical tips on writing computer programs
-
By yourself
???
You will discover that programmers spend most of the time debugging computer code.
Prerequisites?
A Computer Scientist's Tool #1
A Computer Scientist's Tool #2
Course Administration
- This is SECTION 2 of COMP 202
- Course Website:
- E-mail: gamboa [at] cim.mcgill.ca
Some rules/suggestions/tips
- Do the Assignments. Start Early!
- Ask questions
- There are 3 course instructors
- There are 10 Teaching assistants
- 250 students in this section
- Share ideas, work in groups, collaborate
- Do not share code:
- Let others discover new/different/clever solutions
Moving on
This week
-
Preliminary remarks
Motivations
Expectations
Course Administration
-
Basic concepts
Algorithms
Binary
ASCII
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Basic tools for this course
Scratch
Java
Eclipse
What is an algorithm?
A sequence of instructions that transforms some initial conditions into some desired final conditions
e.g.
- Arithmetic operations
- Sorting your groceries in alphabetical order
- Counting the number of people in a room
What is an algorithm?
A sequence of instructions that transforms data
Two numbers into the result of an arithmetic operation
A yes/no question into an answer: yes or no (Decision)
A question about a set of numbers into a number that answers that question (Search)
How is information represented on a computer?
10
There are 10 types of people in the world:
- Those who understand binary
- Those who don't
How is information represented on a computer?
Bit: 0 or 1
Counting with bits:
0 decimal = 0 binary
1 decimal = 1 binary
2 decimal = 10 binary
3 decimal = 11 binary
10 decimal = 1010 binary
What is 11101010?
Decimal: base 10, Binary: base 2
How is information represented on a computer?
How about text?
Resources
- Binary numbers:
http://www.math.grin.edu/~rebelsky/Courses/152/97F/Readings/student-binary - ASCII:
http://sticksandstones.kstrom.com/appen.html - Algorithms:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hfOvs8pY1k - Suggested reading:
How to think like a Computer Scientist
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