Introduction to Computer Science:

Programming Methodology

Lecture 1 Introduction

Prof. YU Jiangfan
School of Science and Engineering
Learning Objectives

• This course introduces the basics of computer programming

using Python

• Students will learn the basic elements of modern computer

systems, key programming concepts, problem solving and
basic algorithm design
Tutors
• LIAO Yinghong
Office: TD 409 (Week 1‐2)
yinghongliao@[Link]
Office hour: Wednesday, 15:00‐17:00

• QI Weimin
Key Topics
• Introduction to modern computers
• Preliminary knowledge for computer programming
• Basic introduction to Python language
• Data types and operators in Python language
• Input/output
• Flow control and loop
• Function
• List
• Basic data structure
• Introduction to algorithm design
• Introduction to object oriented programming
Assessment

Assignments × 4 10% × 4

Mid‐term quiz 20%

Final exam 40%

Course Materials
• All lecture notes and sample code used in classes will
be provided to students via Blackboard

• Recommended readings
 Online resources: [Link]
 Learning Python, 5th Edition, by Mark Lutz, Publisher: O’Reilly
media
Course Components

Activity Hours/week

Lecture 80 minutes × 2

Tutorial 50 minutes × 1
Indicative Teaching Plans
Week Content/ topic/ activity
Introduction to modern computers;
1
Preliminary knowledge for computer programming;
Basic introduction to Python language;
2 Data types and operators in Python language;
Input/output;
3 Flow control and loop;
4 Function;
5 List;
6 Introduction to object oriented programming, part I
7 Review for mid‐term quiz;
8 Introduction to object oriented programming, part II
9 Data Structure, part I;
10 Data Structure, part II;
11 Introduction to algorithm design, part I;
12 Introduction to algorithm design, part II;
13 Introduction to algorithm design, part III;
14 Review for final exam;
Why learn programming?
• Computer is built to help people solve
problems

• Computer does not understand what we

say

• We need to communicate with computers

using their languages (computer
programming language)

• Assembly, C, C++, Java and Python

User Interface

Programmer

• Programmers solve problems like data, information, networks on

behalf of users
Programmer
• Professional programmer writes computer
programs and develops software

• A junior programmer gets a salary of 10‐20k

RMB in an INTERNET company like Tencent

• A programmer can earn up to 500k – 1m

USD in Google!!

• Software and INTERNET are huge industries.

 Odds are the person on your
left is going to be a loser. The
person on your right,
meanwhile, will also be a
loser. And you, in the middle?
What can you expect? Loser.

Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation

Why be a programmer?

• Programming is pervasive in your life, even if you are NOT in

the IT industry
 Electrical/electronic engineer – control program
 Economist – mathematical modeling
 Salesman – analyzing sales data
…
What is Code? Software? Program?

• A sequence of instructions
• Computers take the instructions and execute them
• It is a little piece of our intelligence in the computer
• Intelligence which is re‐usable
Programs for human
• Right hand around your head
• Left hand around your belly
• Straighten out right hand
• Left hand rests on your hip
• One step to the right while
straighten out left hand
• Keep down and swing your
ham [Link]
y1.2‐1‐98.3.2‐2.1‐1‐1‐1‐0
• ……
Computers are good at following instructions

• Humans can easily make mistakes when following a set of

instructions

• On the contrary, computers (usually) won’t make mistakes,

regardless of they are given 10 or 10 billion instructions !!
Computer Hardware

Program
Von Neumann Architecture
• The modern computer
architecture is proposed by John
Von Neumann
The theoretical foundation of
computer science
• The theoretical foundation of
computer science are built by Alan
Turing

• Father of theoretical computer science

and artificial intelligence

• Computability theory and Turing test

Key components in a computer
• Central processing unit (CPU): execute your program. Similar to human
brain, very fast but not that smart

• Input device: take inputs from users or other devices

• Output device: output information to users or other devices

• Main memory: store data, fast and temporary storage

• Secondary memory: slower but large size, permanent storage

Central Processing Unit

• A processor contains two units, a control unit (CU) and an

arithmetic/logic unit (ALU)

