CSCI 1300 Computer Science 1

University of Colorado at Boulder

Spring 2010

We aim the course at a student who has an interest in computing but has never written a computer program. It may surprise you that there are only 18 things that you need to learn about our programming language, C++, to write sophisticated programs.

  1. The format of a program
  2. Calling predefined void functions to do work
  3. Writing your own void functions
  4. Data types
  5. Named constants
  6. Arithmetic expressions
  7. Variables
  8. Assignment statements
  9. Input and output of data
    1. Calling predefined non-void functions
    2. Writing your own non-void functions
    3. Boolean expressions
    4. If statements and if-else statements
    5. Switch statements
    6. While loops
    7. Do loops
    8. For-loops
    9. Value parameters vs. reference parameters

    Each of these things on its own is simple to understand, and we will cover them all in the first three weeks of class. The fun part comes in learning the design skills and data structures to efficiently and correctly put these individual pieces together into structured programs that solve useful problems. In addition, you will learn other important software engineering concepts including debugging techniques and the effective use of programming style.

    Please see www.portmain.com/intro for information on instructors and other course items.