CS 101 Oct 12 Software problem solving Process

CS 101 – Oct. 12 • Software problem solving – Process – Languages • Python language

Process • The usual procedure for writing a program from scratch involves these steps: – Read & understand the problem – Explain how to solve the problem in English. – Write solution in the desired programming language – Compile the program • Some languages are interpreted rather than compiled. – Run the program, check the output.

Some languages • Machine languages • Assembly languages • High-level languages – FORTRAN (1957) – Pascal – C and C++ – Javascript and Python

Python • • Guido van Rossum, CWI, 1991 High-level and multi-purpose One of the easiest languages to learn Used by Google & CG animation studios – Python is often efficient when working with huge amounts of text/numerical data • Many built-in functions to simplify our work

Practical stuff • To develop our Python solutions, we’ll use a free software package called Active. Python 2. 6 – Allows us to edit and run programs – You’ll see 2 windows: one for editing the code, and other for running the program • Python file name ends in. py • What is a program? – Set of statements: performing operations on variables – Let’s see how to do… input, calculations, output