7. Videos

A short, friendly introduction to how computers follow step-by-step instructions.

Watch and think:

• What everyday task could you write an algorithm for?

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Why we write in high-level languages and what machine code is.

Watch and think:

• Give one advantage of each type of language.

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How source code is turned into something the CPU can run.

Watch and think:

• Why does a compiled program run without the compiler?

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How programmers make code robust and maintainable.

Watch and think:

• Which quality measures does defensive programming improve?

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The stages professional teams follow, and how agile differs from waterfall.

Watch and think:

• Which stage do you think is skipped most often, and what goes wrong?

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The flowchart symbols and how to read them.

Watch and think:

• Which symbol shows a decision?

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How to dry-run an algorithm with a trace table.

Watch and think:

• Why is a trace table useful before you write code?

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Stretch: a longer walk-through of writing clear pseudocode.

Watch and think:

• How is pseudocode different from real code?

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Validation, verification and keeping data accurate.

Watch and think:

• Give an example of a range check and a presence check.

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The tools inside an IDE such as Visual Studio.

Watch and think:

• Which IDE tool helps you find logic errors?

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Reference: a full Visual Basic course. Dip into the parts you need rather than watching it all.

Watch and think:

• Find the section on the topic you are working on and try the example.

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Choosing data types and when to use a constant.

Watch and think:

• Why is a phone number stored as a string?

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The three building blocks of every program.

Watch and think:

• Give one example of each construct from a program you have written.

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Selection in Visual Basic, step by step.

Watch and think:

• What happens if two ElseIf conditions are both true?

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Stretch: how a function can call itself.

Watch and think:

• What stops a recursive function running forever?

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Why programs are split into procedures and functions.

Watch and think:

• Why can’t one subroutine see another’s local variables?

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How functions take parameters and return values.

Watch and think:

• What is the difference between a parameter and a return value?

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Storing lots of data under one name.

Watch and think:

• What is the index of the third element?

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Length, substrings, case changes and more.

Watch and think:

• How would you get the first letter of a name?

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Keeping data after the program closes.

Watch and think:

• Why must a file be closed after writing?

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How to plan tests and choose test data.

Watch and think:

• Give normal, boundary and erroneous data for ‘age 16 to 65’.

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The difference between errors that stop a program and errors that give wrong answers.

Watch and think:

• Which kind of error will the IDE underline for you?

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