This week, we continued our class concerning algorithm, which is one of the most vital part in the computing system. It tells the hardware what to do.
10/17/2017: Algorithm
This week, we learnt something further about algorithm. Algorithm is a set of clear, direct instructions to solve certain problems, and could be understand by computers.
In order to have a better understanding on this process, we were set in groups and asked to write a process of boiling an egg. This seemed to be a easy recipe, but creating accurate processes for the dish was not that simple. I thought our team’s processes was quite detailed, but when sharing, I realized that other groups wrote the processes just for robots to follow!
10/19/2017: Pseudocode ⌨
We began our class with a new concept called Pseudocode. It is a kind of language that computer could understand. It is basically similar to programming. An video was used to show the basic concept and process of pseudocode.
At first, the instructor wanted to count the number of people in a living room. At the very beginning, there were not many people in the room, so they can get the value easily by simply counting the number. The formula was easy as well: N=N+1. The process would continue until there was no one left in the room. Finally, the value of N was the number of people in the room. However, the processing speed of this method was not very satisfying. So, the instructor then introduced a more advanced formula or process to deal with the question. That is to count two people once. In that case, the time consumed got much more shorter.
When pseudocodes are written out, they look like programming, but are not exactly the same. Pseudocodes can be read by human, but computer would not understand them was non-instructive words are contained in pseudocodes.
JIHONG ZHAO 