Introduction to Visual Programming: CS320n Overview with Mike Scott

1. CS320n – Elements of Visual Programming Course Introduction Mike Scott

2. Who Am I • Lecturer in CS department since 2000 • Undergrad Stanford, MSCS RPI • US Navy for 8 years, submarines • 2 years Round Rock High School • Wife (Kelly) is a nurse. 2 daughters, Olivia and Isabelle Course Introduction

3. What We Will Do Today • Discuss course content, syllabus, and tools • demos of course software Course Introduction

4. Administrative Information • class web site: www.cs.utexas.edu/~scottm/cs320n Course Introduction

5. What Will We Do in CS320n • Have Fun?!?! • Learn to write computer programs using Alice and LabVIEW • Okay if you “Never ever-ed.” Course Introduction

6. How This Class Will Work • In class • lecture and lab work • demos • answers your questions • Outside of class • exercises (not graded) • reading • assignments Course Introduction

7. Grading • Homework Projects ~ 50% • 6 Alice projects • 3 LabVIEW projects • Point value varies per project • some done as individuals, some as pairs • in class presentations of 2 projects • projects are to be your own work! Copying or having someone else do them is academic dishonesty and will result in an F in the course • Attendance and Class work, ~ 10% • Midterm ~ 20% • Final ~ 20%, last week of class Course Introduction

8. Learning to Program with Alice, Second Edition. ISBN 10: 013208516X, ISBN 13: 978-0132085168 Publisher: Prentice Hall Books Course Introduction

9. Homework Procedures • Your must obtain an account for the CS department Elements Lab • Visit this website to request account • http://www.cs.utexas.edu/facilities/computing/ • takes at least a day for account to become active. • do this today, please! • account allows you to use computers in CS Microlab in Painter Hall and to turn in programs to an account on Elements lab server • software used in course is available and FREE, so you can work at home if you prefer Course Introduction

10. What is Visual Programming? • What is a computer program? • Do you use many programs? • Have you ever written a program? • What skills are necessary for programming? Course Introduction

11. Programming and Computing • NY Times Article by Steve Lohr • http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/technology/23geeks.html • Jamika Burge, a computer grad student at Virginia Tech, logging video of conflict negotiations during her internship at I.B.M. in San Jose. Course Introduction

12. Text Based Programming private String[] getWordList() { Scanner s; String temp; JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser(); TreeSet<String> words = new TreeSet<String>(); //open the file chooser and get a file int retval = chooser.showOpenDialog(null); chooser.grabFocus(); if (retval == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) { File source = chooser.getSelectedFile(); try { s = new Scanner( source ); while( s.hasNext() ) { temp = s.next(); if( temp != null && temp.length() == WORD_SIZE ) { words.add( temp ); } } s.close(); } catch(IOException e) { System.out.println("An error occured while trying “ + “to read from the file: " + e); } } return words.toArray(new String[words.size()]); } Course Introduction

13. Eww!! Course Introduction

14. Visual Programming • Use of a graphical interface to create the program instead of text • easier with simple programs • less likely to make mistakes • Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++ • visual tool for creating graphical user interface (GUI), but lots of text based programming still required • IEEE has an annual conference on Visual Languages/Human Centric Computing (VL/HCC) Course Introduction

15. Visual Programming • Lots of true Visual Languages • VIPR, Self, Pygmalion, Prograph and many, many more • not a lot of commercial successes • Exception: LabVIEW • An educational language and tool called Alice Course Introduction

16. An Alice Program Course Introduction

17. LabVIEW Program Course Introduction

18. Demos Course Introduction