| Programming in practice | Code: 22.608 : 6 |
In the subject of Fundamentals of Programming, you have acquired the basic concepts of programming within the classical or procedural paradigm. This subject seeks to help the student to finish assimilating these basic concepts of programming, deepening in some of them.
Until now, the proposed problems could be solved with the use of the theoretical tools and concepts explained in the theory modules, following guidelines of good programming practices. The final goal of the student was to obtain a code that solved the problem. In solving real problems, however, obtaining computer solutions to solve specific problems is an engineering task, where the creativity and expertise of the programmer may be the difference between reaching a solution or that the project fails.
There are no magic recipes to find feasible solutions to all the problems that a programmer can face throughout his or her professional life. The only way for the student to develop abilities to solve problems and efficient approach to solutions is by creating their own mechanisms, which is only achieved through practice. Therefore, this will be a mainly practical subject, where the student will have to face more complex problems and take into account aspects of optimization of the code to find solutions that not only work but also are efficient in terms of speed and memory usage.
Continuing with what has begun in the subject of Fundamentals of Programming, this subject will use the programming language C in order to codify the solutions to the proposed problems.
This subject delves into the concepts introduced in the subject Fundamentals of Programming, and therefore it is given to achieve all its agenda. Given that the concepts introduced in this subject are supported by the basic concepts of programming, if the student accesses this subject without having assimilated the basic knowledge of Fundamentals of Programming, he/she will need much more time to solve the proposed tasks, finding him/herself with a much greater difficulty in understanding the modules.
It is important that at the end of the subject the student has achieved a high level of programming within the classical paradigm, since in successive semesters, programming will be introduced within the object-oriented paradigm, in the subject Object-Oriented Programming and Design.
Achieving a good algorithmic and programming level is the basis for the professional practice in the development of computer applications’ field, and in almost all the tasks that require process automation or computer-based simulators. In addition, the ability to abstain when solving a problem in programming is very useful in other aspects of the professional life of the engineers, creating good working habits and a correct structuring and organization of tasks.
Additionally, the C programming language used in the subject’s practices is a language that is widely used in all types of problems and fields, having been used as a source of inspiration for many other modern languages, which will give you the ability to learn new programming languages easily.
The previous knowledge for the accomplishment of the subject is those that are specified like contents in the Fundamentals of Programming. In particular, you need to have good knowledge in the algorithm formulation and structured programming techniques. It is also necessary to have an easy way to codify algorithms in C language.
Since this subject is the Fundamentals of Programming extension, it is recommended to pass it before. Students with the possibility of validating Fundamentals of Programming, it is necessary to take into account that for the correct monitoring of Programming in Practice, they must know the following:
• Basic concepts of structured programming
¿ Program flow
¿ Conditional and iterative control structures
¿ Modularity: Definition and implementation of actions and functions
• Data types
¿ Basic types
¿ Vectors and arrays
¿ Tuples and tables
¿ Abstract types of basic Data (queues, pile and lists)
¿ Pointers
• Recursion notions
• Use of dynamic memory
• Basic knowledge of the C programming language.
As students of Programming in Practice, you will have access to all the Fundamentals of Programming materials, but the dedicated time to the subject and its difficulty will be much greater in the case of not having basic notions of these contents.
Grade’s competences
• Design and build computer applications using development, integration and reuse techniques.
Subject’s objectives
The central competence of this subject is that the student reaches the ability to design and build computer applications through development, integration and reuse techniques.
Achieving this competence requires working in the following specific competencies:
- To know how to write and implement an algorithm that satisfies some pre-established requirements applying the most appropriate methodology.
- to know how to calculate the complexity of an algorithm and be able to compare the efficiencies of the various possible solutions to solve a given problem.
- To learn in depth the most current and popular programming languages environments¿¿.
- To know the different mechanisms to execute an application (compilers, interpreters, etc.).
- To know deeply the existing resources to debug a program.
- To know how to implement (encode) any software design.
- To know how to choose the modular structure and data necessary to build a computer application.
- To be able to understand algorithms and written programs (in a specific programming language) for other people, as well as know the most accepted algorithms and library components for specific problems (eg, data manipulation, etc.).
- To know good programming practices (tabulation, comments, documentation, names policy, etc.).
This subject has the following thematic blocks:
Top-down design
Formalization of algorithms.
Abstract Data Types
Recursion
Techniques of algorithm analysis (complexity and efficiency).
Search and classification algorithms (linear search, binary search, bubble method, sorting by insertion, sorting by selection, etc ...).
At a practical level it is seen:
Introduction to the programming tools: development environment, compiler, interpreter and debugger.
C programming language
Memory management
Read and write
Implementation of complex algorithms
| Wiki Programming practicals | Web |
| PointersMemoryReference | |
| DebuggingErrorsMemory |
This subject will use as the main reference source:
• Programming materials: materials in a web format that contain the theoretical information and practical examples necessary for the follow-up of the subject.
In the resources of the lab classroom you will find:
• C language manual: Basic programming manual in C
• C programming style guide
The assessment process is based on students' own work and the assumption that this work is original and has been carried out by them.
In assessment activities, the following irregular behaviours, among others, may have serious academic and disciplinary consequences: someone else being involved in carrying out the student's assessment test or activity, or the work being not entirely original; copying another's work or committing plagiarism; attempting to cheat to obtain better academic results; collaborating in, covering up or encouraging copying; or using unauthorized material, software or devices during assessment.
If students are caught engaging in any of these irregular behaviours, they may receive a fail mark (D/0) for the assessable activities set out in the course plan (including the final tests) or in the final mark for the course. This could be because they have used unauthorized materials, software or devices (e.g. social networking sites or internet search engines) during the tests, because they have copied text fragments from an external source (internet, notes, books, articles, other student's projects or activities, etc.) without correctly citing the source, or because they have engaged in any other irregular conduct.
In accordance with the UOC's academic regulations , irregular conduct during assessment, besides leading to a failing mark for the course, may be grounds for disciplinary proceedings and, where appropriate, the corresponding punishment, as established in the UOC's coexistence regulations.
In its assessment process, the UOC reserves the right to:
- Ask the student to provide proof of their identity, as established in the university's academic regulations.
- Request that students provide evidence of the authorship of their work, throughout the assessment process, both in continuous and final assessment, by means of an oral test or by whatever other synchronous or asynchronous means the UOC specifies. These means will check students' knowledge and competencies to verify authorship of their work, and under no circumstances will they constitute a second assessment. If it is not possible to guarantee the student's authorship, they will receive a D grade in the case of continuous assessment or a Fail in the case of final assessment.
For this purpose, the UOC may require that students use a microphone, webcam or other devices during the assessment process, in which case it will be the student's responsibility to check that such devices are working correctly.
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In order to pass the course, you must pass the continuous assessment and take a synthesis test. Your final mark for the course will be calculated as follows:
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