Creating Computer

Programs

Dr. Md. Fazlul Kader

Professor
Dept. of EEE, University of Chittagong

McGraw-Hill Technology Education Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
A Layered View of the Computer

Application Programs
Word-Processors, Spreadsheets,
Database Software, IDEs,
etc…
System Software
Compilers, Interpreters,Preprocessors,
etc.
Operating System, Device Drivers
Machine with all its hardware
 Software Categories

• System SW
– Programs written for computer systems
• Compilers, operating systems, …

• Application SW
– Programs written for computer users
• Word-processors, spreadsheets, & other
application packages
 Operating System (OS)
 Provides several essential services:
– Loading & running application programs
– Allocating memory & processor time
– Providing input & output facilities
– Managing files of information
 What Is a Computer Program?
• Computer programs
– Also called software
– Are a list of instructions
– Instructions are called code
– CPU performs the instructions
– Three types
• Operating system
• Utility
• Application

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 Software Is Stored In Many Files
• Executable files
– Contain the instructions for the CPU
– Have extensions of .exe, or .com

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 Software Is Stored In Many Files
• Dynamic link libraries
– Partial executable file
– Used to support executable files
– Have .dll extensions

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 Software Is Stored In Many Files
• Initialization files
– Contain configuration settings for software
– Have a .ini extension
– Modern programs use the registry

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 Software Is Stored In Many Files
• Help files
– Contain information about the software
– Information is indexed and searchable
– Provides an online manual
– Have a .chm or .hlp extension

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 Software Is Stored In Many Files
• Batch files
– Used to automate tasks
– Hold a series of OS commands
– Have a .bat extension

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 Hardware/Software Interaction
• Program execution
– Software executes at the CPU level
– Code to play a sound
• Code generates an interrupt
• CPU tells the sound card to play
• Sound card plays the file
– Programmer creates the code

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 Hardware/Software Interaction
• Code
– Statements written in a programming
language
– Writing code can be tedious
• Code must be perfect
• Order of steps must be exact
– Writing code is quite exciting
• Problems are solved
• New ideas are formed

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 Writing Code

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 Hardware/Software Interaction
• Machine code
– Recall that computers think in binary
– Code is translated into machine code
• CPU executes the machine code
– CPUs have a unique machine code

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 Hardware/Software Interaction
• Programming languages
– Simplifies the writing of code
• English is used to describe the binary
– Original code is called source code
– Several hundred languages exist

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 Computer Languages
– Machine Language
• Uses binary code
• Machine-dependent
• Not portable
• Assembly Language
– Uses mnemonics
– Machine-dependent
– Not usually portable
• High-Level Language (HLL)
– Uses English-like language
– Machine independent
– Portable (but must be compiled for different platforms)
– Examples: Pascal, C, C++, Java, Fortran, . . .
 Machine Language
• The representation of a computer program which is
actually read and understood by the computer.
– A program in machine code consists of a sequence of machine
instructions.
• Instructions:
– Machine instructions are in binary code
– Instructions specify operations and memory cells involved in the
operation
Example: Operation Address

0010 0000 0000 0100

0100 0000 0000 0101

0011 0000 0000 0110
 Assembly Language
• A symbolic representation of the machine language of a
specific processor.
• Is converted to machine code by an assembler.
• Usually, each line of assembly code produces one
machine instruction (One-to-one correspondence).
• Programming in assembly language is slow and error-
prone but is more efficient in terms of hardware
performance.
• Mnemonic representation of the instructions and data
• Example:
Load Price
Add Tax
Store Cost
 High-level language
• A programming language which use statements
consisting of English-like keywords such as "FOR",
"PRINT" or “IF“, ... etc.
• Each statement corresponds to several machine
language instructions (one-to-many correspondence).
• Much easier to program than in assembly language.
• Data are referenced using descriptive names
• Operations can be described using familiar symbols
• Example:
Cost := Price + Tax
 Syntax & Semantics
• Syntax:
– The structure of strings in some language. A
language's syntax is described by a grammar.
• Semantics:
– The meaning of the language
 Hardware/Software Interaction
• Compilers and interpreters
– Converts source code into binary
• Allows code to execute
– Checks source code for correctness

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 Hardware/Software Interaction
• Compiler
– Creates an executable file
• Contents are called object code
– Executable can run on its own
– Each language has its own compiler
– C++ and Java are compiled languages

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 Hardware/Software Interaction
• Interpreter
– Runs program one line at a time
– More flexible than compilers
– Slower than compilers
– Always needed to execute program
– Visual Basic and Perl are interpreted

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 Compilers & Programs
• Compiler
– A program that converts another program from
some source language (or high-level
programming language / HLL) to machine
language (object code).
– Some compilers output assembly language
which is then converted to machine language by
a separate assembler.
– Is distinguished from an assembler by the fact
that each input statement, in general,
correspond to more than one machine
instruction.
Compilation into Assembly L

