The Software Development
Process
The process of creating a program is often broken
down into stages according to the information that is
produced in each phase.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 2
The Software Development
Process
Analyze the Problem
Figure out exactly the problem to be solved. Try to
understand it as much as possible.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 3
The Software Development
Process
Determine Specifications
Describe exactly what your program will do.
Don't worry about how the program will work, but
what it will do.
Includes describing the inputs, outputs, and how
they relate to one another.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 4
The Software Development
Process
Create a Design
Formulate the overall structure of the program.
This is where the how of the program gets worked
out.
Develop your own algorithm that meets the
specifications.
Algorithm
• a well-defined recipe for solving a problem
o Has a finite number of steps
o Completes in a finite amount of time
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 5
The Software Development
Process
Create a Design
Often referred to as pseudocode
Pseudocode is a dummy language.
• It has no defined instruction. But it's instructions must be
completely clear.
• It must be completely detailed.
• It is easily convertible to programming languages.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 6
The Software Development
Process
Create a Design
Flowchart
A graphical model to represent an algorithm
Steps are shown with boxes of different shapes
The flow is specified by arrows
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 7
The Software Development
Process
Implement the Design
Translate the design into a computer language.
In this course we will use Python.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 8
The Software Development
Process
Test/Debug the Program
Try out your program to see if it worked.
If there are any errors (bugs), they need to be
located and fixed. This process is called debugging.
Your goal is to find errors, so try everything that
might "break" your program!
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 9
The Software Development
Process
Maintain the Program
Continue developing the program in response to the
needs of your users.
In the real world, most programs are never
completely finished – they evolve over time.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 10
Example Program:
Temperature Converter
Analysis
the temperature is given in Celsius, user wants it
expressed in degrees Fahrenheit.
Specification
Input: temperature in Celsius
Output: temperature in Fahrenheit
Relationship: Output = 9/5(input) + 32
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 11
Example Program:
Temperature Converter
Design
1.Begin
2.C ← input from user
3.F ← C x 9/5 + 32
4.Output F
5.End
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 12
Example Program:
Temperature Converter
Implementation
Now we need to convert this to Python!
C = eval(input("What is the Celsius temperature? "))
F = (9/5) * C + 32
print("Temperature is ",F," degrees Fahrenheit.")
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 13
Example Program:
Temperature Converter
Once we write a program, we should test it!
What is the Celsius temperature? 0
The temperature is 32.0 degrees Fahrenheit.
What is the Celsius temperature? 100
The temperature is 212.0 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 14
Example Program:
Average of Grades
Analysis
Given the grades of N students of a class, the user
wants the average grade.
Specification
Input: Grades of students (N grades)
Output: The average grade
1
Process: Average = 𝑁 σ𝑁𝑖=1 𝐺𝑖
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 15
Example Program:
Average of Grades
Design: Flowchart
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 16
Example Program:
Average of Grades
Design: pseudocode
1.Begin
2.N ← input from user
3.i← 0
4.Sum← 0
5.G ← input from user
6.Sum ← Sum + G
7.i← i+ 1
8.If i< N then go to step 5
9.Average ← Sum / N
10.Output Average
11.End
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 17
Example Program:
Average of Grades
Implementation
N = eval(input("number of students:"))
i=0
Sum = 0
for i in range(N):
G = eval(input("next grade:"))
Sum = Sum + G
Average = Sum / N
print(Average)
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 18
Example Program:
Average of Grades
Test
number of students:5
next grade:11
next grade:12
next grade:13
next grade:14
next grade:15
13.0
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 19
Some Simple Problem
Objectives
Write a program that asks the user for their name
and greets them with their name.
The user wants the summation of 1 to 10.
Given a number N, the user wants the average and
summation of odd numbers less or equal to N.
Given a number, the user wants to know if it is prime
or not.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 20
Some Simple Problem
Objectives
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 21
Some Simple Problem
Objectives
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 22
Elements of Programs
<variable> = <value>
Names
Names are given to variables (C, F,Sum,i), etc.
These names are called identifiers
Every identifier must begin with a letter or
underscore ("_"), followed by any sequence of
letters, digits, or underscores.
Identifiers are case sensitive.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 23
Elements of Programs
These are all different, valid names
• X
• Celsius
• Spam
• spam
• spAm
• Spam_and_Eggs
• Spam_And_Eggs
• _spam245
• __10
Not valid
• 44spAm
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 24
Elements of Programs
Some identifiers are part of Python itself. These
identifiers are known as reserved words (or
keywords).
This means they are not available for you to use as
a name for a variable, etc. in your program.
and, del, for, is, raise, assert,
elif, in, etc.
For a complete list, see Table 2.1 (p. 32)
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 25
Elements of Programs
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 26
Elements of Programs
Expressions
The fragments of code that produce or calculate
new data values are called expressions.
Literals are used to represent a specific value, e.g.
3.9, 1, 1.0, 32
Simple identifiers can also be expressions.
Also included are strings (textual data) and string
literals (like "Hello", "32").
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 27
Elements of Programs
>>> x = 5
>>> x
5
>>> print(x)
5
>>> print(spam)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#15>", line 1, in -toplevel-
print spam
NameError: name 'spam' is not defined
>>>
NameError is the error when you try to use a variable without a
value assigned to it.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 28
Elements of Programs
Simpler expressions can be combined using
operators.
+, -, *, /, **
Spaces are irrelevant within an expression.
The normal mathematical precedence applies.
((x1 – x2) / 2*n) + (spam / k**3)
>>> "Bat" + "man"
'Batman'
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 29
Elements of Programs
Output Statements
print()
print(<expr>, <expr>, …, <expr>)
A print statement can print any number of
expressions.
