Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Small Basic and Programming Essay Example for Free

Small Basic and Programming Essay Computer Programming is defined as the process of creating computer software using programming languages. Just like we speak and understand English or Spanish or French, computers can understand programs written in certain languages. These are called programming languages. In the beginning there were just a few programming languages and they were really easy to learn and comprehend. But as computers and software became more and more sophisticated, programming languages evolved fast, gathering more complex concepts along the way. As a result most modern programming languages and their concepts are pretty challenging to grasp by a beginner. This fact has started discouraging people from learning or attempting computer programming. Small Basic is a programming language that is designed to make programming extremely easy, approachable and fun for beginners. Small Basic’s intention is to bring down the barrier and serve as a stepping stone to the amazing world of computer programming. The Small Basic Environment Let us start with a quick introduction to the Small Basic Environment. When you first launch SmallBasic, you will see a window that looks like the following figure. Figure 1 The Small Basic Environment This is the Small Basic Environment, where we’ll write and run our Small Basic programs. This environment has several distinct elements which are identified by numbers. The Editor, identified by [1] is where we will write our Small Basic programs. When you open a sample program or a previously saved program, it will show up on this editor. You can then modify it and save if for later use. You can also open and work with more than one program at one time. Each program you are working with will be displayed in a separate editor. The editor that contains the program you are currently working with is called the active editor. The Toolbar, identified by [2] is used to issue commands either to the active editor or the environment. We’ll learn about the various commands in the toolbar as we go. The Surface, identified by [3] is the place where all the editor windows go. Our First Program Now that you are familiar with the Small Basic Environment, we will go ahead and start programming in it. Like we just noted above, the editor is the place where we write our programs. So let’s go ahead and type the following line in the editor. TextWindow.WriteLine(Hello World) This is our first Small Basic program. And if you have typed it correctly, you should see something similar to the figure below. Figure 2 First Program Now that we have typed our new program, let’s go ahead and run it to see what happens. We can run our program either by clicking on the Run button on the toolbar or by using the shortcut key, F5 on the keyboard. If everything goes well, our program should run with the result as shown below. Figure 3 First Program Output Congratulations! You have just written and run the first Small Basic program. A very small and simple program, but nevertheless a big step towards becoming a real computer programmer! Now, there’s just one more detail to cover before we go on to create bigger programs. We have to understand what just happened – what exactly did we tell the computer and how did the computer know what to do? In the next chapter, we’ll analyze the program we just wrote, so we can gain that understanding. As you typed your first program, you might have noticed that a popup appeared with a list of items (Figure 4). This is called â€Å"intellisense† and it helps you type your program faster. You can traverse that list by pressing the Up/Down arrow keys, and when you find something you want, you can hit the Enter key to insert the selected item in your program. Figure 4 Intellisense Saving our program If you want to close Small Basic and come back later to work on the program you just typed, you can save the program. It is in fact a good practice to save programs from time to time, so that you don’t lose information in the event of an accidental shutdown or a power failure. You can save the current program by either clicking on the â€Å"save† icon on the toolbar or by using the shortcut â€Å"Ctrl+S† (press the S key while holding down the Ctrl key). Chapter 2 Understanding Our First Program What really is a computer program? A program is a set of instructions for the computer. These instructions tell the computer precisely what to do, and the computer always follows these instructions. Just like people, computers can only follow instructions if specified in a language they can understand. These are called programming languages. There are very many languages that the computer can understand and Small Basic is one. Imagine a conversation happening between you and your friend. You and your friends would use words, organized as sentences to convey information back and forth. Similarly, programming languages contain collections of words that can be organized into sentences that convey information to the computer. And programs are basically sets of sentences (sometimes just a few and sometimes many thousands) that together make sense to both the There are many languages that the computer programmer and the computer alike. can understand. Java, C++, Python, VB, etc. are all powerful modern computer languages that Small Basic Programs are used to develop simple to complex software A typical Small Basic program consists of a bunch programs. of statements. Every line of the program represents a statement and every statement is an instruction for the computer. When we ask the computer to execute a Small Basic program, it takes the program and reads the first statement. It understands what we’re trying to say and then executes our instruction. Once it’s done executing our first statement, it comes back to the program and reads and executes the second line. It continues to do so until it reaches the end of the program. That is when our program finishes. Back to Our First Program Here is the first program we wrote: TextWindow.WriteLine(Hello World) This is a very simple program that consists of one statement. That statement tells the computer to write a line of text which is Hello World, into the Text Window. It literally translates in the computer’s mind to: Write Hello World You might have already noticed that the statement can in turn