Source Assembly
Program Compiler Language

Assembly Machine
Assembler
Language Language
 Compilers & Programs
• Source program
– The form in which a computer program,
written in some formal programming
language, is written by the programmer.
– Can be compiled automatically into object
code or machine code or executed by an
interpreter.
– Pascal source programs have extension
‘.pas’
 Compilers & Programs
• Object program
– Output from the compiler
– Equivalent machine language translation of the
source program
– Files usually have extension ‘.obj’

• Executable program
– Output from linker/loader
– Machine language program linked with necessary
libraries & other files
– Files usually have extension ‘.exe’
 What is a Linker?
• A program that pulls other programs together
so that they can run.
• Most programs are very large and consist of
several modules.
• Even small programs use existing code
provided by the programming environment
called libraries.
• The linker pulls everything together, makes
sure that references to other parts of the
program (code) are resolved.
 Running Programs
• Steps that the computer goes through to run a
program:
Memory

Machine language
program
(executable file)
Input Data Data entered CPU
during execution

Computed results
Program Output
 Program Execution
• Steps taken by the CPU to run a
program (instructions are in machine
language):
1. Fetch an instruction
2. Decode (interpret) the instruction
3. Retrieve data, if needed
4. Execute (perform) actual processing
5. Store the results, if needed
 Program Errors
• Syntax Errors:
– Errors in grammar of the language
• Runtime error:
– When there are no syntax errors, but the program
can’t complete execution
• Divide by zero
• Invalid input data
• Logical errors:
– The program completes execution, but delivers
incorrect results
– Incorrect usage of parentheses
 Program Errors
• There are 5 types of error in C:
– Syntax Errors
– Runtime Errors
– Logical Errors
– Linked Errors
– Semantic Errors
 Program Errors
• Syntax Errors
• These are also referred to as compile-time errors.
• These errors have occurred when the rule of C writing
techniques or syntaxes has been broken.
• These types of errors are typically flagged by the
compiler prior to compilation.
 Program Errors
• Syntax Errors
•
 Program Errors
• Runtime Errors
• This type of error occurs while the program is running.
• Because this is not a compilation error, the compilation
will be completed successfully.
• These errors occur due to segmentation fault when a
number is divided by division operator or modulo division
operator.
 Program Errors
• Runtime Errors
 Program Errors
• Runtime Errors
 Program Errors
• Logical Errors
• Even if the syntax and other factors are correct,
we may not get the desired results due to logical
issues.
• These are referred to as logical errors.
• We sometimes put a semicolon after a loop,
which is syntactically correct but results in one
blank loop.
 Program Errors
• Logical Errors
 Program Errors
• Logical Errors
 Program Errors
• Linker Errors
• When the program is successfully compiled and
attempting to link the different object files with the main
object file, errors will occur.
• When this error occurs, the executable is not generated.
• This could be due to incorrect function prototyping, an
incorrect header file, or other factors.
• If main() is written as Main(), a linked error will be
generated.
 Program Errors
• Linker Errors
 Program Errors
• Semantic Errors
• When a sentence is syntactically correct but has
no meaning, semantic errors occur.
• This is similar to grammatical errors.
• If an expression is entered on the left side of the
assignment operator, a semantic error may
occur.
 Program Errors
• Semantic Errors
 Planning a Computer Program
• Plans
– The steps to solve a problem
– Describe the expected results
– Programming without a plan is difficult

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 Planning Tools
• Pseudo code
– Natural language statements that
resemble code
– Describes what must be done
– Can be written by non programmers
– Programmers develop unique versions

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 Planning Tools
• Input-processing-output (IPO) charts
– Determines what is needed
– Input column
• Data inputted by the user
– Processing column
• Pseudo code describing the problem solution
– Output column
• Desired output from the program

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 IPO Chart

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 How Programs Solve Problems
• Program control flow
– Order program statements are executed
– Typically executed in order
– Constructs can change the flow
• Decision statements
• Loops

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 How Programs Solve Problems
• Algorithm
– Set of steps
– Always leads to a solution
– Steps are always the same
– Flowcharts can describe algorithms
• Structured tool for drawing algorithms
– Algorithms appear in all programs

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 Planning Tools
• Pseudo code

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 Flowchart

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 Flowchart

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 Structured Programming
• Programming using defined structures
• Creates easy to read code
• Programs are efficient and run fast
• Several defined structures

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 Structured Programming
• Sequence structure
– Describes the flow of the program
– Typically executed in order
– Branching statements allow multiple flows

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 Structured Programming
• Selection statement
– Also called conditional statement
– Performs a true or false test
– Determines which code to execute next

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 Structured Programming
• Repetition statements
– Also called looping structures
– Repeats a section of code
• Until an exit condition is reached

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