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Unit 4 - Programming Assignment 1 Pass
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Unit 4 - Programming Assignment 1 (06F301YA) Pass Grade
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Programming Assignment 1Introduction
In this assessment, I will be evaluating how computational thinking skills can impact software
design and the quality of the software applications produced. To do this I will be explaining the
concepts of computational thinking and logic, and I will be including some uses of software
applications and an explanation of some different programming languages along with their uses.
Computational thinking skills
Starting with decomposition. Decomposition is a process used to make large, complex problems
easier to solve by breaking them down into a series of smaller problems called tasks. If a
problem is not decomposed, it is going to be a lot harder to solve. Also, by breaking the problem
down into smaller tasks, the individual tasks can be examined in more detail allowing for a
better solution. For example; if we were to make a video game, we would break down the
problem "how do we make the game" into smaller problems like; "what genre will the game
be?" and "how can the game be won?".
Next, there is pattern recognition. This is used to find patterns in the smaller problems created
as a result of decomposition. For example; in a game there can be multiple options for the
playable character, they all behave the same and look very similar but they are different colours.
This pattern can be used to speed up the development of the game by making one character
and changing its colour for the rest of the characters.
Pattern generalisation and abstraction is the gathering of general characteristics and the filtering
of details and characteristics that are not needed. For example the general characteristics of the
characters would be; two arms, two legs, a body and a head. And the specific characteristics
would be the colour of them. This can be used to efficiently find the elements that are the most
important and filter out the details that might be confusing and unnecessary.
Finally, representing parts of a problem or system in general terms. This is done by identifying
the; variables, constants, key processes, repeated processes, inputs and outputs. These are then
used to make an algorithm. Algorithms are step-by-step instructions used to solve problems.
They can be incorporated into programs to help computers to complete tasks and solve
problems. Algorithms take into account the; variables, constants, processes, inputs and outputs
to form a set of instructions that are executed in order to produce a desired result.
Uses of software applications
Software applications have become common practise in almost every field of modernised work.
They are used in gaming for things like renderers and development environments such as Unity
or Unreal Engine, and in entertainment they are used for things like streaming services like
Netflix. There are also a large amount of software applications made for productivity. Some very
popular ones are included in the Microsoft Office package, these are used mostly in workplaces
and in education. They pack in features such as copy, paste and print to increase productivity.
Some software applications are made for management of storage. For example, some software
is made to manage storage on servers and some is made for desktop computers such as disk
defragmenters that organise storage and can increase read and write speeds. There are also
software applications made for repetitive or dangerous tasks. These can be very popular due to
the fact that it means a human no longer has to slave away doing the same boring thing all day
or go into dangerous situations for a living. However, this can also be seen as taking away jobs
from the working class who don't mind doing repetitive or dangerous tasks on a daily basis.
Social media is a very popular, mainstream use of software applications. Sites and apps like
Facebook and Instagram make use of user-friendly interfaces along with very useful buttons and
processes that can allow users to communicate with other users all around the world. Search
, engines are very popular software applications that have been the spine of the internet since
the introduction of Archie in late 1990. They allow users to surf the web by searching for
websites with keywords in a search bar.
Different programming languages
Programming languages come in many shapes and sizes. They are used for many different things
depending on the type of language, for example; procedural programming makes use of
routines called procedures that can be called upon at any point during a program's execution. It
is usually used by web developers and in all kinds of work on server-side applications and back
end platforms. Procedural languages have great performance however they may take more time
to develop programs in than some object-oriented languages due to it being a bit more
complicated. Some of the first procedural languages were; Fortran, COBOL and BASIC. Some of
the more popular and modern procedural languages are Pascal and C. An example of procedural
language is:
Object-oriented programming is a paradigm that makes use of the concept of objects and
classes. It is used to make software that includes simple, reusable pieces of code called classed
that can be called on at any point in the program. A very popular example of an object-oriented
programming language is C#, this is widely used in many front and back-end applications due to
its simplicity, wide range of useful features and support for large and complex software
architecture. However, object-oriented programming allows for such great usability at the cost
of performance. Object-oriented programming languages usually perform worse than
alternatives like procedural which means that developers must decide whether they would
rather save time on the development or have a program that runs more efficiently.
Event-driven programming is a programming paradigm in which different lines of the program
are run based on events that occur whilst it is running, for example: a mouse click or key press.
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