be split into smaller segments much like sentences can be split into words. In the first statement we have 3 distinct segments: a) TextWindow b) WriteLine c) â€Å"Hello World† The dot, parentheses and the quotes are all punctuations that have to be placed at appropriate positions in the statement, for the computer to understand our intent. You might remember the black window that appeared when we ran our first program. That black window is called the TextWindow or sometimes referred to as the Console. That is where the result of this program goes. TextWindow, in our program, is called an object. There are a number of such objects available for us to use in our programs. We can perform several different operations on these objects. We’ve already used theWriteLine operation in our program. You might also have noticed that the WriteLine operation is followed by Hello World inside quotes. This text is passed as input Punctuations such as quotes, spaces and to the WriteLine operation, which it then prints parenthesis are very important in a computer out to the user. This is called an input to the program. Based on their position and count, operation. Some operations take one or more they can change the meaning of what is being inputs while others don’t take any expressed. Our Second Program Now that you have understood our first program, let’s go ahead and make it fancier by adding some colors. TextWindow.ForegroundColor = Yellow TextWindow.WriteLine(Hello World) Figure 5 Adding Colors When you run the above program, you’ll notice that it prints out the same â€Å"Hello World† phrase inside TextWindow, but this time it prints it out in yellow instead of the gray that it did earlier. Figure 6 Hello World in Yellow Notice the new statement we added to our original program. It uses a new word, ForegroundColor which we equated to a value of â€Å"Yellow.† This means we’ve assigned â€Å"Yellow† to ForegroundColor. Now, the difference between ForegroundColor and the operation WriteLine is that ForegroundColor did not take any inputs nor did it need any parenthesis. Instead it was followed by an equals to symbol and a word. We define ForegroundColor as a Property of TextWindow. Here is a list of values that are valid for the ForegroundColor property. Try replacing â€Å"Yellow† with one of these and see the results – don’t forget the quotes, they are required punctuations.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace: Post-Apartheid South Africa Essay -- South Afr

You behave as if everything I do is part of the story of your life. You are the main character; I am a minor character who doesn't make an appearance until half way through. Well, contrary to what you think, people are not divided into major and minor. I am not minor. I have a life of my own, just as important to me as yours is to you, and in my life I am the one who makes the decisions (Coetzee 174) This is a poignant statement made by Lucy Lurie to her father David the protagonist and central consciousness of Disgrace. It is her response to his lack of understanding her life choices and his lack of deep regard for anyone but himself. It is his handicap, his inability to understand anything outside of his self-reflections, and his attitude is due to a level of arrogance and sense of privilege, as he continues his attempts at self-elevation. Lucy is protesting his inability to understand her life choices and the root of his lack of any deep regard for anyone but himself. When David loses his position at the University through his own arrogance,--one reading of the â€Å"disgrace† of the title, whether he feels it as such or not,--his partly conscious and partly unconscious search for reconciliation forces him to listen to the voices of formerly silenced persons, feminine, and black represented in the just quoted passage by his daughter. David in his narration bends the scope of his story toward the plight of women, rather than the â€Å"colored† in a post-apartheid South African landscape. Lucy is a convenient representation for David of those really disgraced in post-Apartheid South Africa, while David represents those seemingly disgraced who evade the realities of their actions, those unapologetic un-remorseful masses that excuse ... ...t of vipers. No, Professor Lurie, you may be high and mighty and have all kinds of degrees, but if I was you I’d be very ashamed of myself, so help me God. If I’ve got hold of the wrong end of the stick, now is your chance to say, but I don’t think so, I can see it from your face.’ Lurie whispers in response, ‘excuse me, I have business to attend to and walks away (Coetzee 38) David’s response to Melanie’s father in the passage above only further demonstrates what is echoed throughout the text. His avoidance, self-righteousness and inability to apologize become apparent. In that scene at the beginning of the novel we see David’s ability to evade a clear transgression made by him when confronted, and therefore gives us a glimpse of the person we will be depending on to tell us the story. Works Cited Coetzee, J. M. (2000) Disgrace. London: Vintage.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Sociological Perspective

The Sociological perspective stresses the social context in which people live. In other words it’s why we do the things that we do, such as our beliefs, attitudes, and guidelines we live by. It examines how these contexts influence people’s lives. It can also be defined as understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context. At the center of the sociological perspective is the question of how groups influence people, especially how people are influenced by society. A society is a group of people who share a culture and a territory. Sociology is similar to the other social sciences; it is also different as well. The other social sciences include anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology. Like sociology, anthropology studies the culture within. It also studies a group structure, belief systems, and deals with communication. Economics is similar to sociology because if refers to how societies goods and services are distributed, and how that distribution results in inequality. With political science you study how people govern one another, and how those in power affect people’s lives. Last but not least there’s psychology. Like sociology, psychology studies how people adjust to the difficulties of life. With similarities