Computer Science, Prifysgol Cymru Aberystwyth University of Wales

CS20210 (1995-96 session)
Computer Programming for Life Sciences

Brief Description

This module introduces the principles of procedural computer programming. It is intended for students doing degrees in life sciences but may be taken by others. On successful completion of the course students will be able to design and implement simple programs in a particular high level language. They will also have an appreciation of the software development process which would enable them to evaluate new software as a potential tool in their work and to liaise meaningfully with software developers. Other programming paradigms will be briefly introduced.

Aims, Objectives, Syllabus, Booklist

Further Details

Number of lectures: 24
Number of seminars/tutorials: 0
Number of practicals: 0 (Students are expected to spend unscheduled time on the significant practical aspects of this course)
Coordinator: Mr. Nigel Hardy
Other staff involved: Not yet known
Pre-requisites: CS20510 or equivalent experience
Co-requisites: None
Incompatibilities: CS10210, CS10310, CS11010 , CS21020
Assessment: Assessed coursework - 50%
Written exam - 50%
Timing: This module is offered only in Semester 1

Aims

Through an introduction to the software life cycle; a study of the principles of procedural programming; examination of the details of one high level language; experience of building small programs; consideration of relevant case studies and examination of procedural languages in a wider context this course will:

give students an insight into the process of building software;
allow them to assess the efficacy of building new software as a potential solution to application problems in their own discipline
allow them to work more effectively with and to modify and customise existing software;
give them the skills to build small items of software.

Objectives

On successful completion of this course, students will have an understanding of:

the size and importance of the stages in simple software life cycles;
the elements of procedural programming languages;
the resources necessary to build new software.

They will be able to:

use a development environment available at Aberystwyth;
develop small programs of reasonably high quality.

Syllabus

Introduction - 1 Lecture: A practical overview of machines and instruction sets; high level languages; interpretation and compilation; data and algorithms.
Notation and an introductory case study - 1 Lecture: Syntax and semantics; lexical conventions; reserved words and identifiers. A small code example will be considered from these aspects.
The development environment - 1 Lecture: Practical details of using the chosen environment.
Simple data types and variable declaration - 1 Lecture: The concept of type; constants; the concept of a variable; the need for a value of data declarations.
Basic control structures - 5 Lectures: The need for control constructs; basic branching and looping; the need for and form of boolean expressions; control construct syntax. Subprograms as control constructs; procedures and functions.
A case study in control structures - 1 Lecture: A structured program to demonstrate the benefits of control structures.
Data structures - 4 Lectures: The need for compound data structures; arrays and records. User defined types; enumerated types. Simple data structure design.
A full case study in coding - 1 Lecture: A case study covering all aspects of coding covered to date.
Program design - 2 Lectures: The need for a design phase. Simple design aids; flow diagrams; pseudocode.
Establishment of functional requirements - 1 Lecture: The need for a requirements establishment phase. Examples of poor definition. The difficulties of establishing requirements.
Testing - 1 Lecture: The need for testing; test strategies and plans. Examples of testing schemes.
The software life cycle - 1 Lecture: A review of the stages met, in context. The relative importance of the stages in projects of different types.
A major case study - 4 Lectures: The interactive development of a program of significant complexity. Example requirements, design and testing documents.