Chapter 1: Basics of Visual
Programming
Course Title: Visual programming
Course ID: IT 213
Outline
• Introduction to Computers and applications
• Tasks and programs
• Samples of programming language
• Programmer and User
• Problem solving
• An Introduction to Visual Programming
Environement
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Introduction to Computers
• Hardware – the physical components of
a computer
• Keyboard
• Disk drive
• Monitor
• Software – The instructions that tell the
computer what to do
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Computer uses in Society
• Banking – customer transactions
• Airlines – reservations system
• NASA – control satellites
• Internet – email, research, shopping
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Samples of Programs
• Create and manage a list of friends'
addresses and phone numbers
• Calculate loan payments and
amortization
• Computations to support other course
work
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Communicating with the
Computer
• Machine language – low level, 0 and 1,
hard for humans to understand
• Programming language: [Link] –
high level, understood by humans,
consists of instructions such as Click, If,
Do
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Tasks and programs
• Tasks are broken down into instructions
that can be expressed by a computer
language
• A program is a sequence of instructions
• Programs can be only a few instructions
or millions of lines of instructions
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Application Programs
Program - detailed set of instructions for a
computer to execute
Application programs (applications or apps) -
self-contained collection of programs that
perform a task for the end user
Programming language - formal language
used to give instructions to computers
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Samples of Programming
Languages
• Procedure-Oriented Languages
• FORTRAN
• COBOL
• Pascal
• C
• Ada
• Object-oriented languages
• Smalltalk
• C++
• Ada 95
• Event-driven languages
• Visual Basic
• most Visual languages
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Servers and program applications
• A server can be almost any computer
• A server provides resources to other
computers
• Files
• Internet
• Printers
• Server can run program applications to
do some tasks
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All Programs Have in Common:
• Take data and manipulate it to produce a
result
• Input – Process – Output
• Input – from files, the keyboard, or other input
device
• Output – to the monitor, printer, file, or other
output device
Input Process Output
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Programmer and User
• Programmer – the person who
• solves the problem and
• writes the instructions for the computer
• User – any person who uses the
program written by the programmer
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Problem Solving
• Computer Programmers are problem
solvers.
• Functions :
• Developing the solution to a problem
• Writing Algorithm – a step by step series of
instructions to solve a problem
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Samples of Problems
• Business computations
• Managing records
• Managing lists
• And more
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Problem decomposition
• A complex problem is decomposed into
smaller sub-problems that can be solved
individually.
• In this way, the problem is divided into
parts that are manageable to solve, test,
and maintain.
Chapter 1 - [Link] by Schneider
Introduction to Visual
programming environment
• Language used to create Windows
application.
• Provides a Graphical User Interface or
GUI.
• The sequence of instructions executed in
the program is controlled by events.
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Graphical User Interface (GUI)
• Some concepts of GUI
• Mouse actions
• Windows and forms
• Samples
Chapter 1 - [Link] by Schneider
Mouse Actions
• Pointing
• Hovering
• Clicking
• Double-Clicking
• Dragging
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Windows and Its Little
Windows
• Title Bar
• Active window
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Example: Using the Notepad
• Reviewing Notepad to learn more about
Windows application
• Notepad is an item in the Accessories
menu
• Notepad can be used to create simple
data files
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Example of GUI: Notepad
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Steps to Develop an application
with GUI
1. Design the Interface for the user.
2. Determine which events the controls on the
window should recognize.
3. Write the event procedures for those events.
We use an integrated development
environment (IDE)
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What is an integrated development
environment (IDE)?
• An Integrated development environment (IDE) describes a
software suite comprised of basic tools for developing software
and applications.
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Background of Visual [Link]
• BASIC
• Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction
Code
• By John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz
• Designed to teach programming to
beginners
• BASIC language interpreter, one of
Microsoft’s first products
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[Link]
• BASIC developed at Dartmouth in the
early 1960s
• Visual Basic created by Microsoft in 1991
• [Link] similar to Visual Basic, but more
powerful
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Chapter 1
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Chapter review
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