Introduction to Computer Programming

1. Introduction to Computer Programming CS 126 Lecture 1 Zeke Maier

2. Plan for Today • Introduction • Course Syllabus • Course Calendar • Questions? • Programming Introduction • Assignment

3. Who am I • 2nd year PhD student • Computational Genomics research • Sports geek on the side • I write a lot of software • Worked as a Java developer

4. Course Website, Syllabus, & Calendar • http://students.cec.wustl.edu/~ejm3/ • http://www.cse.wustl.edu

5. Questions?

6. What is Computer Science? • Not so much a science in this class • No Scientific Method • Key concept: problem-solving • Formulate a problem • Find a solution • Express the solution clearly • Pattern Matching

7. What is this course about? • Solving computational problems through abstraction and decomposition. • Process: an activity • Computation: a process inside a computer • Procedure: a step-by-step description of a process • Volunteer?

8. Abstraction • A mechanism for hiding the details • Makes complex systems manageable • Allows us to model the world • My Facebook page • What attributes are chosen to represent me? • Which attributes are abstracted away?

9. Decomposition • Breaking down a problem (system) into smaller sub-problems (components) • Find structure in the problem and determine how components fit together in a solution • Allows for easier component modification and reuse • What components are used in Facebook? • ex: a profile component

10. Software Systems • Solving computational problems through abstraction and decomposition • Solutions to problems in this class are software systems • A system has collections of communicating components • Components will utilize abstraction to hide details • Components will work together to complete the computation

11. Assignment • Course Census • Readings • Wednesday • AD Chapter 1 • KG Notes