1. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE Structured Problem Solving An Introduction Stewart Blakeway blakews@hope.ac.uk 0151 291 3113 FML 213

2. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE Aims A brief history of Computers over the last 3 decades Present an Overview of the SPS strand of computing concepts To discuss the assessment (SPS strand only) Introduce PieEater

3. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE “That’s the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers.”. - Larry Niven

4. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE A Brief History Osborne 1 SLT/286 First PDAs First Wireless Apple I Apple II, commodore PET, TRS-80 First Microsoft Windows!

5. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE Schedule (SPS) You are to attend a lecture each week (this one). You are to attend a two hour seminar each week. – If you do not know the time of your SPS seminar speak with me at the end of this lecture.

6. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE Course Schedule (SPS only) Wk BeginLecture 04-Oct-10Course Introduction 11-Oct-10Introduction to Structured Problem Solving 18-Oct-10Algorithms 25-Oct-10Variables and Trace Tables 01-Nov-10Steps in Problem Solving 08-Nov-10Problem Solving Exercises 15-Nov-10Java basics 22-Nov-10Java: Selection & Repetition 29-Nov-10Java: Loops within loops 06-Dec-10Java: Strings 13-Dec-10Exam revision session

7. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE Wk BeginSeminar 04-Oct-10Java Trainer & PieEater 11-Oct-10Java Trainer & PieEater 18-Oct-10Algorithms 25-Oct-10Variables and Trace Tables 01-Nov-10Portfolio PF1 Issues 08-Nov-10Steps in Problem Solving Exercises 15-Nov-10Stacks & Queues 22-Nov-10Java Exercises 29-Nov-10Review Java exercises 06-Dec-10Revision exercises 13-Dec-10Revision exercises Course Schedule (SPS only)

8. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE Course Schedule (SPS only) Wk Begin Assessment 3 18-Oct-10 Set Portfolio 1 5 01-Nov-10 Submission of Portfolio 1 (5%) 11 13-Dec-10 Mock Exam Part 1 23 28-Mar-11 Mock Exam Part 2 25 02-May-11 Final Mock Exam 28 23-May-11 Exam Week (30%)

9. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE Course Website http://hopelive.hope.ac.uk/computing/

10. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE An example of stuff to come! structured English open fridge open box while (box not empty) begin take egg from box if (egg not cracked) begin put egg in fridge end close fridge

11. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE An example of stuff to come! flowcharts x := 1 y := 1 Start Finish TrueFalse fib := 0 fib < 50 fib := x + y display fib x := fib True False fib > 30 display “Nearly There” display fib y := fib fib := x + y

12. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE An example of stuff to come! tracetables Stepxyfibfib < 50fib > 30 11 21 30 4TRUE 52 62 73 8FALSE 93 4TRUE 55 65 78 8FALSE 98 4TRUE 513 6 721 8FALSE 921 4TRUE 534 6 755 8TRUE 955 4FALSE

13. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE An example of stuff to come! String name; int x; x=10; System.in.read(name); while (x > 0) { System.out.println(name + " " + x); x--; } coding

14. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE An example of stuff to come! blueJ

15. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE Programming with Pieeater installing/starting rules of the game pieeater methods pieeater variables The tools of problem solving solving problems with computers algorithms and structured English algorithms and flow charts keeping count and tracetables steps in problem solving understanding the problem getting a solution with top down stepwise refinement systematic problem solving An example of stuff to come! computer programming in java traslating a design into java declarations data types reading and writing in java strings and arrays programming constructs in java the nature of computing conditions numerical conditions comparing character variables Boolean variables compound conditions truth tables + much more

16. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE Motivation Problem Solving Skills are transferable Software developers earn around ??? – day rate day rate – per year per year

17. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE PieEater JavaTrainer developed in house – Contains libraries that allow for the creation PieEater – Once created you can control PieEater around his small world (walk, turn left, turn right) – PieEater has the functionality of doing something a set number of times or until a parameter changes – PieEater can also make decisions, for example if PieEater is at the edge of his world he might turn around – PieEater is a fun way to learn to program- we see PieEater in the first two sessions, then he goes away for a little while – Installation program can be downloaded from the course website, installation is fairly straight forward and works on XP, Vista and 7. – The problems become complex quite quickly

18. www.hope.ac.uk Faculty of Sciences and Social Sciences HOPE Questions First most, it is about problem solving Then coding your solution Coding is FUN! -- but admittedly not for everyone And so you code