Introduction to Programming Concepts, SDLC, and PDC

Module Overview and Assessment Breakdown

• Focus: Beginner-level course utilizing a structured programming approach covering sequence, selection, repetition, and basic data types (one-dimensional arrays and lists).

• Target Languages: Python and C.

• Class Structure:

  • $1$\,hour lecture

  • $2$\,hours tutorial

  • $3$\,hours lab ($1$\,hour supervised by tutor, $2$\,hours unsupervised facilitated by a technologist)

• Assessment Breakdown:

  • Theory Test #1: $10\%$

  • Lab Test #1: $10\%$

  • Lab Test #2: $15\%$

  • Theory Test #2: $15\%$

  • Continuous Assessment: $10\%$

  • Group Project: $10\%$

  • Final Exam: $30\%$

Fundamentals of Programming

• Program: An organized list of instructions that, when executed, causes a computer to behave in a predetermined manner.

• Programming: The process of instructing a computer to accomplish a task using a programming language. Executed instructions are converted into machine language.

• Programming Paradigm: A style or way of programming (e.g., structured paradigm, object-oriented paradigm).

Levels of Programming Languages

• Low-Level Languages:

  • Machine Language: Collection of binary digits ($0$s and $1$s) directly read and interpreted by the computer; machine-dependent.     

    

  • Assembly Language: Uses mnemonics or abbreviations corresponding to machine code instructions (e.g., LDA, STA, ADD, SUB, MOV); machine-dependent.     

    

• High-Level Languages:

  • Third Generation (3GL): Machine-independent and programmer-friendly; uses English-like statements and mathematical notations (e.g., C, Python, C++, C#, JAVA, BASIC4, PASCAL, Visual Basic).     

    

  • Fourth Generation (4GL): Non-procedural and machine-independent; processes data for report generators and query languages (e.g., SQL queries).

  • Fifth Generation (5GL): Involves Artificial Intelligence and voice recognition systems (e.g., Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Google).

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

• Definition: A series of $5$ well-defined steps followed when creating or modifying a system.

• Phases:

  1. Analyze the current system: Gather, understand, and document business requirements with end users and IT specialists.

  2. Design the new system: Create a blueprint of how the proposed system works (High Level and Low Level Design).

  3. Develop the new system: Transform design documents into an actual software system.

  4. Implement the new system: Distribute and deploy the system to users.

  5. Maintain the system: Monitor and support the system to ensure it meets ongoing business goals.

Program Development Cycle (PDC)

• Definition: A set of steps used to develop a program in any programming language, overlapping all phases of the SDLC.

• Steps:

  1. Identify Input, Processing, Output, and Storage (IPOS) requirements.

  2. Develop program logic using an algorithm (a finite sequence of instructions providing a solution).

  3. Test logic correctness using a trace table (predicts step-by-step execution to catch logic errors).

  4. Write the program using a programming language.

  5. Test and debug the program.

  6. Complete program documentation:

     • Internal Documentation: Comments written inside the code.

     • External Documentation: Diagrams/charts outside the code (e.g., flowcharts, pseudocode, IPO charts).

Languages Overview: Python and C

• Python: A general-purpose, high-level programming and scripting language used to build applications, web pages, and software systems.

• C: A general-purpose, machine-independent, structured programming language used to construct operating systems (such as Windows), databases (such as Oracle), version control systems (such as Git), and language interpreters (such as the Python interpreter).