Lecture Notes 0: Welcome to CS1111
Objectives
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- Identify the rules for the course.
- Identify all the tools and mechanisms that will be used in the course.
- Explain the difference between Programming and Computer Science.
First Steps
- Sign up to Ed (check your GWU email for an invitation).
- Fill out course survey available on Ed.
The Syllabus (Course Information)
The class information is located in the Syllabus link of the navigation bar.
We will go over it now. When you are done checking it out, make sure to continue here.
The Most Important Point: This course is designed so that anyone can learn to program and do well even without any prior experience!
Using Ed
We will use Ed as our main communication hub.
Please join Ed (via invite emailed to you).
The HelloWorld program
This is the classic basic example (the colors are just highlighting):
public class Hello {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// generate some simple output
System.out.println("Hello, World!");
}
}
This program is written in a programming language called Java. After it gets processed and executed by the computer, the result is that a phrase is printed in the Terminal (more on this later):
"Hello, World!"
Let's visualize this programming running together by copying it (already done for you) into the
Java Visualizer! Note: we will be using the Java Visualizer most of the semester.
Class participation activity: [5 minutes]:
Modify the code in the
Java Visualizer to print out your favorite color (you can make this up). Then, run the visualization to make sure it prints
to the terminal. Finally, copy the link the Visualizer creates for a code snippet, and share this link with
the class on Ed under the thread titled "day 1 in-class exercise for Tuesday 1/16". Ask a neighbor if you need help with
any part of this exercise -- we want to make sure the whole class is able to use these tools! If both of you
still have questions, raise your hand in lecture and we'll be happy to help!
Class participation activity: [1 minute]:
Modify the code in the
Java Visualizer that we used earlier to try to "break" it by making the compiler unable to translate
the Java code into bytecode. We know that it is "safe" for us to change the message "Hello World!"
that gets printed, but see what happens when you touch other parts of this code. You should see an error
message if you successfully broke the code -- we'll see a lot of these during the semester, so don't
be afraid of them! We'll also learn how to interpret these error messages from the compiler.