• CU is used to fetch commands from the memory

• ALU contains the electric circuits which can execute

commands
Central Processing Unit

• Processor manufacturer: Intel, AMD, ARM, etc

Memory/Storage
• High speed cache

• Internal RAM

• Internal ROM

• External RAM

• Flash

• Hard disk
Input/output devices

• Input devices: mouse,

keyboard, panel, touch screen,
audio input, mind reading, etc

• Output devices: screen, audio

output, etc
How the hard disk works

[Link]
1.8‐1‐1.2
What can a computer actually understand?
• The computers used nowadays can
understand only binary number (i.e.
0 and 1)

• Computers use voltage levels to

represent 0 and 1

• The instructions expressed in binary

code is called machine language
Low level language – Assembly Language
• An assembly language is a low‐level
programming language, in which there is a
very strong (generally one‐to‐one)
correspondence between the language and
machine code instructions.

• Each assembly language is specific to a

particular computer architecture

• Assembly language is converted into

executable machine code by a utility
program referred to as an assembler
C Language (1969 ‐ 1973)
• C was developed by Dennis Ritchie between 1969 and 1973 at AT&T Bell Labs

• One of the early high‐level programming language

• Somewhere between assembly and other high level languages

• Provide powerful functionalities for low level memory manipulations

• Have the highest efficiency within high level languages

• Very widely used in low level applications, such as operating systems, embedded
programming, super computers, etc
C++ Language (1979)

• C++ was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs since 1979

• Inherent major features of C

• An object oriented programming language, supporting code reuse

• High efficiency and powerful in low level memory manipulation

• Still platform dependent

Java Language (1995)
• Java was developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (which has
since been acquired by Oracle Corporation) and released in 1995

• A new generation of general‐purpose object oriented programming

language

• Platform independent, “"write once, run anywhere” (WORA)

• Java is one of the most popular programming languages currently in

use
Python (1991)
• Developed by Guido van Rossum in 1989, and formally released in 1991

• An open source, object oriented programming language

• Powerful libraries

• Powerful interfaces to integrate other programming languages (C/C++,

Java, and many other languages)

• Programming language of the year 2010

Language efficiency v.s. development efficiency
• High level languages cannot be executed directly

• High level languages must be converted into low level languages first

• Lower level languages have higher language efficiency (they are faster
to run on a computer)

• Higher level languages have higher development efficiency (it is easier

to write programs in these languages)
Operating Systems
• The operating system (OS) is a low level program,
which provides all basic services for managing and
controlling a computer’s activities

• Applications are programs which are built based upon

an OS

• Main functions of an OS:

 Controlling and monitoring system activities
 Allocating and assigning system resources
 Scheduling operations

• Popular OS: Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, Android…

Data Representation and Conversion
• We use positional notation (进位记数法) to represent or encode
numbers in a computer

• Data are stored essentially as binary numbers in a computer

• In practice, we usually represent data using either binary (二进制),

decimal (十进制), octal (八进制) or hexadecimal (十六进制) number
systems

• We may need to convert data between different number systems

The basic idea of positional notation
• Each positional number system contains two elements, a base (基数)
and a set of symbols

• Using the decimal system (十进制系统) as an example, its base is 10,

and the symbols are {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}

• When a number “hits” 9, the next number will not be a different

symbol, but a “1” followed by a “0” (逢十进一)
Decimal number system
• In the decimal number system, the base is 10, the symbols include 0, 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

• Every number can be decomposed into the sum of a series of numbers,

each is represented by a positional value times a weight

•𝑁 𝑎 10 𝑎 10 𝑎 10 …… 𝑎 10 𝑎
10 𝑎 10 …

• 𝑎 is the positional value (ranging from 0 to 9), while 10 represents the

weight
Binary number system
• In the binary system, the base is 2, we use only two symbols 0 and 1

• “10” is used when we hit 2 (逢二进一)

•𝑁 𝑎 2 𝑎 2 𝑎 2 …… 𝑎 2
𝑎 2 𝑎 2 …

• 𝑎 is the positional value (ranging from 0 to 1), while 2 represents

the weight
Why use binary number?

