Administrivia

• Lecture hours
– Monday, Wednesday, Thursday: 11-11:55am, in L7
– Come to the class in time
• Labs
– 2pm-5pm,
– Monday: A5-A6, Tuesday: A7-A8, Wednesday: A9-
A10, Thursday: A1-A2, Friday: A3-A4
– The lab starts on Tuesday Jan 2, 2007. Since Jan 1
is a holiday, the Monday lab shall be held on
Saturday (Jan 6) during 2-5pm.
– The lab schedule is given on the course web-page
(www.iitk.ac.in/esc101
• Tutorial
– Tuesday 11-11:55am, Tutorial Block 101-110
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– First tutorial on Tuesday Jan 2, 2007.
 Administrivia
• Grading:
– Exam: 15+15+30
– Two compulsory lab tests: 10+15
(Note: Performance in Lab tests will be taken
into consideration while deciding about
borderline cases)
– Weekly lab sessions: 10
– Tutorials: 5
– Quizzes: 10 (extra credit)

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 Administrivia
• The course web page will have all relevant
info about the course. You should keep
checking the web-page for all updates:
www.iitk.ac.in/esc101
• Text book
– Nothing specific: your choice
– Suggestion: “Java Elements: Principles of
Programming in Java” by Bailey and Bailey
– More references are on the webpage
• You may also visit past course sites through
www.iitk.ac.in/esc101 3
What this course is not about
• This is not a course on programming
– You will learn how to solve problems with
computers: especially the ones that you
cannot solve with paper and pencil quickly
– The greater part of the lectures will be
devoted to the concepts involved in
developing a computer algorithm
• Sequence of steps that solve a problem
– Java will be used as a vehicle to demonstrate
the concepts
• Do not expect to become an expert in Java after
taking this course 4
 Algorithm
• The way out is to give a recipe that describes how
to obtain the right output from any given input.
We use the term algorithm to denote such recipes.
• Examples: algorithm to multiply two arbitrary
integers, algorithm to find the gcd of two
integers, etc.
• For every possible input, an algorithm specifies a
sequence of steps which when carried out will give
us the output that corresponds to the input.
– Although on an input instance an algorithm may specify an
arbitrary number of steps to be carried out, the
algorithm itself must be finite.
– Another property an algorithm must have is that each
step it specifies must be effective, that is, it should be
possible for the computing agent to carry out the step. 5
 Algorithm
• Consider the problem of computing the product of two
numbers by repeated addition. Suppose n1 and n2 are the
two numbers, n2 non-negative, then we can find the product
by adding n1 n2 times. We will assume for this problem that
our computing agent can add two numbers, but arbitrary
number of numbers, at any step. With this constraint, an
algorithm is:
Step 1. Read in the values of n1 and n2.
Step 2. Initialize result to 0.
Step 3. While n2 is greater than 0, do Steps 4 and 5
Step 4. Obtain the new value of result as (old value of result
+ n1)
Step 5. Obtain the new value of n2 as (old value of n2 -1)
Step 6. Print result. (At this point, result = n1*n2).

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Flowchart

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 Programs
• Algorithms are informal objects, these are
written using natural languages. Although, an
algorithm is precise enough for a human being to
follow, electronic computers cannot understand
these, hence it cannot follow an algorithm to
compute an output corresponding to a given input.
It needs the algorithm translated in terms of the
instructions it is capable to carry out. An
algorithm, when translated in terms of what a
computer can comprehend, what we have is a
program.

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 Anatomy of a computer
• What you see
– A monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, a printer …
– Input/Output devices
– Through these you ask the computer to do
something and the computer tells you the
results
• Need a way to convey your commands to the
computer (it is really a stupid device which cannot
do anything on its own)
– Internally
• A central processing unit and a scratchpad (often
called main memory) accomplish the job 9
 Anatomy of a computer
• Central processing unit does not
understand English, not even Java
– It only understands two symbols: 0 and 1
– These are called bits (short for binary
digits)
– You encode your algorithm into a high-level
language called Java
• This is called a program
• This is harder to understand than English, but
easier to understand than a 0-1 encoding
• How do I encode a program in 0-1? This is used
only for storing the program in main memory10
 Anatomy of a computer
• A friend of yours called compiler
translates the program into a binary
encoding called an object program
– This is almost understandable to the central
processing unit (often called a
microprocessor)
• Another friend of yours called a linker
adds something more to an object
program to convert it to an executable
– This is understandable to the CPU
– But somehow it needs to get started
executing 11
 Anatomy of a computer
• A big boss called operating system loads
the executable in main memory and hands
over the control to the CPU
– Now the CPU starts executing your program
(essentially the binary executable)
– Once in a while it prints something on the
monitor and you appreciate that
• Notice that it is not doing anything on its own,
only doing whatever you have asked it to do
– At some point the CPU completes the
execution and you have all the results
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 A simple program
• Let’s write a program in English (almost)
– Want to add five numbers a, b, c, d, e and
print the result on monitor
print (monitor, a+b+c+d+e)
– print is used as a function which takes two
arguments: where to print and what to print
– A binary translation of this could convert
each character i.e. p, r, i, n, t, (, m, … into a
binary string e.g., p is the 16th alphabet, so
represent it as 16 zeros; put a 1 to mark the
end of a character
– Now I can design a CPU which can
understand this translation and execute13my
program (caution: this is just an example)
 Printing on monitor
/* Example of multiline comment;
This is our first Program */

class printcoursename{
public static void main(String arg[]){
// This prints name of the course (single line comment)
System.out.println("This course is ESc101N");
}
}

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 Printing on monitor
/* Example of multiline comment;
This is our second Program.
Will print the same thing in a different way. */

class printcoursename{
public static void main(String arg[]){
// This prints name of the course (single line comment)
System.out.println("This ” + “course ” + “is ” +
“ESc101N”);
}
}
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 Printing numbers
class printnumber {
public static void main (String args[]){
// Notice that I can use args also
// because it is a variable name and can be
// anything.
int var1; // Declaration
var1 = 124; // Operator and expression
System.out.println("Value of var1 is: "+var1);
}
}
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 Lab #1
• Learn to use the UNIX environment
– How to create a file (this where you store
your programs)
– How to create and navigate through
directory (this where you store your files)
– How to copy files from one directory to
another
– And more: www.iitk.ac.in/esc101/linux.pdf
– Lab is upstairs in CC: Your tutor will be there
in the lab.

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