Successive print statements will display on separate
lines.
A bare print will print a blank line.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 30
Elements of Programs
Code:
var = -2
nextVar = var * var / 4 Output:
print(3+4) 7
print(3, 4, 3+4) 3 4 7
print()
print("The answer is", 3+4) The answer is 7
print("var is", var,".") var is -2 .
print(nextVar) 1.0
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 31
Assignment Statements
Simple Assignment
<variable> = <expr>
variable is an identifier, expr is an expression
The expression on the RHS is evaluated to produce a
value which is then associated with the variable
named on the LHS.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 32
Assignment Statements
x = 5
celsius = 20
x = 3.9 * x * (1-x)
fahrenheit = 9/5 * celsius + 32
y = x ** fahrenheit
z1 = "first"
z2 = "last"
z = z1 + z2
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 33
Assignment Statements
Variables can be reassigned as many times as you
want!
>>> myVar = 0
>>> myVar
0
>>> myVar = 7
>>> myVar
7
>>> myVar = myVar + 1
>>> myVar
8
>>> myVar = "something"
>>> myVar
"something"
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 34
Assignment Statements
''variable as a box" is not right.
Variables are like a box we can put values in.
When a variable changes, the old value is erased
and a new one is written in.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 35
Assignment Statements
Technically, this model of assignment is simplistic for
Python.
Python doesn't overwrite these memory locations
(boxes).
Assigning a variable is more like putting a "sticky
note" on a value and saying, "this is x".
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 36
Assigning Input
The purpose of an input statement is to get input
from the user and store it into a variable.
<variable> = input(<prompt>)
First the prompt is printed
The input part waits for the user to enter a value
and press <enter>
The value is assigned to the variable as a string.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 37
Assigning Input
>>> name = input ("Enter your name: ")
Enter your name: John Yaya
>>> name
'John Yaya'
>>>
>>> ans = input ("Enter an expression: ")
Enter an expression: 3 + 4 * 5
>>> print (ans)
'3 + 4 * 5'
>>>
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 38
Assigning Input
<variable> = eval(input(<prompt>))
The expression that was entered is evaluated to
turn it from a string of characters into a Python value
(a number).
>>> ans = eval (input ("Enter an expression: ") )
Enter an expression: 3 + 4 * 5
>>> print (ans)
23
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 39
Simultaneous Assignment
Several values can be calculated at the same time
<var>, <var>, … = <expr>, <expr>, …
Evaluate the expressions in the RHS and assign them
to the variables on the LHS
x, y = 2, 4
sum, diff = x+y, x-y
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 40
Simultaneous Assignment
How could you use this to swap the values for x and
y?
x = y
y = x
Why doesn't this work?
# variables x=2, y=4
x = y
# now x=4, y=4
y = x
# final x=4, y=4 , wrong solution
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 41
Simultaneous Assignment
We could use a temporary variable…
temp = x
x = y
y = temp
Why does this work?
# variables x y temp
# initial values 2 4 no value yet
temp = x
# 2 4 2
x = y
# 4 4 2
y = temp
# 4 2 2
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 42
Simultaneous Assignment
We can swap the values of two variables quite easily
in Python!
x, y = y, x
>>> x = 3
>>> y = 4
>>> print(x, y)
3 4
>>> x, y = y, x
>>> print(x, y)
4 3
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 43
Simultaneous Assignment
We can use this same idea to input multiple variables
from a single input statement!
Use commas to separate the inputs
spam, eggs = eval(input("Enter num of slices of spam
followed by num of eggs:"))
print ("You ordered", eggs, "eggs and", spam, "slices of
spam. Yum!")
Enter num of slices of spam followed by num of eggs: 3, 2
You ordered 2 eggs and 3 slices of spam. Yum!
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 44
Definite Loops
A definite loop executes a definite number of times,
i.e., at the time Python starts the loop it knows
exactly how many iterations to do.
The beginning and end of the body are indicated by
indentation.
for <var> in <sequence>:
<body>
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 45
Definite Loops
for <var> in <sequence>:
<body>
The variable after the for is called the loop index. It
takes on each successive value in sequence.
Often, the sequence portion consists of a list of
values.
A list is a sequence of expressions in square
brackets.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 46
Definite Loops
>>>for i in [2.5, 4, -1, 3]:
print(i)
2.5
4
-1
3
>>>for odd in [1, 3, 5, 7]:
odd = 2 * odd
print(odd*odd)
4
36
100
196
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 47
Definite Loops
what did range(10) do?
>>> list(range(10))
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
range is a built-in Python function that generates a
sequence of numbers, starting with 0.
The body of the loop executes 10 times.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 48
Definite Loops
count = 0
for i in range(7):
print (i)
count = count + 1
print("count =", count)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
count = 7
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 49
Definite Loops
for <var> in <sequence>:
<body>
for loops alter the flow of
program execution, so they
are referred to as control
structures.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 50
Question: True/False
The best way to write a program is to immediately type in
some code and then debug it until it works.
An algorithm can be written without using a programming
language.
Keywords make good variable names.
Python does not allow the input of multiple values with a
single statement.
A counted loop is designed to iterate a specific number of
times.
In a flowchart, diamonds are used to show statement
sequences, and rectangles are used for decision points.
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 51
Question: Output?
print ("start")
for i in range (0):
print ("Hello")
print ("end")
IndentationError: expected an indented block
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 52
Question: Output?
print ("start")
for i in range (0):
print ("Hello")
print ("end")
start
end
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 53
Question: Output?
print ("start")
for i in range (3):
print ("Hello")
print ("end")
start
Hello
Hello
Hello
end
Fundamentals of Computer & Programming 54
