ECE115 Programming I

• Introduction to computers and programming.
• Data storage in main memory, the concept of variables.
• Introduction to C and the development environment.
• Programming mistakes and their manifestation.
• Main C data types.
• Basic input / output (I/O).
• Operators & operator priority.
• Literals, type casting, ASCII coding and character arithmetic.
• Control and loop structures.
• Using libraries.
• Arrays (one- and multi-dimensional), equivalence of 1D and multi-dimensional arrays (array layout in memory).
• Strings, string manipulation functions.
• Functions, function calling, parameters, local variables, variable scope and lifetime, function call mechanism and stack frames.
• Algorithmic topics: Array sorting and searching.
• Pointers and pointer operators, pointer arithmetic, pointer hazards.
• Relation of pointers and arrays, arrays of pointers, command-line parameters, sorting with pointers.
• Pointers as function parameters, pointers as function return values.
• Structured and custom data types (struct, union, enum, typedef), comparisons in custom data type variables, arrays of structs, type/object size (sizeof), pointers to structs, the -> operand.
• Dynamic memory management (malloc/free).
• Linked data structures, searching, insertion, deletion, traversal on various list types (linear, circular, with and without sentinel, simply or doubly linked, etc).
• Introduction to recursion, using recursion for problem solving.

Lab Topics (weekly)

• Introduction to the lab environment.
• Introduction to C and the development environment, familiarization with homework submission procedures.
• Familiarization with common mistakes and compiler messages.
• Literals, expressions.
• Conditional execution, loop structures.
• Arrays.
• Strings.
• Functions.
• Pointers.
• Structs, strings.
• Dynamic memory management, structs, strings.
• Lists
• Recursion

The course exposes 1st year students to the main concepts of programming and problem solving with computers. We introduce C, a classic, powerful procedural programming language. The course includes a mandatory lab in which participants apply in practice – in a series of exercises – the material taught in class in order to familiarize themselves with the concepts and techniques.
After successfully fulfilling the requirements of the course, the student is capable of:

• Analyzing the requirements of problems which are to be solved with a computer and synthesizing a solution.
• Producing solutions which strictly comply with given specifications.
• Knowing the main characteristics and structures of the C programming language and applying the most appropriate on a case-by-case basis to implement his/her algorithmic solutions.
• Applying the basic principles of software engineering in order to organize his/her code efficiently (structure, readability, design).
• Verifying the correctness of programs and identifying errors.
• Using program development and debugging tools.
• Working both individually and synergistically in small groups, with specific time limitations.