• Easy to implement physically

• Simple calculation rules

• Easy to combine arithmetic and logic operations

Hexadecimal number system
• In the hexadecimal system, the base is 16, we use 16 symbols {0, 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c, d, e, f}

• “10” is used when we hit 16 (逢十六进一)

•𝑁 𝑎 16 𝑎 16 𝑎 16 …… 𝑎 16 𝑎
16 𝑎 16 …

• 𝑎 is the positional value (ranging from 0 to 15), while 16 represents the

weight
Octal number system
Converting binary number into decimal number
Example

Practice
Converting binary number into decimal number

Answer
Converting octal number into decimal number
Example

Practice
Converting octal number into decimal number

Answer
Converting hexadecimal number into decimal
number
Example

Practice
Converting hexadecimal number into decimal
number

Answer
Converting other number system into decimal
system

• Other number system can also be converted into

decimal system in a similar way

• We just need to change the corresponding base

Converting decimal integer into binary integer

Example:

Lower position

Higher position
Converting decimal fraction into binary fraction
Example:
Higher position
Integer part: 1
Integer part: 1
Integer part: 1
Lower position
Answer:
Practice:
Converting decimal fraction into binary fraction
Answer:
Higher position
Integer part: 1
Integer part: 0
.5 Integer part: 1
Integer part: 1 Lower position

So,
Converting decimal number into binary number

• For a decimal number that has both integer and fractional

parts

• Convert the integer and fractional parts separately

• Example:
Converting decimal number into binary number

Answer:
The one‐to‐one relationship between binary and
octal numbers
There is a “one‐to‐one” (一一对应) relationship between three digits
binary number and one digit octal number

0 000
1 001
2 010
3 011
4 100
5 101
6 110
7 111
Converting octal number into binary number
• Convert each octal digit into binary number of three digits

• Keep the digit order unchanged

• Example: 0.754 ?

• Practice: 16.327 ?
Converting octal number into binary number

Answer:
Converting hexadecimal number into binary
number
• Convert each hexadecimal digit into binary number of four digits

• Keep the digit order unchanged

• Example: 4𝐶. 2𝐸 ?

• Practice: 𝐴𝐷. 7𝐹 ?
Converting hexadecimal number into binary
number

Answer:
Converting binary number into octal number
• Starting from lower positions, convert every three digits of the integer part
into a octal digit

• When there is not enough higher positions in the integer part, fill with 0

• Starting from higher positions, convert every three digits of the fractional
part into a octal digit

• When there is not enough lower positions in the fractional part, fill with 0

• Keep the digit order unchanged

Converting binary number into octal number

Example:

Practice:
Converting binary number into octal number

Answer:
Converting binary number into hexadecimal
number
• Starting from lower positions, convert every four digits of the integer
part into a octal digit

• When there is not enough higher positions in the integer part, fill with 0

• Starting from higher positions, convert every four digits of the fractional
part into a octal digit

• When there is not enough lower positions in the fractional part, fill with
0

• Keep the digit order unchanged

Converting binary number into hexadecimal
number

Example:
The units of information (data)
• Bit (比特/位): a binary digit which takes either 0 or 1

• Bit is the smallest information unit in computer programming

• Byte (字节): 1 byte = 8 bits, every English character is represented by 1

byte

• KB (千字节)：1 KB = 2^10 B = 1024 B

• MB (兆字节)：1MB = 2^20 B = 1024 KB
• GB (千兆字节)：1GB = 2^30 B = 1024 MB
• TB (兆兆字节)：1TB = 2^40 B = 1024 GB
Memory and addressing
• A computer’s memory consists
of an ordered sequence of
bytes for storing data

• Every location in the memory

has a unique address

• The key difference between

high and low level
programming languages is
whether programmer has to
deal with memory addressing
directly