1. Introduction to Computer Programming CS 126 Lecture 1 Zeke Maier

2. Plan for Today Introduction Course Syllabus Course Calendar Questions? Programming Introduction Assignment

3. Who am I 2 nd year PhD student Computational Genomics research Sports geek on the side I write a lot of software –Worked as a Java developer

4. Course Website, Syllabus, & Calendar http://students.cec.wustl.edu/~ejm3/ http://www.cse.wustl.edu

5. Questions?

6. What is Computer Science? Not so much a science in this class –No Scientific Method Key concept: problem-solving –Formulate a problem –Find a solution –Express the solution clearly Pattern Matching

7. What is this course about? Solving computational problems through abstraction and decomposition. –Process: an activity –Computation: a process inside a computer –Procedure: a step-by-step description of a process Volunteer?

8. Abstraction A mechanism for hiding the details –Makes complex systems manageable –Allows us to model the world My Facebook page –What attributes are chosen to represent me? –Which attributes are abstracted away?

9. Decomposition Breaking down a problem (system) into smaller sub-problems (components) –Find structure in the problem and determine how components fit together in a solution –Allows for easier component modification and reuse –What components are used in Facebook? ex: a profile component

10. Software Systems Solving computational problems through abstraction and decomposition Solutions to problems in this class are software systems –A system has collections of communicating components –Components will utilize abstraction to hide details –Components will work together to complete the computation

11. Assignment Course Census Readings –Wednesday AD Chapter 1 KG Notes