1. CS320n – Elements of Visual Programming Course Introduction Mike Scott

2. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction2 Who Am I Lecturer in CS department since 2000 Undergrad Stanford, MSCS RPI US Navy for 8 years, submarines 2 years Round Rock High School Wife (Kelly) is a nurse. 2 daughters, Olivia and Isabelle

3. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction3 What We Will Do Today Discuss course content, syllabus, and tools demos of course software

4. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction4 Administrative Information class web site: www.cs.utexas.edu/~scottm/cs320n

5. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction5 What Will We Do in CS320n Have Fun?!?! Learn to write computer programs using Alice and LabVIEW Okay if you “Never ever-ed.”

6. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction6 How This Class Will Work In class –lecture and lab work –demos –answers your questions Outside of class –exercises (not graded) –reading –assignments

7. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction7 Grading Homework Projects ~ 50% –6 Alice projects –3 LabVIEW projects –Point value varies per project –some done as individuals, some as pairs –in class presentations of 2 projects –projects are to be your own work! Copying or having someone else do them is academic dishonesty and will result in an F in the course Attendance and Class work, ~ 10% Midterm ~ 20% Final ~ 20%, last week of class

8. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction8 Books Learning to Program with Alice, Second Edition. ISBN 10: 013208516X, ISBN 13: 978-0132085168 Publisher: Prentice Hall

9. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction9 Homework Procedures Your must obtain an account for the CS department Elements Lab Visit this website to request account http://www.cs.utexas.edu/facilities/computing/ –takes at least a day for account to become active. –do this today, please! account allows you to use computers in CS Microlab in Painter Hall and to turn in programs to an account on Elements lab server –software used in course is available and FREE, so you can work at home if you prefer

10. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction10 What is Visual Programming? What is a computer program? –Do you use many programs? –Have you ever written a program? What skills are necessary for programming?

11. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction11 Programming and Computing NY Times Article by Steve Lohr http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/technol ogy/23geeks.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/technol ogy/23geeks.html Jamika Burge, a computer grad student at Virginia Tech, logging video of conflict negotiations during her internship at I.B.M. in San Jose.

12. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction12 Text Based Programming private String[] getWordList() { Scanner s; String temp; JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser(); TreeSet words = new TreeSet (); //open the file chooser and get a file int retval = chooser.showOpenDialog(null); chooser.grabFocus(); if (retval == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) { File source = chooser.getSelectedFile(); try { s = new Scanner( source ); while( s.hasNext() ) { temp = s.next(); if( temp != null && temp.length() == WORD_SIZE ) { words.add( temp ); } s.close(); } catch(IOException e) { System.out.println("An error occured while trying “ + “to read from the file: " + e); } return words.toArray(new String[words.size()]); }

13. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction13 Eww!!

14. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction14 Visual Programming Use of a graphical interface to create the program instead of text –easier with simple programs –less likely to make mistakes –Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++ visual tool for creating graphical user interface (GUI), but lots of text based programming still required IEEE has an annual conference on Visual Languages/Human Centric Computing (VL/HCC)

15. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction15 Visual Programming Lots of true Visual Languages –VIPR, Self, Pygmalion, Prograph and many, many more –not a lot of commercial successes Exception: LabVIEW An educational language and tool called Alice

16. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction16 An Alice Program

17. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction17 LabVIEW Program

18. Visual ProgrammingCourse Introduction18 Demos