Introduction

Overview Administrivia More Languages! Setup Student Voice

Reference

Visual Studio Code VSC Cloning replit.com Git Gitlab Setup Using GitLab VSC GitLab Terminal;GitLab

1. Basic Operations

Basic Operations Binary Recap Basic Operations Floating Point Numbers Basic Operations - Summary Basic Operations - Task Sheet 1 Basic Operations - Task Sheet 2

2. Memory

Memory The Stack Methods & Frames Stack Step By Step Recursion Primitives Vs Objects I The Heap Primitives Vs Objects II Frame Detail Summary Java Memory Exercise

3. C Programming

The C Programming Language C Basics C Variables C Branching & Loops C Operators C Functions C Strings C Input/Output C Code Organisation C Programming - Task Sheet

4. C Memory

C Memory C Pointers C Arrays C Lab Session 2

5. C Struct

C Data Structures C Struct Pointer Guide

C Linked Lists Exercises 1 External Pages Pointers To Pointers Doubly Linked Lists Doubly Linked Lists Node Based Stacks Stacks - Node Based Exercises 2 Trees Binary Trees Binary Search Trees Exercises 2

7. Assembly Language

Assembly PC Hardware Assembly Environment Setup Assembly Basics Registers System Calls Variables & Constants Arithmetic Logic Conditions Loops Exercises Numbers Procedures & The Stack Debugging Assembly Generating Assembly From C

More Languages!

This module does involve you learning the basics of not just one but two more programming languages, do I really expect you to be able to learn two programming languages in one module when it took two modules to teach you one language last year?

Yes I do.

But, in the words of Douglas Adams, Don’t Panic.

Programming consists of a number of different skills.

Breaking a problem in to a number of smaller and smaller problems
Working out the logic of solving those small problems
Turning that logic in to code

The first two skills are (mostly) language independent, the processes are the same regardless of which programming language you use. (This is a simplification. OOP and structured programming do break down the problem in different ways. Programming languages all have specialisations that make some tasks easier and others harder. In general though the point is mostly correct)

The third skill, turning logic in to code, is obviously language specific. However for most programming languages that code is very similar - ‘if ()’ statements all look kinda similar, ‘for()’ loops vary a little more but are easily recognisable. Once you know one language it is easier and faster to learn another.

C Programming Language

C is an elderly language now but it is still very frequently used in industry. It is used in embedded programming (writing code for specific chipsets, used in many devices). It is also the base on which C++ and C# is based.

C has one big difference from Java. C is not an Object Oriented Language. You can create data structures that store more than a single piece off data but those structures have to be handled carefully, especially when it comes to passing them to and from and functions. Other than that C looks a lot like Java. The syntax (how the code is written) is very similar, you’ll be creating variables, using ifs and for loops.

I’ll give you a quick overview of the basics, the stuff that is similar to Java, and go in to more depth on the differences.

Assembly Language

Assembly Language is a very different language. It is acting at a very low level and will not look anything like Java (or even C). We will not be spending a lot of time on Assembly, maybe a little less than a third of our time. We will write some Assembly code in class but you will not be asked to write any for the assessment. You will be given some assembly code and asked to analyse it, describe how it works, and compare it to some C code.

Programming

Please remember, programming is a knowledge and a skill. I can provide you with information in the form of lectures, tutorials and point you at books to help you learn the knowledge but the skill comes from practice. The skill only comes from writing code.

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