come all kinds of differences in most cases. Sociologists focus primarily on industrialized societies unlike anthropology which focus on tribal people. Economists and political science focus on more than one social institution, sociology focus on a single institution. Unlike psychologists, sociologists stress factors external to the individual to determine what influences people and how they adjust to life. Psychologists focus on the internal parts of your life. Most of the questions on the common sense quiz were a little shocking. Half of them were really shocking to me. One that surprises me was number two. One thing that really surprises me is the fact that women’s earnings have only gone up slightly. You would think that in the world we live today it would be equal well, to me it should be. It’s been many years since women have not been treated equally. I like to treat everyone equally, that should be the way of life. The fact that crime rate outside of fast-food restaurants is higher than crime rates outside of topless bars is very surprising and somewhat funny. I can see why though, sort of, like it said; topless bars hire security so I guess that’s the reason why the crime rates higher at a place that doesn’t have any security at all. It’s funny because there’s usually a lot of people outside of a fast-food restaurant and what are they going to do run through the drive threw and steal your food. Extensive testing of Islamic terrorist’s shows that they’re more normal then mentally ill. Get out of here, someone that wants to kill their own race and sacrifice themselves is most certainly mentally ill. Ok, there doing it because they think that that’s what there god wants. I just think that someone that wants to sacrifice themselves to their gods is mentally ill; to me it’s just not the way of life. Another one that was shocking to me was that bicyclists today that wear helmets are more likely to have a head injury than the bicyclists that don’t wear a helmet. I can see that the reason why is because the ones that wear the helmet are more likely to do something crazy than the ones without. It just really surprises me cause you think the ones not wearing a helmet would cause more head injuries. I’m terrified to do something crazy on a bike therefore I don’t need a helmet but you should always wear one. In conclusion sociology is a lot more interesting to me than any other science. It studies why we do the things that we do, and why different cultures have different ways of life. I know I’m really going to enjoy the rest of this class and will learn many new things that I never thought of before.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Annotated Bibliography Ni Technology Education - 781 Words

Annotated Bibliography: Trends in Technology Education by Sacha Richards October 14, 2016 Originality Score: Three trends I have noticed in the Education realm of Technology are Project Based Learning, Data Informed Decisions and World-Class Standards and Personalized Professional Development. In defining Project Based Learning, this occurs where students are involved in identifying and solving a problem in and out of the classroom. Data Informed Decisions occurs where data is used to drive curriculum-based decisions in the classroom. School leaders and district administrators normally make these decisions for schools. World-Class Standards and Personalized Professional Development is defined as a new tool for teachers, as they are now conducting training by using computers instead of in-person. In today’s society teachers are taking the initiative of educating themselves professionally. Chandrasekaran, S., Al-Ameri, R. (2016). Assessing Team Learning Practices in Project/Design Based Learning Approach. International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP) Int. J. Eng. Ped., 6(3), 24. doi:10.3991/ijep.v6i3.5448 In this article the focus is on providing an environment where students can collaborate and solve real world problems. In the article they discuss how students should interact when solving real world problems. The focus is clearly on the tools needed to ensure that project based learning is successful in schools. This article is relevant to my topic as it giveShow MoreRelatedA Survey Of Secondary Care Pharmacist Independent3341 Words   |  14 Pageshealthcare with the potential to optimise access to medicines. However the actual role of independent prescribers [IP] in practice is poorly understood and under-represented in literature. Current interest in funding for pharmacist IP by Health Education West Midlands [HEWM] is a major driver behind this research. It is hoped that this research may be used to help support future investment policies within the West Midlands [WM]. This undergraduate descriptive observational study aims to identifyRead MoreQuality Improvement328284 Words   |  1314 PagesProfessor of Engineering. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, all in engineering. From 1969 to 1984 he was a faculty member of the School of Industrial Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology; from 1984 to 1988 he was at the University of Washington, where he held the John M. Fluke Distinguished Chair of Manufacturing Engineering, was Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and was Director of the Program in Industrial Engineering. Dr.Read MoreLibrary Management204752 Words   |  820 Pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 The Increasing Complexity of Human Resources Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Types of Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 The LIS Education and Human Resource Utilization Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 The Organizational Framework for Staffing . . . . . . . . . 216 Job Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Job Analysis . . .Read MoreThe Essentials of Project Management65719 Words   |  263 Pagesmodifications 12 Managing progress Project progressingas a closed loop control system Progress monitoring and schedule updating - When the news is bad - Corrective measures - Progress meetings - Project progress reports - Project closure 225 Select bibliography Index List of figures The essential processesof project management The process of project definition Part of a project definition checklist A functional matrix for a single project i a n manufacturingcompany Matrix organization for several