Lecture 1 - Introduction To Vb.net_falli_07

Introduction to Computer Programming 

Instructor Contact Information: 

John A. Rose, PhD (Assoc. Prof., APU ICT Institute)    

APU Office: Building B, Room 414 Phone: x4414 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.apu.ac.jp/~jarose/

Texts and Materials 

Primary Text: ‘Beginning VB.NET 2003’   

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Authors: T. Willis, J. Crossland, R. Blair Publisher: Wiley (2004) ISBN (Int’l Standard Book Number): 0-7645-5658-4

Resource: ‘Introduction to Visual Basic .NET Programming’  

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H. Gunarto (Publisher, Tech Publications) ISBN: 981-214-154-5

‘Introduction to Computer Programming’ 

Slide set on Basic Programming with VB Studio .NET 

Available in ‘Instructional Materials’ (J. Rose, Spring Q1 2007) 

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PowerPoint slides

A Slide-based Course Pack also available 

with Prof. N. Dahlan (N.B.: our approach may differ somewhat)

Course Syllabus (tentative) 

Introduction to VB .NET  

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Lecture 1 – Introduction and Operation of VB .NET Lectures 2-3 – Creating Simple Programs with VB .NET

Data and Control Structures   

Lectures 4, 5 – Variables and Data Types Lecture 6 – Decision Structures Lecture 7 – Loop Structures 

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Midterm Examination

Lecture 8 – Subroutines and Functions (Methods) Lecture 9 – File Input and Output Lecture 10 – Arrays

Enumerations and Structures   

Lectures 11-12 – Enumerations Lecture 12 - Structures Lectures 13– Working with Structures (Array Lists) 

Final Examination or Submission of Final Project

Course Methodology 

Lecture materials will be distributed at the beginning of each class…  

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Followed by the Lecture. Where possible, examples will be presented with figures.

Each class is 95 minutes. After each lecture-period: 

students will then be provided time for practice (as time permits). 

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For a total of 95 minutes (lecture + practice)

Teaching Assistants (TAs) will be available to answer questions during the practice period.

Note: substantial practice and work beyond the class period will be required.

Course Evaluation (Grading) 

The final grade (100%) will be awarded using the following criteria for evaluation (tentative): 

Attendance: 20%  

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Mid-term Exam: 35% 

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An in-class test after Lecture 7 (Loop Structures)

Final Examination: 45% 

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Students should come to each class. Note: points will be deducted for lateness and breaking lab rules.

A comprehensive, in class test over all course material.

Important Notes about grading: 

Homework (VB .NET Projects): 

Will be assigned occasionally (do the assigned tasks!) 

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It is your responsibility to come to all classes, and do all tasks.

Note carefully that the above is tentative. 

The above weights/items are subject to change.

Miscellaneous Instructions 

Students should bring their own data storage devices: 

Necessary for storing work: 

USB 2.0 Flash Memory (preferred)  

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CD-RW 

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650 or 700 MB

Floppy Disk 

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64 MB or higher Windows XP Compatible

3.5’, 1.4 MB

These can be purchased in the APU Book Store.

Lecture 1: Introduction to VB.NET

Outline 

Introduction:    

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Computers, Information, and Information Processing Software vs. Hardware Programming Languages Interpreted vs. Compiled Languages

Visual Basic (VB)  

VB.NET Our IDE for Windows Applications: Visual Studio.NET  

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Introduction Basic Operation

Introduction to Basic Program Design  

Basic process for program preparation Simple Example: ‘Hello World’   

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Program design Form and Controls arrangement Adding code

Running, Testing, and Saving the Program

What is a Computer? 

A computer is a logical device for processing information. 

Specifically, computers process data. 

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Base: Silicon VLSI technology 

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VLSI = Very Large Scale Integrated circuits

Computers are Powerful!  

Can perform logical computations much faster than Humans. Current speed (desktop!): 4 x109 basic operations/sec (GHz) 

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Data = structured information

Each a simple logical operation (division, shift, write, etc)

Computers are Limited… 

Computation basically sequential…  

One operation at a time. In contrast, Humans use parallel processing ( by neurons). 

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Computers not very ‘adaptive’… 

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We are better at complex tasks (e.g., Vision, Pattern Recognition)

Standard computers mainly do what they are told.

Communication difficult (computers think logically): 

Programming languages (and programmers) required!

Software vs. Hardware 

At the most basic level computers can be decomposed into two components: 

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Hardware and Software

Hardware = the physical components of the computer system.  

