Introduction to Programming

The Introduction to Programming course comprises sessions dealing with variables, expressions, conditional statements, collections, iterative statements, functions, objects, compilation and execution, and best practices.

This hands-on course does not concentrate on any one language in particular, rather its aim is to familiarise delegates with standard programming terminology, structures, and principles. Examples are given in three languages - Python, Java, and JavaScript - and delegates may choose any one of these languages with which to carry out the practical exercises.

Exercises and examples are used throughout the course to give practical hands-on experience with the techniques covered.

The delegate will learn and acquire skills as follows:

• Writing to reading from the console
• Declaring and initialising variables
• Constructing expressions
• Constructing conditional statements
• Working with arrays/lists
• Constructing iterative statements
• Declaring and invoking/calling functions
• Writing procedural programs
• Working with classes and objects
• Writing object oriented programs
• Compiling and executing code

Course Prerequisites

• • Delegates should be able to navigate the file system, edit a file, and browse the web. No programming experience is necessary.

Course Objectives

• • This course aims to provide the delegate with the knowledge to be able to produce simple computer programs that demonstrate an understanding of the three core principles of programming - sequence, selection, and iteration. Delegates will also be exposed to functions, objects, and both procedural and object-oriented programming paradigms. The course further aims to prepare delegates to go on to learn any one of many programming languages in detail.

Target Audience for this Course

• • This Introduction to Programming course is designed for those new to programming, who want to learn about the terminology, structures, and principles of programming generally.
    
    Attending this course will provide delegates with the prerequisite knowledge and required skills to go on to learn any programming language in detail, e.g. Java, JavaScript, Python, C, C++, C#, PHP, Perl, Ruby, etc.

Introduction to Programming Course Content

• DAY 1

  Session 1: INTRODUCTION
  Thinking Like a Computer
  Input/Output
  Storage
  Arithmetic
  Comparison
  Decisions
  Repetition
  Reuse
  What is a Program?
  Statements
  Comments
  What is Code?
  From Source Code to Runtime
  Why So Many Languages?
  What Does a Programmer Do?
  Hello World
  stdin and stdout
  The Console
  Session 2: VARIABLES
  Variables - What and Why
  Name and Value
  Literals
  Data Types
  Declaration
  Initialisation
  Assignment
  Constants
  Session 3: EXPRESSIONS
  Expressions - What and Why
  Operators and Operands
  Unary and Binary Operators
  Arithmetic Operators
  Assignment Operators
  Precedence
  Associativity
  Complex Expressions

• DAY 2

  Session 4: CONDITIONAL STATEMENTS
  Conditional Statement - What and Why
  Comparison/Relational Operators
  Logical Operators
  if else
  switch
  The Ternary Operator
  Code Blocks
  Variable Scope
  Session 5: COLLECTIONS
  Collections - What and Why
  Strings
  Arrays/Lists
  Declaration
  Initialisation
  Getting and Setting Elements
  Session 6: ITERATIVE STATEMENTS
  Iterative Statements - What and Why
  while
  do
  for
  break
  continue
  Array/List Traversal
  Session 7: FUNCTIONS
  Functions - What and Why
  Declaration
  Parameters
  Return Type
  Invocation/Call
  Arguments
  Return Value
  Variable Scope (Review)
  Modules
  Libraries
  Procedural Programming

• DAY 3

  Session 8: OBJECTS
  Object - What and Why
  Object Literals
  Object Properties
  The Trouble with Object Literals
  Classes
  Fields
  Methods
  Instances
  Reference Variables
  Primitive Variables
  Passing by Val/Ref
  Object Oriented Programming
  The Three Principles
  Session 9: COMPILATION & EXECUTION
  From Source Code to Runtime (Review)
  Compilation
  Debugging
  Linking
  Execution
  Interpretation
  Platform Dependence
  Compilation and Interpretation (Bytecode)
  Session 10: BEST PRACTICES
  Program Design
  Stating the Problem
  Devising the Solution
  Pseudocode
  Coding Conventions
  White Space
  Indenting
  Naming
  Coding Style
  Readability
  Flexibility
  Scalability
  Unit Testing
  Test Driven Development (TDD)