1. CSCI 161: Introduction to Programming Course Introduction

2. Course Information Instructor: Course website: . Man Lin， Ph.D
people.stfx.ca/mlin/cs161

3. What is the Course About?
Problem solving
Programming language
What language?
C/C++

4. Why is it Important to Learn Programming?
Computers and computer technology have become a big part of our daily lives and our society: navigation, communication, work and play.
Some examples: course registration, health records, posture movement recognition (Vii games), voice recognition (Siri), map and road navigation, weather prediction, MRI imaging system to find whether there is cancer in the body.
Learning Programming allows us to be technology producer.
Code_org.mp4
Why is it important to learn programming, general.
Next we will discuss why is it important for Engineering students to learn programming.

5. Course Structure
Introduction to programming: lectures and weekly labs

6. Computer and Programming Basics
A computer is an electronic device that can perform certain tasks.
Hardware architecture: CPU, Memory, IO, Secondary Storage; Software (Computer programs) give instructions to computers to perform the tasks.
Computers use binary system, meaning that they essentially only understand 1 and 0.
Early programming language is called machine language, where an instruction is a sequence of 0 and 1s. Opt code (010 for add …) + some operands
Later assembly language,
Load r1, addr1
Load r2, addr2
add r1, r2
High level language: C Language is an example. Programs written in C has to be compiled to machine language so that computer can understand.

7. A few words about learning in this course
Learning a Language + Problem solving
Hard? Yes and No
Need Logical thinking
The code has to be understandable by the compiler. A computer only does what you ask it to do. If it does not do as you want, sorry, it is not its problem, it is your problem. Problem could be syntax error, semantics error, logical errors, not considering all possible cases etc..
Read and write code.
Practice, Practice and Practice