Data Processing: The Central Processing Unit (CPU) Data Storage: Memory storage devices: 

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Data Communication: Devices for Input/Output:  

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RAM (primary), Hard drive (secondary), flash disks (peripheral), etc Input: Keyboard, mouse, etc Output: Display, printer, speaker

Software = the computer programs that run on a computer 

These establish logical control over the hardware: 

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The Operating System (OS): primary system control 

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Manage the details of Data Processing, Storage, and Communication. Windows, Unix, Linux, etc

Application Software: MS-Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc User-built Applications: using a Programming Language

Computer Languages 

Computer languages can be classified in three types: 

Machine Languages:  Languages that the Computer can understand… Each operation a string of digits (1’s and 0’s) Machine Dependent: only usable on one platform. 

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Difficult for humans to freely use.

Assembly Languages: 

‘English-like’: Uses words from natural languages… 

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Translated to Machine Language by special programs: 

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Each an abbreviation for a single machine language operation. Assemblers

Still not convenient for Humans.

High-Level Languages:  

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So-called Programming Languages. Single statements can accomplish bigger tasks:  Groups of a set of related basic operations. Much more convenient for Humans.

Programming Languages 

Many Programming Languages have been developed. 

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Some major High Level Languages are:

Languages allow communication between humans and computers… 

This involves converting abstract algorithms for solving problems into a form understandable by the computer. 

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An ‘executable’ (i.e., run-able) form.

Such a converted algorithm is called a program. The folks that do the conversion (at the high level) are us…the programmers.

Interpreted vs. Compiled Languages 

Before execution, instructions in a program must be converted:  

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from a text file (words in a Human language)… to an executable form (first to assembly, then to machine language)

Two flavors exist for this conversion process: 

In advance (compiled all at once).  

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‘On the fly’ (interpreted one instruction at a time):  

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Conversion by a program called a ‘compiler’. Faster, but less adaptable. Conversion by a program called an ‘interpreter’. Slower, but can be modified at ‘run-time’.

Programming languages may be of either type...   

Interpreted: Old MS-DOS ‘batch programs’ Compiled: C, C++, and BASIC Some (JAVA, VB .NET) are essentially a combination of both: 

VB .NET: code first compiled into ‘MicroSoft Intermediate Language’… 

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Portions of MSIL code later interpreted by an ‘MSIL converter’ to executable code. So-called, ‘Just-In-Time (JIT) Compilation’.

Either way, some kind of text editor is required to write the program.

Visual Basic and VB .NET 

BASIC  

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Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code Developed as an extension of C, to be a general-purpose programming language.

Visual BASIC (VB)  

BASIC + a Graphical User Interface (GUI) Greatly eases the creation of Windows applications 

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Visual BASIC .NET  

A programming language based on VB 6.0 Working on the .NET framework of the Microsoft Corporation  

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Especially, by facilitating the use of re-usable components

A Platform for cross-language development (C#, VB. NET, J#) Includes a large standard library

Visual Studio .NET   

Microsoft’s Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for VB .NET. Intended mainly for Windows Applications and Web Applications. We will use Visual Studio .NET to create all of our programs.

Starting VisualStudio.NET

Creating a New Project 

The VB.NET start screen should appear:

Creating a New Project (cont) 

The ‘New Project’ dialog box will appear.

Visual Studio.NET Screen 

The main screen will appear:

Visual Studio.NET Screen (cont) 

Double-clicking the Design Window brings up the Code Editor. 

This shows your project’s current VB code.

Flow Chart for Program Preparation

Let’s Make a Simple Program 

We start by making a Program Plan:  A simple description of the desired characteristics and functionality. 

Often includes an efficient method of solution (algorithm) 

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Example: a plan for adding two decimal numbers.

Simple ‘Welcome’ program (plan):  

Program purpose: Display two simple messages; exit. We will use three buttons (each called a ‘Control’) 

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Desired functionality (program behavior): 

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We will use VB.Studio’s Design Window to create these. Clicking Button 1 (‘Welcome’ Button):  Display ‘Welcome to VB .NET’ Clicking Button 2 (‘Hello’ Button):  Display, ‘Hello, World!’ Clicking Button 3 (‘Exit’ Button):  Exit (close the program)

We will add each to our Form using the Design Window… 

…and then add some simple VB .NET code.

Step 1: Making the Project

Step 2: Form and Controls Arrangement 

We now add 1 Label and 3 Buttons to our form…

Step 3: Setting Control Properties

Step 4: Adding the Program Code 

Write the VB code for each button, separately.

Step 4: Adding Code (cont)

Step 5: Program Testing

Step 6: Saving the Program

Conclusion 

In this lecture, we have discussed:   

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And become acquainted with the basics of using VB Studio .NET:  

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Computers and Data Processing Programming Languages, Visual Basic (VB .NET)

Our IDE for building VB Windows Applications. By making our first simple application.

With the remainder of the lecture, you should practice:   

Open VB .NET and get familiar with the GUI; Try, yourself, to make the simple program we discussed. Test, save, and verify creation of the project files.