CA404: Programming Methodology

CA404: Programming Methodology
Instructor: Prof. Chakravarthy Bhagvati
Class Hours: 11:00 - 1:00 (Mon) and 11:00 - 12:00 (Wed)

This is a first level programming course offered to students of MCA (I Semester) and MTech (Computational Techniques). These students are not expected to have any background in programming.

The main objectives of the course are:

teach problem solving on a computer
introduce various programming paradigms
teach programming in the 'C' language
introduce languages such as Tcl/Tk and Perl/Python

Course Plan (Tentative)

Problem Solving on a Computer Design (the hardest part) Implementation (the easiest part) Test and Debug (after all, nobody's perfect)	26, 28 July
Overview of Programming Languages Assignment - 1 (Due: 11 August) (Assignments will be given every 4th (fourth) class and count for 25 marks)	2, 4 August 2 August
Programming in C Introduction Program Structure Variables - Declaration, Definition, Initialization and Assignment Control Structures Functions and Parameters Arrays and Pointers External Variables and Scope Some Advanced Topics	9 August - 8 September
Assignment - 2 (Due: 1 September)
Testing and Debugging C Programs Fixing Compile-time Errors How to Test for Logical Errors Use of Debugging Tools Some Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them	13 - 20 September
Minor - I (on C Programming) - for 15 Marks	22 September
Assignment - 3 (on C Programming) - for 20 Marks	November 3

References

Programming Pearls by Jon Bentley is one of the great classics on programming and programming style. Please refer to it often!
An Introduction to Programming and Problem Solving in Pascal by G. Michael Schneider

References for Programming in C

Programming in C by Kernighan and Ritchie
Notes on C Programming by Rob Pike - Yet another classic!
Programming guidelines for C
Standards and Style for coding in ANSI C
Our own Anupama's coding guidelines